Unetta Stephens is pleased with the way the Garden Bouquet quilt has come together — after more than 70 years. In the early 1930s, the newspaper (and at least two others, in Minneapolis and Kansas City) published a pattern a week so that over time sewing subscribers could make a Garden Bouquet quilt. Unetta remembers wondering — as she placed a single spool of thread in a box and wrapped it in paper so it could be delivered to a home in Portland — if free delivery might be the end of Lipman’s one day. Dee Luedloff was happy to complete the quilt for her friend, Unetta Stephens. He traced and cut each piece of fabric — the body, wings, legs, necks, heads and beaks of two birds per square and the petals, stems and leaves of more than a dozen flowers and plants, all by hand from the scraps saved in Unetta’s box.

Tags: quilting fabrics, keepsake quilting, luedloff, quilting machines, years, quilting patterns