Vintage Runner

In March, when my mother-in-law found out about my new love for quilting, she mentioned that her mother and grandmother were quilters too. She dug out a box that still contained unfinished pieced tops, and I found a table runner consisting of quarter-square triangles that I decided to finish.

I grew up in a Chinese family where the women were expert knitters, crocheters, and embroiderers, but nobody quilted. I've never even heard of quilting growing up, and I'm guessing it's much more of an American tradition. So even though I hear a lot of people say one of the reasons they quilt is to feel connected to the past, it's something I couldn't relate to, until now. As I held the pieced top in my hands, I was amazed at how much history there was in this little top full of fabrics from long ago. My husband's grandmother and great-grandmother had worked on it, and now it's in my hands and I get to finish it. That's pretty cool!

Since the top is all pieced, all I have to do is add batting, quilt it, then bind it. Well ... before all that I need to fix a few things so that it will lie flatter, and of course treat it to a vigorous pressing job with my steam iron. I'm not quite sure what the best thing to do to quilt this would be, as it's a vintage piece and I don't want to quilt it with a modern aesthetic.