Postage Stamp Finale

While Cindy has been holding down the blog fort, I’ve been staycationing and wallowing in my “world is out of control” funk. No more. I’ve got to shake these blues and maybe the best way to do this is to bring out the reds — you know which ones — the postage stamp reds!

As you may recall, in November 2019, I started creating a red postage stamp quilt. The pattern intrigued me from the beginning of my quilt journey when I was inspired by a quilt created by Red Pepper Quilts. Rita Hodge’s quilt was full of bright, happy colors. She created it by cutting strips that she sewed together and then cut apart in the 1.5″ square size.

But I am obsessed with saving every scrap of fabric I can and I’ve made a habit out of cutting 1.5″ squares whenever I have bits of fabric left over. So in November, I looked at a big baggie of red postage stamps and thought ‘maybe it’s time’ to start my postage stamp opus. I made this decision without doing the math — but I quickly learned that my baggie of squares was pitifully inadequate. I finished about 2 rows and then I ran out of reds. I cut some more and ran out of those. Then I bought some more red fabric and I needed still more stamps. That’s when I set up the quilting “bat signal”.

And my crew came through! Wendy at PiecefulThoughts sent squares, Tierney from TierneyCreates raided her stash. Sister Cindy sent some squares from Ohio. Roseanne and Sue from Homesewnbyus set fabric too. Then Mary from QuiltingisinmyBlood sent a most generous donation of squares. Oh my.

My Valentine’s Day finish goal fell by the wayside. Then I sewed some more and cut some more stamps, and I got sick, sick, sick of the color red and I sewed and cut some more. Covid descended on us, but we stayed safe and I received one final donation from Cindy and now, tada, it’s done.

Cindy did another big favor for me by taking over the task of selecting a 2-border finish motif. She even attached them and mitered the corners. Ms. G, my long-arming friend finished the job and I finally added the binding that Cindy so generously supplied.

My ‘takes a village’ quilt is finally completed. Thank you to all of my quilting friends, Mary, Wendy, Roseanne and Sue, and of course, Cindy for helping me finish my quilt. I am so happy with this quilt and I can’t wait until the fall so I can actually use it on my bed.

Here is the final math count for the queen size quilt:

  • Each 4×4 block required 16 postage stamps.
  • Each row required 15 blocks.
  • There are 19 rows
  • Total count of postage stamps: 4,560
  • There is a 1″ white inside border
  • Cindy add a 6″ red outer border

16 thoughts on “Postage Stamp Finale”

  3. Gray Barn Designs says:
    Reply

    Wow! This is so beautiful, Sandy! What an accomplishment, it will be perfect for Christmas and for long, cold winter nights.

  6. Kathie Hunt says:
    Reply

    Absolutely stunning!! And I’m sure the photos don’t even do it justice. A beautiful testament to perseverance and generosity.

  7. Charlotte Brown says:
    Reply

    Beautiful. I’m no good at math, so without me having to figure it out’ what are the dimensions of the finished quilt?

  9. rl2b2017 says:
    Reply

    Hi Sandy! WOWEE! That was a huge, huge, HUGE undertaking. Four thousand, five hundred and sixty small pieces of love right there. I hope later on when you sit underneath this quilt filled with love that you can select some of those pieces and smile. Smile fondly at the memory they provide from other projects or, if you have no idea where that small piece came from, you’ll know that your sister or friends filled it with their fun memories. Fabulous! Great job. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne

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