Disclaimer: I love collaborative art projects. I love how different creative-types bring their talents and energy together to create something wonderful. The whole thing makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Case in point, when I read about Shannon Downey of Badass Cross Stitch and absolutely sobbed over her story of finding some unfinished embroidery pieces at an estate sale and her stitching community coming together to finish the pieces and make them into a quilt, now named Rita’s Quilt. So, I was thrilled to be asked by a friend to be a part of a very special collaborative art project.

My friend Jill’s (now deceased) grandmother made linoleum block prints and used them as Christmas cards from 1930-1970. Jill recently ran across the blocks while helping clear some clutter at her mom’s house. She decided to sneak them away and do something special with them for her mom’s upcoming 80th birthday. Jill and her sister stamped them on fabric squares using fabric paint and stamped the date each block was made. Then she asked me to help with some simple piecing and by some miracle, I had the top pieced in an afternoon. I haven’t been quilting these past few years and I was really worried about my seams not all being precise, but she told me a favorite saying of her grandmother’s was, “it cannot be seen from a trotting horse,” going me permission to allow the folk art flair of the quilt go.

Working with the printed blocks was so cool! As a history buff I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to the events of the time each linoleum lock print was made. My absolute favorite block was this car in the lower right from 1959.

Once the piecing was done, Jill dropped it off to a local longer quilter who had it turned around within a week, which is unheard of for the quilting process!! I settled in to watch some old episodes of The Office and had the binding done in a couple days. Together we had the quilt done in less than two weeks and now Jill has this incredibly sentimental gift for her mother who hasn’t seen these prints in over 30 years.

It was such a special project for me to be a part of and I’m so grateful as it brought me back to quilting. It’s been so wonderful to use my creativity and have an outlet for myself again... with three kids ages 7 and under, it is a much-needed opportunity!

Anyone else have a special family heirloom you’d love to see created into another project?