Charity shop bargain.

[charley]

On my weekly visit to our local hospice shop I spied this beauty. I bought it, I just knew from experience that if I left it for a couple of days, it would not be there when I returned, and I would be very sad. I paid £20, and I was happy to do that. It is double bed size, I think, and 2 rows were incomplete, so I have just completed them today. I dread to think how long this took, but would love to know why it ended up in a charity shop too. Some of the papers are cards - birthday/postcards etc, there is a postmark from 1985 on one of them. A lot of the fabric is Laura Ashley.
I have resized the photos.
Now to see if I have enough batting, and sort out some backing fabric. It will go on my bed.
Any ideas welcome about how I should quilt this too, please

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[Ellabella]

Wow what a beautiful find.

[Lilian]

What a fabulous find, it's gorgeous 

[Iminei]

WOW!!!!

Theres never anything like that in my charity shops.

[Puzzler]

I gave up on some unfinished quilt tops a good while ago and bought them to a charity shop. They never would have been finished and likely have caused me guilt.

A nice little treasure for you.  :thumbsup:

[Celia]

That is lovely and I like the way it is completely random colours, gives me hope for my pile of hexagons

[Sandra]

Lucky you. 
Someone's spent many hours on that. How sad it didn't get finished by the original maker.
It's lovely that it's found a new home where it's going to be used. 

Sandra.
xxx

[Lowena]

Was it £20 just for the unfinished top?

[sewingj]

,

[Silver Rose]

@charley that reminds me of a bedcover I started in the 1970s using papers and sewing a lot of 1.25" hexagons by hand. It was meant to be for a double bed but I stopped three quarters of the way and it travelled around with me for 20 years then I made it  into  a single bed sized duvet cover using a cotton sheet for the underside.

[charley]

Yes @Lowena, it was £20 for the unfinished top.

It measures 73" x 90" now that I have straightened the sides by trimming the side edges of the hexies. I have edge stitched it to stop it from stretching when I sandwich it.
The size of of each hexie is 1 1/2" (along one side, not across). I absolutely love it, and I think it is £20 well spent, and to a very worthy charity.

[Tamnymore]

@charley that's amazing. So glad it's gone to a good home. You do wonder what the story is behind it. I started some hexagonal patchwork with mainly Laura Ashley fabric in the mid 1970s and I found it again the other day. It was like seeing an old friend. It looks spookily like your quilt.

[charley]

Thanks all.
I think that the majority of the fabrics are Laura Ashley, some are ?curtain type fabric, slightly 'thicker' than the regular cotton anyway. I have used quite a few of her fabric through the years, but there are many that I have not seen too of course.

[BrendaP]

@charley   that's a fantastic find. 

Sad that the maker is unknown - and maybe even sadder it's likely that it ended up in a charity shop because someone was disposing of Mum's/Auntie's/Grandma's "stuff" after she passed away.   but that quilt has got a new home where it will be loved.

[StitchinTime]

When you come to remove the papers, you could keep the ones with dates or any interesting ones and it may make a story for the local newspaper when the quilt is finished - “Mystery quilt from the 1980s found in charity shop finished by local quilter”. (Though the click bait headline is more likely to be “You’ll never guess what happened to this blanket from the 1980s”.)