Finishing the Granny Floral Chippewa Scrap Quilt

Oh boy, it only took me a full year to finally finish the Granny Floral Chippewa Scrap Quilt! Honestly, I did not intend for it to take a whole year, but I do occasionally suffer from serious squirrel brain when it comes to quilt projects. This can especially happen if a) I get a new fabulous idea while in the middle of a less inspiring project or b) the immediate need for the project expires. Really both of these happened with the Chippewa.

Originally, I started the quilt in June 2019 as a more versatile option for my family to take on camping trips. I used the Chippewa Quilt Pattern by Alison Harris for Cluck Cluck Sew as the outline, adjusting the square size up about 2in. You can read more about the original thoughts in the “Scrappy Chippewa Picnic Quilt” and the “Scrappy Chippewa Picnic Quilt Update” articles I wrote last summer.

Then, summer just totally caught up with me. I ran out of time to work on the quilt before we left for our Lake Erie vacation for which I wanted the quilt, so I shelved it. And there it sat until we decided to keep our next lake vacation for this summer. Despite the pandemic, we will be traveling to Lake Huron to finish seeing all five Great Lakes. Mostly we rent isolated cabins, so we feel social distancing will be a minimal issue. Yay! New inspiration to finish the Chippewa!

I pulled all of the cut pieces out, as well as the 3/4 completed patchwork and began to layout the remaining pieces and sew her up. Once I figured out what I had intended to go where (thank you 2019 blog posts!), I was able to finish the last several rows in one afternoon and get the whole top assembled in little time. Moving outward from brighter colors toward more neutral and muddy tones, I found I had really went with an unintended them of vintage florals, or what I think of as “granny florals.” Granny florals to me are prints I probably would have found in my grandmother’s home or wardrobe or perhaps picked up at a yard sale. They often have tight floral motifs and some include really loud or muddy color combinations. I enjoy mixing them in with more modern prints to form my electric style.

The backing I had previously set aside was used in another project, so I had to rework that element. I decided to dive a bit further into the “granny floral” idea and use up some larger pieces of sort of vintage looking floral prints I had in my stash.

I also decided to keep the quilting simple and durable, making straight horizontal lines about 3/4 to and inch apart. To bind the quilt, I used up a roll of miniature rosebud print in blue and white. I didn’t go scrappy here since there was already a lot going on in the backing and top already.

I am so, so pleased to have this quilt finished and ready to use in our upcoming trip to the lake. I know my family will enjoy it and I will enjoy using something I made too! Stay creative friends, Janice

p.s. The photo shoot in our new boardwalk/rain garden was the best part. I am loving that area as my new quilt photo backdrop!

Inspiration and resources are linked where applicable. All written work and photographs are original content and are copyright protected; kindly give due credit by linking back to my website if you use or share.

(©2020, Janice Bailor // laruedefleurs.com)