Elsie's Broken Dishes

My grandmother,

Elsie Race Walton,

pieced this quilt top.

Along the way,

my mother turned the flimsy into a comforter

stuffed with polyester fiberfill batting

and tied with acrylic yarn.

After the quilt moved to my house,

I gently removed all those yarn ties,

unstitched the binding

and discarded the aging batting and muslin back.

The flimsy was gently laundered

before I added a narrow inner border

and a wider floral outer border.

The project was then handed off to Chris ~

but we later decided

it was more than she wanted to deal with.

In the end, Elsie's Broken Dishes was quilted

by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.

She graciously coped with the

extra border fullness

and slightly askew flimsy

to create what I call one of my rescue quilts.

Baptist Fans were the one and only choice for quiliting.

Who knew growing up that my staid and proper

English grandmother

had such a scrappy-colorful inner self.

What a treasure.