Country Fair
September 2015

This quanket was donated in September to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, and will go to a foster child. It will also be included in this year’s 100 Quilts for Kids program, which runs through the end of September.

This hourglass block pattern quanket is a riot of such fun colors and patterns! Each summer, I host a family get together at our home, and this year’s theme was Country Fair. The menu included homemade lemonade, fresh salads, peach and apple pies, and so much more yummy food! In addition to folks bringing their favorite ‘Country Fair’ dish, I also asked everyone to bring a scrap of fabric that I would make into a “family quilt”.

With no guidelines other than for the fabric to be a cotton or cotton-blend, and bigger than 12″x12″, as you can see, I got quite a diversity of colors and fabrics. Some brought fat quarters, while one sister brought an old, favorite sundress, another a vintage apron she had gotten from Granny, and my daughter contributed one of my grandson’s onesies.

I chose the hourglass block pattern for two reasons: first, it lends itself to using a lot of different colors and patterns; and second, I felt it aptly gave a nod to the concept of time – the passing of time, and how precious time spent with family is! The other thing I liked about the hourglass block is that it allowed me to have everyone’s contributed fabric touch each others, symbolic of how we each touch one another’s lives.