Nineteen years ago my youngest daughter made her first quilt to enter into the Puyallup, Washington State Fair. She was 10 and had dreams of owning a horse. Her horse panel quilt was as close as she ever came to that dream.
We selected the fabrics together and decided on the block and overall quilt size. It was going to be a large lap size that would fit the top of her twin bed. The piecing went well but we worked on it in stages so as not to get overwhelmed or frustrated. Since it was her first quilt I suggested we do a pillowcase style turn with the batting already layered. Deciding on the "quilting" style with a puffy batt led us to tying. Using the cornerstone squares as her guide, she inserted 1/8" ribbon with a large needle and double knotted a button in the space.
When the quilt was finished we all headed down to the fair to enter our pieces: her quilt, my oldest daughter's painting, and my 24" circle crochet doily attached to a wooden hoop. My doily was immediately rejected because of the hoop which they considered a frame. The other items were accepted and we planned our return trip to see the awarded entries.
We were surprised to discover that my daughter's horse quilt won "Best of Show" for youth. The judges commented on the unique idea of tying with buttons and ribbon.
We've moved many times over the years as a military family and that little quilt has always tagged along, although it's exact whereabouts was not clear. I found it out in a storage container last week and decided to freshen it up and give it to my daughter. She had been asking about it recently. Many of the ribbons and buttons were gone and it needed a good washing. I took advantage of the moment and removed the pillowcase edge stitches. I added some simple linear machine quilting lines and machine stitched buttons back in the cornerstones. Believe it or not...I still had some scraps of the border fabric in my stash so I was able to cut enough strips to make a proper French fold binding. I printed a label with her original 1996 picture (above) and attached it near her earlier hand written signature.
She was pleased to get her first quilt back and happily carried it home. That little project was a treasure.
"Some boast in chariots and some in horses,
But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God."
Psalm 20:7