Finishing My Great Grandmother’s Quilt Blocks

Over the years I have contemplated what to do with these lovely blocks that my great grandmother stitched by hand.  My grandma let me play with them as a child and build my sewing skills by sewing these together.  Maybe I was scared or nervous that I wouldn’t do these blocks justice?  How could I finish her work?  Inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago and then some free time over the weekend made it happen.

First, I had to rip out the stitching I had already done.  The stitching was not great, it was wonky and some spots were dense, but it adds to the story of this project.  As the stitches were being taken out I noticed the blocks weren’t the same size and would need to be trimmed to use in a project.

The trimmings made a lovely little pile of color.

To fully utilize the blocks, I wanted to make a wall hanging.  We have a couple of spots in the living and dining room that could use some art. Until this weekend I was going to hand sew the blocks and finish with hand quilting.  My thoughts were changed since that is not my style.  If I’m going to create with these blocks, I need to put my touch on them.

Machine sewing and quilting.

The top is lovely.  Once it’s quilted I’m going to hand wash in some blue Dawn to help take out some of the staining.

The backing from my vintage sheet collection.  It’s one of my mother in law’s, so blending both families together.

I’m going to straight line quilt this and I’m stumped.  Leave your feedback on thread color choices.

Would you quilt in grey or white?