Ponies from the Past

Written by Diane Harris on January 4, 2020. Posted in Blog, Quilt Lifestyle, Trunk Shows, Uncategorized

Every so often I get an email that surprises and delights me. It’s usually when someone finishes a quilt I designed somewhere in the past.

Giddy-Up Go, made by Deborah Robinson

Deborah Robinson from Lake Forest, California made the quilt above for her cousin’s first grandchild. She says the new mom really loved it!

About 12 years ago, when I’d been working for Quiltmaker just a few years, I designed this quilt by using a little pony that QM had published as part of another pattern called Barnyard Dance.

Barnyard Dance, a Quiltmaker design, made by Betty Jean Dodson

I thought the animals were adorable and I had visions of designing quilts with each of them. Only the pony’s wish came true.

A finish of the original Barnyard Dance design, above, won a judge’s choice ribbon for its maker Betty Jean Dodson, who entered it in the 2011 quilt show of the Star Quilters Guild in Roanoke Valley, Virginia.

Giddy-Up Go, designed and made by Diane Harris.

My quilt, above, was inspired by fabric that resembled tooled leather. It was an early experiment in the scrap quilting that has since taken over my life. If you look closely, you’ll see that I used three different background fabrics. All of the ponies are different, and I scrapped up the horizontal setting squares, too.

Deborah Robinson’s Giddy-Up Go with ombre fabric

I love how Deborah used an ombre fabric to make this quilt her own. And she didn’t stop with the borders. Do you see how the binding is also ombre so that it matches the border all the way around the quilt? This is not a very easy thing to do. My congratulations go to out Deborah on a job well done, as well as my thanks for making my design, and my day!

The ponies are fused and appliqued by machine so this is a quick, easy and fun quilt to make. Get the free pattern from The Quilting Company.

Is your guild hiring speakers? Please consider one of my lively trunk shows of dynamite quilts!