I recently decided to make the Postcard from Sweden quilt, which I’ve admired for some time.
The photo above is from the front of the pattern.
I had to search for the pattern, which has always been free courtesy of the designer, Kelly Liddle. I’d like to link you to her, but I can’t find her except on Instagram (@jeliquilts). Anyway, the pattern is now available free for download from Stash Fabrics, here.
I have an extensive stash because, until recently, we lived in a rural area where the nearest “local” quilt shop was at least 45 minutes away. I gathered all 36 colors required for the top from stash!
This picture shows the first 15, so there was quite a stack by the time I had all 36 on the table! This is a 25 year quilt because that’s the period of time over which I’ve collected this stash.
For a few fabrics I had to substitute other choices that were not quite solid.
And even then it sometimes took more than one fabric to get all I needed of an unusual color.
And several of the fabrics had been cut long ago for unremembered projects!
But eventually, the huge stack of fabrics was reduced to a small stack of 6″ strips and the remaining fabrics were put back where they belong.
That was a full day of pressing, cutting, and folding.
I made a few fun discoveries along the way.
First, a couple of the fabrics seem to be poly-cotton blends. They are from before “modern” quilting came along, meaning that only the Amish and Gwen Marston were using a lot of solids, so I had trouble finding solids in the stores. Much of what I did find in fabric shops (which at the time had a lot of clothing fabric) was poly-cotton blend, and I took what I could get. So there’s some poly-cotton fabric in the stash and that will be used in the quilt.
Second, there were solids from several different fabric companies, now that everybody has their own line.
Finally, some fabrics were prewashed and some were not. There’s a whole story there, but I’ll spare you!
I’ve cut those strips into squares and paired them up ready to make HSTs, so progress has been made!
With regard to that stack, I didn’t completely follow the pattern (surprise!). There are excruciatingly precise instructions to enable the quilter to reproduce the original exactly, but I don’t intend to do that. I paired up some colors the way the pattern suggested and did what I wanted with the rest. We’ll see how that works out.
Gathering the fabrics was a fun review of the past 25 years of collecting, and now we can all look forward to the Postcard from Sweden quilt in the future.
Zippy Quilts 
It’s great knowing how to you “made do” to come up with all the fabrics for this quilt. It’s much more meaningful to use what you bought years ago – even poly/cotton – and go with a few prints to get those odd color values, than buy a kit or hit a quilt shop to make everything perfectly match. Even putting your own spin on the assembly is good. That’s what a quilt is meant to be – a reflection of one’s personality. The only thing you haven’t yet changed is the name. Perhaps “Postcard from Mary”?
Might change the name, too! Thanks for the idea 🙂
I am looking forward to seeing the next steps in the making of this quilt.
Me too! What are you up to?
I’m just bouncing around from one project to another.
Thanks to you, I’ve started playing with the Dreamlines Project…fun!
I finished a heart quilt, and am working on a bias stripped quilt.
I started crocheting again, and my friends say that crocheting toilet paper covers means it is time for an intervention. 😉
This summer, we are having a family cruise vacation, so I am making bucket hats for everyone. 😀
I am also thinking about making a nautical-ish lap quilt for my grandson to use on the cruise. So far, I am just playing around with possible designs. Any suggestions?
As you can see, I am just up to being my usually scattered self.
I’ll be following to see how this one comes out! Lovely pattern.
Thanks, Andrea!
I love the 25 year of collecting. Among other things, that would give you shade/tint variations you couldn’t get if you shopped all at once, as does including cotton/poly blends. I remember the days when solids were hard to find! I lived an hour’s drive from an Amish area and made occasional excursions for the purpose of fabric buying. And lunch, because Amish cooking. And cheese, because it was a cheese factory area too. The pattern looks quite promising, and I can’t imagine your color substitutions not working out.
Thanks, Claire! The only problem with the poly blends is the smell when they’re ironed. I didn’t notice back in the day!
Oh! I remember when that pattern was ‘all the rage’😂 I wanted to make it back then too but alas, I did not. I don’t have many solids in my stash and I fear the pattern would get lost if I used all prints 🥴 I’ll be watching as you make progress!😍
I still have quite a few solids, though usually I prefer something with a little texture, so this was a good opportunity to use some of them. But you know how that goes–big quilt really hasn’t made much of a dent in the stash yet!
Those solids looked yummy! Waiting to see your interpretation of the pattern!
And you will indeed get to see it once of these days…you know how that goes! Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Thanks for finding the pattern for us. I really like the way yours turned out.
I look forward to seeing yours!
You do have an impressive stash! It’s going to be a spectacular quilt
Working on making the stash less impressive….