Stitching the pieces together
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So am I now as I'm on a disability pension but I am still sorely tempted so I stay away....lol
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The story about your mother's grandmother's 'Grandmothers flower garden quilt' reminded me about a quilt top that came down in my father's family. It was pieced out of silks by my great-great-great-great grandmother (I think 4 greats) when she was coming to America from England as a bond servant as a seamstress. It was the hexagon shape but not so much in pattern as grandmother's flower garden. She was piecing the top on the ship and ran out of silk scraps that she had brought along. some of the men on the ship donated some of their silk ascots to go in the quilt. My grandmother ended up with the top that still had the paper on the back sides of some of the blocks. After she passed, everyone of her children wanted part of that quilt. My mother had the job of cutting that quilt top into 7 pieces for each of her children since she is a quilter. I ended up with a small piece that was a scrap from the top.
Sheila
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Wow Sheila, what a wonderful family story and brilliant family history. Did you put the scrap into a quilt top or a wall hanging? It would be a good way to preserve it as it is way too precious to possibly loose.
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Great quilt stories!!! My BFF died of cancer and I thankfully inherited her tin box of green scraps. She was always going to do a grandma's garden... I did up a bunch of the paper pieces and then kind of gave up. I have the wall hanging somewhere. When I find it I'll take a pic.
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Hey, barbe, what is you opinion of an old quilt that has been fondly used and has holes in some of the fabrics? Do you replace them, or do you just leave the quilt and not display it?
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I display them with the holes. I have a number of them. I'm thinking of cutting them down to make pillows but am worried that the fabric is just too tired.
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The one I am thinking about in particular is VERY tired. I used it on my bed for years. I never realized how bad it looked because I put it away about 18 years ago.
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It doesn't look BAD, it looks TIRED. They age like women and start to fall apart at about the same age....
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I think it's time to at least record how those old quilts look. I will get my camera out today and put it by my purse so I can take it to mom's.
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I live in an area where fabric selection is not good. We really don't have many fabric stores. I have taken to shopping on the internet and have found some great stuff. I recently ordered a piece of batik backing fabric for a quilt I am doing now and it is fantastic. The internet could be an option when trying to find retro fabrics.
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So true.
Have done a mini photo shoot this morning and am uploading my pics to Photobucket right now.
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Note the exhaustion?
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Here is a fair example of the fabrics:
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I took the Boston Commons off the header, so I put it here.
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Oh Meece, I just love those old fabrics!!!!!! There are some reproductions of them out there but the originals are best. I've got an old double wedding ring from my great gran that has beautiful 30's stuff from the depression. Most amazing is how she fussy cut the fabric to fit the design. I know none of them had any money and literally made quilts out of old clothes and feed sacks. Everybody had chickens in their back yard for eggs and meat. Wow, your Boston Commons must have taken months.
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Speaking of which...
(I have to leave in just a minute, so will continue with this quilt later, but look at what I noticed on this one today)
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Meece - Those are absolutely fab. I did notice the letters on the last pic. What do they mean? As usual you are one talented lady.
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I wonder if that fabric was part of someone's uniform or other clothing--something with writing on it? Those women were mega-practical!
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Could it be a flour sack? When my Dad was going over the log cabin quilt his Ma had made for him he pointed out a few pieces of that appearance with letters that he said were sacks from a near by flour mill. He also pointed out several from another mill that used printed cloth designed to be used for clothing from another mill. Naturally the second mill was the one grandma preferred to buy from when she could. The fabric came from the 1890's through the first few years of the 1900's.
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Yes that does look like flour sack fabric. I have some vintage flour sack fabric from my great-aunt's estate sale that I am using as background fabric for some vintage (circa 1920-1930) incomplete dreseden plate blocks that I had to resew and making into fan blocks for a wall hanging.
I have so many wall hangings from when I was working, I don't know where to put them in the house. I had a blank wall in my office that I had about 6 wall hangings I would change out based on the season and several more that are my UFO's.
The quilt that was cut up has been professionally mounted with acid free mats. We had it mounted with glass and mats on both sides so you can see the beautiful hand work and paper left inside some of the blocks.
Sheila
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Chabba - Interesting! Could be. Guess we will have to wait and let Meece answer that one.
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Um, SUgar sack???
I have a TON of old retro fabrics in an antique trunk in my garage. Just have to get that trunk open......
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I agree with Barbe Sugar sack (as opposed to sugar shack) all the way!
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I'm sure our ancestors would do cartwheels in their graves at the thought of us seeking out brand new material to cut into use in our quilting.....
as opposed to their using bits & pieces of remnants with their considerable talent to create something amazing, functional out of nothing at all
The head of our quilt club is working on a Grandma's garden. She brought it in to share last week. The blocks are 1/2 inch on each side..... teeniest of tinies. She has been at work for over a year now, & has enough together that it could be considered a personal afghan. She's thinking it may go on the back of her sofa.
I'll see if I can get her to bring it back & take a picture. The size is truly nutty (in her words) but she's using up the smallest of scraps.
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I read of someone once who printed her kids pictures onto white fabric and surrounded each square with fabric from the outfit they were wearing in the picture!! How smart was THAT!!!??? They didn't have that kind of technology when my kids were little.
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Barbe - You are so smart - SUgar sack makes perfect sense.
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Of course!! A SUgar sack!!! Love it.
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I suspect you are talking about feed sacks. Check them out online. Children's clothing used to be made out of them. You can find them at antique dealers. They can be quite wonderful. They're part of the make do heritage of American quilting.
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I also believe they are sugar sacks. The flour sacks were made out of a bit heavier ticking. Maybe not so heavy for the smaller sacks? This fabric is super fine cotton, and I suspect sugar although the letters are meaningless.
I got to go into Mom's scrap box today. I was searching out enough fabric of one pattern for the 12 outer petals. I found some that looks retro, though I doubt any are vintage. Mom said, don't worry if the piece is larger, you can make two flowers with the same fabrics. I think not!
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