Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[Sunshine]

You did a quilt for your sister while talking a college load and getting A grades? Yikes!!!! I'm glad you gave a demo on quilting in college. No wonder you can do such challenging embroideries and apparently design them too like your Celtic of Chinese symbols.

I never thought to show any sewing projects when I took persuasive speech as my speaking elective in college. But I do remember a Consumer health course at Oregon State University in which we were required to give a 5 minute speech on a Consumer measurement issue (count to make sure there were 100 aspirins in an aspirin bottle, or make sense of federal consumer requirements.) I elected to make fun of the consumer health-paper industry. It was a pretty darn dull speech until I held up the yardstick with a square yard of t. paper taped onto it to show how "useful" knowing how much a square yard of toilet paper was (which was the standard info used to tell consumers how much t-paper they were getting back then). The professor doctor said she was giving me an A for the whole course because that was the funniest student speech/demo she'd ever seen. It's kinda fun to see a room full of 300 of your fellow students rolling in the aisles. I felt like a Carol Burnett that day.

Oh, that's funny! Yeah, my sister who was a lot older than I was getting married. We set the quilt up at my house. It is amazing how much you get done if you just sit down and work on one every day. It just has to be a daily thing. Do a lot. Do a little. But working every day it finishes up real fast. In those days, I was just picking up some night classes. But I was also working. That was long before the days I went to nursing school. I never got to finish back then due to not having the money. But when my husband died leaving me with two little mouths to feed, I had no choice. Chose nursing and things like that Speech class counted as that was required for my BSN. So I was a little ahead of the game. Not much. Just a little.

 

[freedombecki]

You did a quilt for your sister while talking a college load and getting A grades? Yikes!!!! I'm glad you gave a demo on quilting in college. No wonder you can do such challenging embroideries and apparently design them too like your Celtic of Chinese symbols.

I never thought to show any sewing projects when I took persuasive speech as my speaking elective in college. But I do remember a Consumer health course at Oregon State University in which we were required to give a 5 minute speech on a Consumer measurement issue (count to make sure there were 100 aspirins in an aspirin bottle, or make sense of federal consumer requirements.) I elected to make fun of the consumer health-paper industry. It was a pretty darn dull speech until I held up the yardstick with a square yard of t. paper taped onto it to show how "useful" knowing how much a square yard of toilet paper was (which was the standard info used to tell consumers how much t-paper they were getting back then). The professor doctor said she was giving me an A for the whole course because that was the funniest student speech/demo she'd ever seen. It's kinda fun to see a room full of 300 of your fellow students rolling in the aisles. I felt like a Carol Burnett that day.

Oh, that's funny! Yeah, my sister who was a lot older than I was getting married. We set the quilt up at my house. It is amazing how much you get done if you just sit down and work on one every day. It just has to be a daily thing. Do a lot. Do a little. But working every day it finishes up real fast. In those days, I was just picking up some night classes. But I was also working. That was long before the days I went to nursing school. I never got to finish back then due to not having the money. But when my husband died leaving me with two little mouths to feed, I had no choice. Chose nursing and things like that Speech class counted as that was required for my BSN. So I was a little ahead of the game. Not much. Just a little.

Goodness, that's a lot. My kudos to a life well-lived, Sunshine. And a little American Quilter's Society Christmas greeting for you:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKMGDld1NS8]AQS Member Quilts - YouTube[/ame]
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[freedombecki]

Leaving some Eggnog coffee today...

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[Sunshine]

You did a quilt for your sister while talking a college load and getting A grades? Yikes!!!! I'm glad you gave a demo on quilting in college. No wonder you can do such challenging embroideries and apparently design them too like your Celtic of Chinese symbols.

I never thought to show any sewing projects when I took persuasive speech as my speaking elective in college. But I do remember a Consumer health course at Oregon State University in which we were required to give a 5 minute speech on a Consumer measurement issue (count to make sure there were 100 aspirins in an aspirin bottle, or make sense of federal consumer requirements.) I elected to make fun of the consumer health-paper industry. It was a pretty darn dull speech until I held up the yardstick with a square yard of t. paper taped onto it to show how "useful" knowing how much a square yard of toilet paper was (which was the standard info used to tell consumers how much t-paper they were getting back then). The professor doctor said she was giving me an A for the whole course because that was the funniest student speech/demo she'd ever seen. It's kinda fun to see a room full of 300 of your fellow students rolling in the aisles. I felt like a Carol Burnett that day.

Oh, that's funny! Yeah, my sister who was a lot older than I was getting married. We set the quilt up at my house. It is amazing how much you get done if you just sit down and work on one every day. It just has to be a daily thing. Do a lot. Do a little. But working every day it finishes up real fast. In those days, I was just picking up some night classes. But I was also working. That was long before the days I went to nursing school. I never got to finish back then due to not having the money. But when my husband died leaving me with two little mouths to feed, I had no choice. Chose nursing and things like that Speech class counted as that was required for my BSN. So I was a little ahead of the game. Not much. Just a little.

Goodness, that's a lot. My kudos to a life well-lived, Sunshine. And a little American Quilter's Society Christmas greeting for you:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKMGDld1NS8]AQS Member Quilts - YouTube[/ame]
​

Thanks! Those are some remarkable quilts. Quilters are right up there with oil painters when it comes to copping those illusions! I paint a little bit, and honestly, this it is probably easier with paint even though I have never tried one of those hard hard quilts.

I like the ones with the stars, and I really like that one near the start that looks like two quilts on top of one another.

Speaking of stars, there is a superstition in these parts: People here believe if you make a 'Lone Star' quilt someone in your family will die. Now, never mind that people die every day everywhere it will be the Lone Star quilt that will bring on death!. LOL. Don't see many Lone Start quilts around here. LOL

Speaking of dying. In Frankfort KY there is a 'Graveyard Quilt.' You may have heard about it or seen it. It used to be house in the Old Statehouse, but last time I was there in the 80s had been moved to a museim. I kind of think I know where the pic is. I'm off all except for the 27th next week. I will look for it if you haven't seen it or a photo.

It IS a graveyard. Quilted. Fence, coffins, the whole nine yards. (No pun intended) Coffins line the outer edge of the quilt, but when one of the family dies, his/her coffin is removed and stitched inside the fence.

Well this is the information age, so I decided to Google before digging.

Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell’s Graveyard Quilt: An American Pioneer Saga | Highlands Museum | Ashland, KY

Well chit. I find the story but not a picture. If you haven't seen it, I will definitely find it and post it for you.

And speaking of the live 'well lived.' Some days I would have disagreed. But when I got this disease and was told I wouldn't likely still be living by now, I thought back and couldn't think of anything, really, that I wanted but didn't have. I've had it all. Just not all at once.

 

[freedombecki]

Thanks, Sunshine. I found it and saved it. The book is said to have actual pictures of the quilt itself, but the cover is a sienna color that represents old photographs at or before the turn of the 19th to 20th century.

 

[freedombecki]

I have a number of unpacked books on the Civil war era, and also antebellum quilts of which our shop teacher (after I got fibromyalgia) is very fond. I love her work so, and her quilts garner many blue ribbons wherever she goes. I guess I really need to plan time with a carpenter to convert my fabric storage room and another back bedroom into shelving for plastic containers and the quilting library, respectively. I have enough books in this house to start a nonfiction library and reference resource for artists who love nature, birds, natural plant tribal remedies and all things North America.

 

[Sunshine]

I have a number of unpacked books on the Civil war era, and also antebellum quilts of which our shop teacher (after I got fibromyalgia) is very fond. I love her work so, and her quilts garner many blue ribbons wherever she goes. I guess I really need to plan time with a carpenter to convert my fabric storage room and another back bedroom into shelving for plastic containers and the quilting library, respectively. I have enough books in this house to start a nonfiction library and reference resource for artists who love nature, birds, natural plant tribal remedies and all things North America.

Yes, you should put all those quilting books together. I have a friend who is an avid cook. She keeps ALL her cookbooks together in a very special place.

 

[freedombecki]

That'd be just great, but my quilt book collection is a growing organism, especially since I discovered goodwill books at amazon ... I've found OOP treasures for a song... I have to stop. I mean, 8 masterwork books for 8 cents and shipping?

Even I feel guilty.

 

[freedombecki]

Given as fundraiser for an artist's guild...
Merry Christmas, everyone.
May you have warm thoughts and be wrapped in love all year.

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[freedombecki]

Finished the 4-patch window child's quilt except for two 1/25" black borders on the sides and determining an outside border. It's looking like it would work on a twin bed. I need to check with my charity sewing group to find out if that's too big for them to quilt. I spent a mountain of time on it.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying time off at the holidays. I'm hovering close to the bed after getting sick on food at a relatives house on Christmas day. He was really sick and had thrown up earlier before we got there. Now, all the other relatives are throwing up too. I can't imagine throwing up and failing to cancel a family dinner, especially when throwing up is a sign of food contamination. I guess we're lucky. If it had been botulinum, we'd all be dead. That's my last family dinner.

 

[freedombecki]

Yesterday was good for completion of projects, and I added a piano key border at the top and bottom of the multi-bordered log cabin frienship star quilt.

Piano key borders can get even the most experienced quilter into trouble, and finally, I wiped out my problem by 2 ways: perfecting the 1/4" seam allowance to measure exactly what the outcome is supposed to be with zero tolerance for even the slightest error Even more important helps on this are to press the seams open with a little moisture to assure that they stay open and totally, totally, totally flat. I've quilted dozens of customer quilts who bring in a piano key bordered quilt that measures 3 or 4 inches longer on one side than the other, which is where I learned to measure quilts extra times in 3 places, plus in trouble areas.

The beauty and exquisite touch of a well-sewn and pressed paino key border evades any words I could say, but as I looked at the friendship star's negative space (which were light colored strips in sundry tints of the rainbow that had a startling effervescent effect. I decided that that was this poor little quilt's strong point, so after trying to pep up the darks a little with bright colored scraps in narrow borders arranged in rainbow order (pale outline green, blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, and avocado, it was still too short by a huge measure, although the width was okay. The border had two scrap criteria: enough to paste a 1.25" finished sides and 3" finished top and bottoms to make the medallion square start long enough to cover youthful toes on cold winter nights. Most of the pieces used under 1/3 yard. I had a lot of the avocado, which was only used because I had to have a light first border and started with a spring pale green print to b ring out the edges of the stars. Well, the avocado border was larger, because I wanted to use it all up. I have fabric stacked to the wazoo ceilings in 3 rooms, and decided if I am gonna do all these quilts in my lifetime, I have to let them go. And the Avocado kinda put the kabosh on a bright, cheerful quilt, so it sat there for a week with me looking at it. It finally hit me to use the cheerful tints used in the light areas around the deep friendship star log cabin. They truly brought out something in a quilt I've rarely seen. So I went back to the cutting table, cut some more strips and sewed 38 strips to the top and 38 to the bottom. They came out as planned, but the brought out an error on the top and bottom--I didn't square them up well, so that had to be taken apart and made the same measurement. AS I said, I learned a lot from this humble little quilt. And with no other way to show it than a sketch, I'm going to load a diagram I drew out this morning.

After sewing on the piano keys, I was pleased like never before. They had no stretch left in them from bad pressing, and both measured precisely the same. So I had to have a border to attach all the way around to add just a little more length to make the quilt 2 yards long (72"). I found a piece of blue forget-me-not cloth I'd bought some time ago because my mother, just a couple of years before she died was out planting her forget-me-nots. When I was young, she took some forget-me-not seed pods that had already ripened while others were still blooming. She touched one of them, and POW! Itsy bitsy black seeds went everywhere! That's how they propagate with proper spacing. The year my dad was ordered to Alaska to serve a year following WWII and the Korean War, I was 8. We got there during the time of the midnight sun, and on a knoll at Fort Richardson they labeled a park, we played in a meadow and collected little flowers, and mom showed us how to split the clover stems open like a needle eye and thread the next stem through them to make a flower wreath to wear in your hair. Growing in between the clover were the most beautiful little blue flowers I remembered having seen (having grown up in a big city this was fun). Mom said those were "forget-me-nots" and showed me the popping trick of the forget-me-not flower, which may be as I now know, the Alaska State Flower. When we were there, it was 1954, and Alaska was a "United States Territory" people still sourly referred to as "Seward's Ice Box." Well, anyhow, I'm off topic, but the beautiful forget-me-not flower thereafter was always a part of my mother's flower bed additions. I'll see if I can find a scrap of the fabric that shows you how very beautiful the forget-me-nots are when I copy the notes I made this am. I actually cried when I was sewing the forget-me-nots on the border. They didn't exactly make the rest of the quilt bat a home run, but my mother is in that quilt, somewhere.

Oh, yes, I added 2 pictures for one of my Jewels of the Platte quilt shows at City Hall, Casper, Wyoming, sometime between 1996-2004. The miniatures are collected together. There are 25 or 30 huge quilts hanging all round. I made most all you see. I did quilts for 8 shows maybe.

 

[freedombecki]

When working on the quilt above with my mother's favorite flower printed on the border, I couldn't help but think of Dabs who said last week sometime how she misses her mother at Christmas. I have a dear friend who lost her brother a few months before Christmas last year. This year, she found and copied 5 or 6 of his pictures, plasticized and made them into ornaments (some kind of craft kit?) on her tree. She said it brought his memories back to her in a good way and comforted her some this year. although she said she is still adjusting. She moved 1000 miles to Wyoming to live near him some time back and got into quilting for the fun of it. We became fast friends, and she is a true friend indeed.

 

[freedombecki]

Now to find some of my quilts from those Jewels of the Platte shows past.

Well, doh, I found that Christmas quilt I was looking for 2 weeks ago.!!

 

[Dabs]

Becki......I read the above post and I am so sorry I haven't been visiting this thread more often.
The quilts here are awesome!!!!
I had tons of my Mother's clothing after she passed away....packed in totes, and they were taking up so much room....but I didn't want to part with any of her clothes, or anything!
I have an Aunt in Pennsylvania who is an excellent quilter, so I wrote and asked her if I sent all my Mother's clothes to her, could she please make me a quilt.
That way, I wouldn't have to get rid of Mother's clothes, and I feel the quilts would be worthwhile because I could use them if needed.
She said yes, I sent her all the clothes and I ended up with 3 BEAUTIFUL quilts, made from my Mother's clothing!!!!
I have one hanging in my bedroom, and no....I don't use them.....they are displayed, but I feel wonderful about having them, because I still have part of my Mother in these quilts
Maybe I could add photos of them in this thread??
*smiles*

 

[freedombecki]

Could you, Dabs? I would love to see your mother's quilts, and if you could post them here it would be so special. Quilts have a story. Be sure you type a short paper on how the 3 quilts came about, sew a small pocket at the bottom on back of the quilt and tuck the folded note in a sealed baggie and keep it there for the next generation. If a collector finds the note, the quilt increases in value threefold. Be sure your mother's name, date of birth and death & town, your aunt, the maker's name and birth info & town, and your own & town. A maker can make the most beautiful quilt in the world, but it can be diminished severely after one trip to the washer with harsh chemicals such as clorox, detergent that is not a neutral ph balance, etc. Ivory soap flakes used to be the standard, but nowadays, people just buy quilt soap for quilts at a quilt store. We're so careful these days.

Quilts are all about love. Even if you never met the maker, if you wrap up in a hand-made cotton quilt, or a stack of them, quilts can chase chill and give a refreshing sleep on cold nights. Wrapped in a loved one's clothing?--much more than that. You will feel the love, I promise, even if you put it on top of the others to keep it a little nicer.

I love your quilt story Dabs. It's one of the best ones I've heard.

Well, I'm still needing rest from my little food poisoning episode on christmas day. We are just finishing up the 6th day of Christmas on the 12-day calendar.

 

[Dabs]

Could you, Dabs? I would love to see your mother's quilts, and if you could post them here it would be so special. Quilts have a story. Be sure you type a short paper on how the 3 quilts came about, sew a small pocket at the bottom on back of the quilt and tuck the folded note in a sealed baggie and keep it there for the next generation. If a collector finds the note, the quilt increases in value threefold. Be sure your mother's name, date of birth and death & town, your aunt, the maker's name and birth info & town, and your own & town. A maker can make the most beautiful quilt in the world, but it can be diminished severely after one trip to the washer with harsh chemicals such as clorox, detergent that is not a neutral ph balance, etc. Ivory soap flakes used to be the standard, but nowadays, people just buy quilt soap for quilts at a quilt store. We're so careful these days.

Quilts are all about love. Even if you never met the maker, if you wrap up in a hand-made cotton quilt, or a stack of them, quilts can chase chill and give a refreshing sleep on cold nights. Wrapped in a loved one's clothing?--much more than that. You will feel the love, I promise, even if you put it on top of the others to keep it a little nicer.

I love your quilt story Dabs. It's one of the best ones I've heard.

Well, I'm still needing rest from my little food poisoning episode on christmas day. We are just finishing up the 6th day of Christmas on the 12-day calendar.

Oh Becki....I did not know this about tucking notes and things into quilts for future generations! What a great idea.....thank you for sharing, I will definitely do this!
I will try to post pictures in a day or two *smiles*

 

[Sunshine]

Could you, Dabs? I would love to see your mother's quilts, and if you could post them here it would be so special. Quilts have a story. Be sure you type a short paper on how the 3 quilts came about, sew a small pocket at the bottom on back of the quilt and tuck the folded note in a sealed baggie and keep it there for the next generation. If a collector finds the note, the quilt increases in value threefold. Be sure your mother's name, date of birth and death & town, your aunt, the maker's name and birth info & town, and your own & town. A maker can make the most beautiful quilt in the world, but it can be diminished severely after one trip to the washer with harsh chemicals such as clorox, detergent that is not a neutral ph balance, etc. Ivory soap flakes used to be the standard, but nowadays, people just buy quilt soap for quilts at a quilt store. We're so careful these days.

Quilts are all about love. Even if you never met the maker, if you wrap up in a hand-made cotton quilt, or a stack of them, quilts can chase chill and give a refreshing sleep on cold nights. Wrapped in a loved one's clothing?--much more than that. You will feel the love, I promise, even if you put it on top of the others to keep it a little nicer.

I love your quilt story Dabs. It's one of the best ones I've heard.

Well, I'm still needing rest from my little food poisoning episode on christmas day. We are just finishing up the 6th day of Christmas on the 12-day calendar.

When I paint, I sign and date my paintings right on the front. Quilts have become such a work of art, I am baffled as to why the maker doesn't stitch their signature and date in one corner.

 

[freedombecki]

Could you, Dabs? I would love to see your mother's quilts, and if you could post them here it would be so special. Quilts have a story. Be sure you type a short paper on how the 3 quilts came about, sew a small pocket at the bottom on back of the quilt and tuck the folded note in a sealed baggie and keep it there for the next generation. If a collector finds the note, the quilt increases in value threefold. Be sure your mother's name, date of birth and death & town, your aunt, the maker's name and birth info & town, and your own & town. A maker can make the most beautiful quilt in the world, but it can be diminished severely after one trip to the washer with harsh chemicals such as clorox, detergent that is not a neutral ph balance, etc. Ivory soap flakes used to be the standard, but nowadays, people just buy quilt soap for quilts at a quilt store. We're so careful these days.

Quilts are all about love. Even if you never met the maker, if you wrap up in a hand-made cotton quilt, or a stack of them, quilts can chase chill and give a refreshing sleep on cold nights. Wrapped in a loved one's clothing?--much more than that. You will feel the love, I promise, even if you put it on top of the others to keep it a little nicer.

I love your quilt story Dabs. It's one of the best ones I've heard.

Well, I'm still needing rest from my little food poisoning episode on christmas day. We are just finishing up the 6th day of Christmas on the 12-day calendar.

When I paint, I sign and date my paintings right on the front. Quilts have become such a work of art, I am baffled as to why the maker doesn't stitch their signature and date in one corner.

Traditions in America always started quilt bees with a prayer and a scripture, if there was a woman around lucky enough to know how to read. Many families did not allow womenfolk to read much until the second half of the seventeenth century for practical and utilitarian purposes only. Women were chided to endure humility and secondary service only, due to the puritanical beliefs that her husband's name was the only ones to use name as an influence of the family, and anonymity became a desired quality for picking a wife if one wanted peace in his lifetime to go toe to toe with the male society, blah, blah, blah, I'm really on a tear today. I'm not sure where the tradition of placing treasured information stitched into a pocket on the lower left bottom of the quilt, I just know it fit in with my understanding of the desired behavior of a wife bit back when.

Edit: Also, after reading a number of tomes on quilts, a number of authors in the industry note collecters will pay triple for just a bit of information on the makers, and how enchanted one of them was to find a quilt at a bedrock price in a flea market with a tag on it that made it such a meaningful experience to have the quilt, knowing who made the quilt. It wouldn't bother me to find a handwritten note by Martha Washington (my personal heroine) sewn inside a hidden pocket on the back of a quilted purchase.

 

[freedombecki]

Today, I was going through some quilt books I already had shelved, filling one library full of quilt books between the kitchen and the back door, and found the book, "Ontario's Heritage Quilts" by Marilyn Walker, 1992. It is filled with some of the prettiest quilts known, and well I know it, because on our trip across Canada in fall of 2006, we stopped in a large town (not sure which one) and visited a huge mansion that was converted to public use and was showing an amazing array of quilts made by Canadians, and they were hanging throughout the mansion/castle. Though the quilt below was not at the show, it made me think of Sunshine's lovely Celtic embroidery work, and I thought she'd enjoy seeing this particular quilt. The picture is on page 106, and I checked and there are copies of the book at Amazon, including hardcover books. The book is worth ten times its cost. Those Canadian ladies ain't no slouches when it comes to excellence. I should know. I had to force my lower jaw from dropping for two hours when seeing the amazing quilt show in their historic mansion/castle. Seems maybe it was in Ontario.

Also, for the first day of the year, I thought it'd be nice to do a little red and white quilt start for a show in a couple of years, so I quilted-as-you-go and cut bazillions of strips. I'll need 63 eight-inch squares to make a quilt 56x72". It's a small start, but the cutting is mainly behind me ~ or is it?

To see the details of this quilt, please click on the thumbnail, which makes it a much clearer picture to see (I hope)!

 

[freedombecki]

Just another couple of squares. I found 3 more red and white and 6 more dark red and white fabrics by doing a little more digging. I can't find the white fabric with the tiny red dots, though, which I found sometime last fall for a red and white quilt-to-be or just stash stuff when I needed a light color with a little red in it.

One other thing I did, do though, I went through a box where I found another quilter had given up on some red and white fabrics for the church closet and found some backs. Most of her cloth, though, was blended. From the 60s when "Dacron polyester" came out to the present, blouses and shirts could now be easy-care, although you had to remove the fabric from the dryer immediately after drying or else you'd have permanent-press wrinkles that were next to impossible to iron out. I'm not overly fond of them, but they at this time can save a little money, still make a good child quilt, and have them wear for years. I cut and resewed a dozen backs today, although the two I'm showing today were made sometime after I should have been in bed last night. I just felt like sewing.

Another thing I found while digging was another quilt top for a small child another lady at church had made from some squares she hand-picked from my stack of squares I took to one of our group meetings. She attached a note that said she was still experiencing some problems of aging, and how sorry was she couldn't finish the quilting. How well I understand that, not old enough to be disabled, but just not doing well at quilting big tops any more. I am feeling pretty good, and this quilt-as-you-sew method that has been around for years now, is truly helping me get quilts together without having to beg someone else to quilt it. Yay!

My blocks of last night below, plus a quilt I found from down under (Australia) in which the women did a light-hearted, fun red and white quilt, log cabin style, recently. Credit at Red Pepper quilts website.