Collaboration w a Stranger - Quilt

May 2026

66 x 84 inches (twin)

Hand pieced and quilted incorporating cotton muslin, repurposed curtain and bedsheet, vintage quilt blocks.

I stumbled across a stack of hand stitched quilt blocks in a vintage mall in 2021. I had made only 2 quilts by then, both for incoming babies of my siblings. 

I am always in awe of things stitched by hand, and in this case, only the beginnings of a quilt. I knew I wanted to give them a home and make it into something beautiful and useable. Of course, it’s hard to know what the original stitcher may have envisioned, but I knew that I wanted to continue stitching by hand. I only had a couple boxes of fabric back then, hard to imagine now that (only a handful of years later) I’ve amassed an entire room, with fabric flowing in and out like water, from estate sales, secondhand stores, gifts, free piles and swaps. I decided on some undyed muslin and scraps of red fabric to frame the blocks and give the finished quilt more area.

I had no clue how it would come together at all, and with each stitch, I wondered about the other quilter. Who were they? Who or what were they making this quilt for? What other quilts might they have made?

Slowly, one seam at a time, the top came together, my hands, needle, and thread that I didn’t know at the time was completely wrong for the project— it kept tangling and knotting. I finished the quilt top in 2023 and soon after, I found an old curtain to back it. Instead of buying new batting, I used an old sheet. All of these decisions felt in line with the original maker who seemingly made many of the blocks from scraps of old clothing. 
But no sooner did I sandwich the layers together, did I hit a major block: how would I quilt this? So it languished for years, until recently I made a decision and got it done! Nearing the end, I decided to release the idea that the whole quilt be done by hand, and decided the use my trusty machine to apply the binding. 

I am pleased with the finished quilt, but I have to wonder— if the original stitcher was here, what would they think? Would they and I get along? If we had been collaborating in real time, would they like my choices, or would we quarrel about the placement of blocks, the design of the quilting stitches? There is something magical in collaborating with a stranger.