It doesn't smell....oddly I don't know why bc I never washed them....there are spots on the back that have scorch marks...but it doesn't smell....we were not allowed to go in the wreckage of the house for a few days and it rained and snowed on the quilt so maybe that helped....I have pictures from the fire that the firemen took....its amazing that anything came out of that house

That's a real act of love- God Bless You :)

Amazing inspiration!!

Wow, what a tremendous task you have set for yourself...very loving and generous. You're a good woman and great daughter. Good luck!

Sorry, I had these done this morning but I really didn't like the way they looked. I thought I was missing something because it was so plain and....white.

But then I went back and looked at the quilt pieces again...and again......and like I said before, most of the interest on the quilt was from the quilting. The vines and petals really were sort of.....sparse. And some of the fabrics used for the petals had white motifs, which further muted the whole effect.

And yes, I do realize my petals look more like xmas lights than anything floral related. :roll: Deal with it. The Wreath maker tool and I have issues going back many years. It's not a warm relationship.

I even put the thin binding on because that did add a bit of color, and you can see it in your pictures.

So really, the sparseness in these drawings isn't far off.
Does that make any sense? Or am I just rambling?

It will at least give you an idea of the proportions. The wreaths are about 7" tip to tip. So you can decide if that's ok with you, or if you want to "dense up" the vines and petals on the quilt top.

In the first picture, instead of putting a plain block in between each wreath, they're actually centered on 11" square blocks.
That layout comes in at approx 78x100, including the 6" border.

Sorry about the corners - wasn't worth the effort to get them right. Or my sanity. ;-)

The 2nd and 3rd drawings aren't exactly the size you wanted, but just some variations. The 2nd shows a half block drop setting, and the 3rd is on point.

Were you planning on making an exact replica of the original quilt, or looking to change the pattern but keeping the feel?

As for the hand quilting, definitely not my niche. There were recently a couple of interesting hand quilting threads. You might want to check out some of borntohandquilt's stuff - she's at, like, 100 stitches to the inch. :-D
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-142087-1.htm

I think you should be taking pictures and drafting the different quilt designs - those are still recognizable on the your quilt fragments.

It's a big quilt but I think when you break it down into the components, which it seems is what you've done, it's much less overwhelming.

Make a ton of vines and petals. Decide on a layout. Applique the blocks (and I'd cut the back extra big so have a lot of wiggle room to decide on a setting). Applique the borders. Put it all together.

And then the fun starts. :mrgreen:

Let me know if you want me to adjust the block sizes or layout so you can get an idea of how it would look. Now that those freaking wreaths are done, it's not a problem. ;-)

MTS you ROCK!!!! #4 is almost exactly how it looked...so its blocks on point for me lol... the orig quilt was all one solid piece of fabric in the middle with the wreaths but i think doing the blocks on point will be just fine....ok so i def think i will have to purchase some more background fabric...do you think 5 yards is enough for a queen size?

thank you thank you thank you

I'm glad you liked that one too. I threw it in at the last minute - it's the same as 3 except I removed the wreaths from all the setting triangles. I like the floating effect, plus it gives you a lot of space to do amazing quilting.

I think you need more than 5 yards of background fabric.

Granted, you're not doing a lot of piecing with it but still ---EQ is no help with this - who knows how it's figuring out yardage on this setting. It wants 9 yards.

I would be comfortable with 7 yards.

First off, you're cutting 12"plus blocks, which means you'll only be getting 3 across WOF. And you need 32 of them.

If you cut the borders lengthwise, that's 3 yards, and you'll be able to get 7-9 blocks out of the remaining yardage.

To get the other 25 blocks, at 3 across WOF, that will take another ~2.5 yards.

Plus you need the setting triangles, so figure another yard for those.

So that's 6.5 yards for a back of the envelope guesstimate. Hmmm, maybe the EQ yardage isn't so far off the wall.

I wouldn't have less then 7 yards on hand.

Here's a bigger picture of the wreath - I put 16 petals (xmas lights) on each one. I think it fills it nicely......plus you'll have the little stem which I couldn't be bothered with. Looked like it was the same on the original (?)

What a beautiful reproduction this will be not to even try to mention the feeling your Dear Mom will have when you give this to her! I was thinking that if you did not want to make indiv. blocks, you could purchase wide Muslin if this is what you will be using for the background, like in 108 in. wide and then you would just have to place your applique in place. However would be easier for you. I use Kona or Legacy Muslin with all of my reproduction fabrics or Civil War. I get it in all widths from JoAnn's. I am excited that you are going to do this. Please show us steps as you get along with it. You are a jewel of a Daughter!

Wow. MTS what a great thing you did for her to use. Cool.

Sweet daughter to do this for your mom. She will be so blessed.

Wow, what a heart rending, and heart warming story! thank you for sharing it with us!