MODERN 'RESCUE QUILT'

This project was a commission by a client who came to me with a small lot of antique quilt blocks she discovered at an estate sale, wondering if I could somehow turn them into a quilt. They were small, each about 6" square, and there were only 60 of them, not enough for a full size quilt. She also gave me a large cotton mushroom colored canvas and an antique wool blanket. Could there be a use these items too? The answer was 'yes' (happily). 

The blocks were laid out in a large square pattern, inspired by the paintings of Josef Albers. I cut the canvas into squares matching the size of the blocks, this was the top-piece. The wool blanket was used as the batting and backing, saving a step. The piece was straight-line quilted on the grid. 

There was one problem however. The old blocks had not aged well, many of the fabrics in the log cabin pattern were brittle and falling apart. They would actually disintegrate when sewing the blocks together. I decided to patch and appliqué new fabric pieces on top of the worn places, it created a layered 'pentimento' affect in fabric. The haphazard randomness of this patchwork works well against the graphic clean lines of the overall design. Here are some close-ups of the look:

The interesting thing about this quilt is that it's not technically a quilt. Meaning, there is no internal batting. It only has a backing which is yet another vintage item, a thick wool camp blanket, which was pieced together as it was an irregular size. 

The binding is a black and off-white stripe.