Do over - Do better!

When I was 5 years old, my Grandmother knitted a beautiful cable cardigan for me in a lovely shade of rose.  But like all little hooligans, I grew out of it - likely within 18 months! Oh how I loved that sweater - both the cables and the colour. 

Several years later when we moved from Calgary to Montreal - a resourceful retired neighbour offered to pull the sweater apart and made a granny square afghan for my bed.  Deconstructed and re-created - it was just as well loved as the rose cable sweater. I still have that afghan - and the many memories from those childhood days.  I am sure it took a lot of work to pull apart and re-invent but what a wonderful repurposing of a childhood treasure.

​In the last several years I have had the honour of re-purposing well loved quilts of friends and customers into repaired, restored and sometimes newer quilts with older pieces in them. When "Nanna" makes a quilt and it gets dragged around by a two year old until grade school, you can bet there is sentimental value - even if it looks a little tattered or the batting has all but disappeared from multiple washings. 

Which brings me to my most recent story......

In 2008 when I was living in Canmore Alberta - I visited Pine Tree Quilt Company on a regular basis.  Not yet a "real" quilter - I drooled over the quilts and projects that they had on display.  One day I broke down and purchased fabric and pattern for the quilt called "A Weekend in Canmore".  It was a log cabin style quilt in reds and creams and I was so excited to get started.  A little at a time I got half of the quilt squares completed and then the project got put away for several years.

Fast forward to 2017, I decided to finish that UFO.  Once I finished the queen sized top, I was thrilled.  It was gorgeous. The problem was - I was not a longarmer and I had no idea how to quilt it.

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So using pool noodles and all kinds of other aids - I did a wide cross hatch pattern on my domestic machine and bound it.  It was my very first finished large quilt but I was not very happy with the look, but it was the best I could do at the time with the knowledge that I had.  So - on the bed it went.  My first big quilt.

Since finishing the quilt - I have learned so much more about quilting and have developed a little more patience. I have wanted to recreate the "Week-end in Canmore" quilt and I have searched and searched for similar fabrics - hoping of course to 'do it right' this time but have not found anything that I thought would work as well as the first fabrics did.  It wasn't until I sat down one afternoon in my studio and glanced at the end of the couch  - I saw and remembered my sweater turned afghan. 

​Could I deconstruct my quilt and re-invent it into a bigger, loftier, better constructed quilt?  If you know me well enough, you know you cannot tell me it can't be done!

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And so today it begins. The deconstruction of "A Weekend in Canmore" quilt.

I was a little concerned at first that maybe it could not be taken apart. I have had it on our bed since 2018 and have washed it several times.  The fabrics look lovely and I still love the colour scheme but it really is a bit small and of course - now being a longarmer - I really would love to have it quilted better and made larger.  

I have attached the videos of taking the binding off with my fabulous electric stitch ripper tool.  After that I removed the cross hatch quilting. All in all - it took 2 hours to remove all the quilting  and I was left with the 'flimsy'. (Quilt top)

I have found the perfect colour wideback and it will also serve as a nice border to the current quilt top - to make it larger.  I am really surprised at how well this is working out.  Below are photos of the almost completed quilt now measuring 96x110.  I am really happy with the transformation!

The moral of the story of course is  we do the best we can with the knowledge we have at the time - when we know better we can do better.  Almost everything in our lives can be re-purposed, re-invented and re-made and ultimately re-loved!  (Including ourselves!)

Happiness with what we accomplish is our reward!

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Almost done!