The original multi Bits-A-Quilt

This is the first quilt I made out of bits.  Not pre-cut, no pattern, just bits.  Bits from my mothers scrap bag, so there are scraps here from dresses she made me and I wore as a child. Bits from the quilts I had made up to that time, bits cut from the legs of trousers that were too long for me.  So all the bits hold memories and some times I amuse myself by trying to remember the origin of each.

I did not wait to have enough fabric to make the whole quilt top before I started sewing.  Each time I had the sewing machine out for a project I would check the bag of bits, see if any fitted together and sew them.  Each time I had a piece left from a project or from clothing alteration I put it in the bag.  Slowly over years it grew till it was big enough for a backing. Bits left over, well they stayed in the bag and became the starting point for the next quilt of bits. 

The green fabric for the backing and the boarder I bought in a discount shop that sold what ever they had found cheap and could sell for a reasonable profit, from door mats to toilet brushes and fabric. It has been a good find and hard wearing.

I finished it in 1997 having quilted in the furrow (mainly) randomly round the blocks.  I find that I remember things I was watching on TV whilst I was working on a particular project.  That is not a hard stretch of the memory for the quilting on this project.  I was watching the procession to her final resting place from the funeral service of Diana, Princess of Wales.  I did not sew during the actual service as that would have felt disrespectful.
   

This is a picture of the quilt I took after it was finished...or perhaps that should be after it was started!

Bits-A-Quilt start

I say started because the fabric is all ages and all weights and the quilt has been in use most days since the boarder went on.  So seams have pulled apart or fabric has worn out.  Each time that has happened I have fixed it.  Adding new patches over the worn spots and covering the weak seams.

So I guess this quilt is not so much finished as it is ongoing, perhaps at some point the original quilt top will be totally covered in fixings.  I quite like that idea even if it is covering up old memories with new ones.  So far there are over twenty new pieces on this quilt and it is still getting used on a daily basis.

This is how it currently looks (hooray for digital cameras) who knows how it will look in a few more years time.  

Bits-A-Quilt current

If I am still blogging I guess we will find out.

OK I am adding this picture as an update on 16.03.2021, the current status of the quilt after its next set of fixes.