Heirloom Doily Quilt

My most recent project is this beautiful Heirloom Doily quilt. I made it using five generations of my families (my mother's side) stunning embroidered and crochet doilies, table clothes, pillowcases and aprons, some of which were rather thread bare and tatty. So I set about carefully cutting out the best of the collection and salvaged as much as I possibly could being very careful not to lose the beauty of them. Some embroidery was so thread bare that I had to re-embroider sections. Over two or so years I collected antique pearl buttons and glass beads, lace, ribbons and other little sew ons which I used to embellish my quilt to add life and extra beauty. I incorporated my sons baby pillow case, my very first embroidery, which is now 40 years old, my mothers, my grandmothers and my great grandmothers needle work. My oldest sister does bobbin lace making so I have added some of her work into this also. These priceless old pieces of embroidery in this quilt will remain in my family for generations to come. It actually broke my heart to cut some of the pieces up, but had I not repurposed them I'm not sure where they'd have end up. I am grateful to my mother for giving me her precious collection of needle work and allowing me to re-purpose them which I have done with much love. It is rewarding to have earned a first prize award in our local towns recent arts and crafts festival