My Great-Grandmother's Quilt

My mom gave me a quilt top awhile ago that my great grandmother, Ysabel Amy Holmes Parker, pieced together.  As she got older, people would give her fabric and she would make a quilt top and give it to people.  I decided to give it a go and finish it.  It had been washed and several of pieces of fabric had torn and pulled apart, so it was in need of repair. 
I was pretty amazed looking at the pattern and color design.  If you look, she put the orange in the corners, and the greens, reds, and yellows are all placed in a certain way. Even the little pieces were placed in a certain way.  Each fabric from the circle had the same fabric opposite of it.  If she didn't have a piece big enough, she would piece the little pieces together to make one.  She made every piece count.

The colorful quilt top.

A quilt square in pretty bad shape.

The fabric that had pulled apart and ripped, I replaced.  I made a pattern and pieced some new red pieces together.

Replaced red fabric on the block.

Zane checking out the quilt top with the border on.  I thought peacock green brought out some of the green/blue colors that Granny Parker used in the quilt.

I decided to stipple the top after I attached the batting and quilt back with a million safety pins.  It took about 6 hours to quilt.  After that, I did the binding.
Here is the finished results!

I never knew Granny Parker, but she sure stitched a great quilt!  I was concerned when I started the project because I felt bad using a sewing machine, but there was no way I was going to hand stitch it!  :)  Then, when I looked further, she used a machine on the straight part, and hand-stitched the curved parts.  I also thought it was neat because it was something old and new coming together.

Amy Parker, 1880-1969.