Les Pensées de Grandma

Les Pensées de Grandma.  It can translate either to "Grandma's Pansies" or "Thoughts of Grandma".  I love that.  I'll forever connect pansies to my maternal grandmother.  I have such memories of picking tiny bouquets with her and having little vases on the breakfast table.

Just to clarify, she didn't speak French.  I made the connection between "pansies" and "thoughts" somewhere along the line of my study of the language.  I really liked that.

So ... somewhere back in time, I pieced this quilt top:

Kind of cute. I kept thinking about my grandmother as I pieced the pansies.  I had to work her into the quilt name.

I learned a lot in the process, the most important lesson being DO NOT USE CHEAP FABRIC!!!!!

Yeah. See that darker lattice work?

That wasn't in Plan A. The cheap fabric that I used in parts of the quilt FRAYED. Badly. Why? Well, that's another lesson. I thought it would be a good idea to tea-dye it -- some of the fabrics were just too "out there". Not the best idea I've ever had.

Plan B was to sew a 1/4 strip along the seams of the sashing to look like lattice work and to cover where the fabs frayed. Not a bad plan.

Where did I make this? In Korea? That would be mid-90s. I know I purchased the cheaper fabs when we lived in Montgomery, Alabama. Maybe I pieced it there and moved on to Plan B when we were in Korea? Anyway, I machine-sewed one side of the lattice on and the plan was to hand sew the other side on. Ha ha ha. No wonder it's been in the "please finish me" pile so long. I did start back then. Maybe a few moves got in the way? I don't know.

I do need some handwork to do right now, so ...

I think I'm only going to do the more delicate areas by hand. Plan B came to be pre-Bernina. There's no reason I can't finish it by machine. Except for this area:

Well, rats. I think that's the only flower with an issue.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do there, but I'll come up with Plan C.

Is there a point where you just decide the whole thing could stay as an un-quilted top?  UGH!!!

Thanks for reading!
KZK