Every quilt has a story

 This crib quilt that I just finished has a vintage rocking horse pattern appliqued. All of the blocks are from recycled or old stock fabrics. The back is from beautiful Gutermann fabric, bought from Nikolaros shop in Sparta.

Quite some blocks tell a story. Let me explain.

The quilts I design are made from recycled, vintage and new fabrics. I use second hand clothing, like dresses and shirts and vintage fabrics that I used to buy in shops in Kalamata and Areopolis. Below the one in Kalamata.

It was a nice day-trip from Sparta to Kalamata, driving through the beautiful gorge in the Taygetos mountain range, having a coffee on arrival, do our shopping, lunch and back again. Always a lovely and fruitful day! The amphora fabric and the little flowers are from this shop.

The size of the quilt is 36 x 48 inch, about 90 x 120 cm.

This shop in Areopolis doesn't exist any more. I still have some pieces of fabric  that I bought there though.

I love searching for vintage fabrics, but it is getting more and more difficult nowadays. These cute old shops are all closing when the owners retire.

In one of the second hand shops I bought this dressing gown, cut it up in pieces and made the horse with it.

The sleeve on top of the gown is from a dirndl dress! The second hand shop had this kind of dresses, which, of course, nobody bought!! What to do with a dress like that in Greece!!! You need them for the German Bierfeste (beer festivals) every October. They sold them for 5 euros! So I bought them for the lovely buttons and the enormous amount of beautiful cotton fabric from the skirts. The blue with white design square also comes from a dirndl dress.

Isn't it nice to know that these dresses will be recycled, every little piece of it! And if you don't know what a dirndl dress is, here it comes!!

Some 40 years ago, when I was pregnant (seems like ages ago, as a matter of fact, it was in the last century!) I went to Laura Ashley in Maastricht to buy material for curtains for the baby's room. This is one of the last pieces left!!!

All those little squares of this quilt have a memory for me just like most of the quilts. That is the charm of handmade recycled products. They are made with love, for the product, for the environment, for the one who will use it.