Crazy Quilts and an Interesting Way to Fill a Large Wall

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm terrified of quilting.  All those little pieces and the precision that is required would make me lose my mind. I do love crazy quilts though and appreciate the effort and diligence that goes into making one. This particular style makes me swoon and think of my grandma who had an especially beautiful one that resided in her living room all during my childhood.  

A couple of weeks ago I was in downtown San Antonio for a race and had the opportunity to visit the Riverwalk Vista Inn. It's an historic hotel right off the river, near the Alamo and within walking distance to a lot of other notable SA experiences. When I was inside the building I had the fun of wandering the hallways to look at the antique quilts that lined the walls. They had an impressive collection and I thought I'd share a few pictures as inspiration for any aspiring quilters out there (myself included)! 

Check out the website for more info on the Inn. If you're ever in SA, it's worth a stay.

http://riverwalkvista.com

The amount of hand stitching is extraordinary.

Look at all this blanket stitching and unique edging! 

Now onto the other very cool wall idea...

If you look rrreeeeaaallllyyy closely, you'll notice that these are all vintage matchbooks.

You can't tell by the picture, but each frame was quite large and housed hundreds of matchbooks. The frames were hung in a series of three and made an interesting compliment to the quilts that were on the walls nearby.

I love this idea so much in fact that I'm going to start collecting matchbooks from wherever I go to make a smaller scale version of this. It will probably take me 12.5 years to collect enough but that's half the fun!