Prairie Crossing Wallhanging

Prairie Crossing celebrates 30 years

      During the summer on one of my walks, a neighbor stopped me to give me some quilt blocks she had.  She was trying to clear the house as she would be moving and found these.  She was given them years ago.  I guess when our community was celebrating a different anniversary, some of the people made these blocks.  She was supposed to make them into a wallhanging at that time and never did.  There were eleven finished blocks and one blank piece of muslin.

Adding the fusible batting

     The blocks were not all square and not the same size.  My first step was to press them and then square them up.  I then added a frame to each one and then cut them to all be the same size.  

All pinned, ready to quilt

     On the blank piece of muslin, I embroidered "Celebrating Prairie Crossing 30 Years".  I felt this was a good way to know what the wallhanging was for.  I sewed the blocks together and then ironed on some fusible batting.  As this will be a wallhanging and not a usable quilt, I like this option so I don't have to do much quilting then.  I pinned this to a backing piece and stitched around the blocks.

Trimming it up

     I then trimmed the backing and batting before making the binding.  For the binding, I cut the fabric on the bias so the stripes were on an angle.  A little more interesting I think.

Quilting around the blocks

    I did use a matching thread for the quilting around the blocks that also blended in nicely with the backing fabric I chose.

Label

     I added a label on the back with my name and the year.  I stitched the binding to the back and then brought out around to the front and machine stitched it.  When I do bed quilts, I stitch the binding onto the front and then hand sew it in place on the back.

Title block

One of the blocks

     It was interesting to see how different people approached the making of their block. there was fusible used and lots of hand stitching.  Unfortunately I don't know who made the blocks and their story but it is fun looking all the same.