Grandma’s Kitchen – Some assembly completed!
Some decisions still to make!
(before borders)
I have gotten the rows assembled and joined, 2 borders on. The photo below shows the colors of the borders better than the photo’s of the whole top, because of the lighting. (I seem to be taking these photo’s late at night!)
With the current borders, the top currently measures 73 1/2″ wide x 92 1/2″ long. I am contemplating one more round of borders so I can use it on my queen size guest bed. I think I will bring it in from the sewing room today and lay it out on that bed and take a look and see what kind of drop I want. I think I need to add 10 1/2 inches for a queen on the width.
Someone on the Quilt Along with Pat Sloan Facebook group yesterday asked me about the fabrics when I posted a photo. If you have been following along since last summer, you know that primarily I am using 30’s reproduction. Many are Aunt Grace by Marcus Fabrics, like the pink border (Simpler Sampler). I used the pink from the border in 2 blocks – in the checkerboard block in the center of row C below –
and in block 25 –
There are several companies doing 30’s fabrics now, and I lost track of all the names. I used Spring Fling for PB Textiles by Terry Atkinson & Liz Lois, for the white and yellow print that is in many of the “filler pieces, and in some of the blocks (like block 4 below). I liked it because they coordinated nicely. Some of the whites, like the stripe tone on tone are “just scraps” from my stash. The medium blue 2.5″ border is VIP by Cranston (2011). It is a nice blender and I had just 1/2 yard in my blue box of stash. There are several tones of blue in various blocks and it was the best choice with the pink border.
Yesterday, I ordered the backing fabric and it appears to be “on the way”. I went in search of 30’s reproduction in a wide backing. Marcus Fabrics had one print that I already included in the quilt manufactured in 108″ width. Way back in block 4 I used the white background multi floral in the 4 patch center of the block. In the pattern, this block was partially repeated, and I had enough to use again in another 4 patch, and in some of the filler blocks. I was pleased to find a fabric that would really work with the quilt!
My challenge turned out to be getting a 3 yard cut, and my first order had to be cancelled when the shop only had 2 2/3 yard…. The fun thing about a group like Quilt Along with Pat Sloan is how helpful people are when you post. One lady got busy searching and found two other sources, and I communicated with one and verified they had what I wanted and I placed my order, and got confirmation of shipping late last night. By going to the manufacturers web site, I was able to get a list of shops that had ordered the fabric, and that is how I started my search originally. I tried to order from shops I had done business with in the past, and I quickly learned the fabric was not going to be easy to find ! Turns out, Marcus did several of the prints in 56″ wide, but only this print in two color options in the 108″ width! 
R34-5878-0199 by Judie Rothermel
So this is where I am at on the project as of yesterday —
If you have an interest in seeing the blocks “up close”, you can see them all in my Grandma’s Kitchen Flickr Album
or search back thru the blog posts using the Grandma’s Kitchen tag as a search criteria.
The pattern for this quilt is available for free from Pat Sloan – http://www.ilovetomakequilts.com/grandmas-kitchen-sew-along.html
Pat is doing a “quilting” series for this pattern, so now, I need to go study!
If you were to add 1 more border, what color would you go with? I may have to go out and survey the 30’s yardage I still have, and start making some choices. (Do you remember that clothesline fabric with the black background? Oh, how I wanted to use that in this quilt, but it was such a large print, and the scale was just too big!)
What are you working on?
Stitching Grandma 