Welcome to my new blog. I’ve attempted blogging a couple of times
before, and those blogs are still floating around cyberspace, but I’ve
decided to start fresh and hopefully be more intentional about keeping
up with it. I plan to post once a week, mostly about my quilts, but
also other things as they pop up.
Every quilt has a story to tell, and I’m going to revisit some of my older quilts, and let them tell their stories. (I began quilting when I was still in high school, so I shouldn’t run out of material for a while.) I’ll also do some step-by-step (not exactly tutorials) information about the processes as I make some new quilts. Maybe I’ll even do some tutorials. I’m open to suggestions as to what kind of tutorials you are looking for. Maybe I can fill that niche (or maybe not, depending on what it is). 
I’m going to start off with the story of my first quilt, started in
about 1956 or 1957 with my paternal grandmother, Margaret Moore Morris.
She lived with my family for a time, and one day she announced, “You
and I are going to make a quilt.” I don’t remember being exactly
thrilled about it, but as I recall, my mother encouraged me by saying
something to the effect of, “Grandma needs to be needed.” Anyway,
Grandma ordered a pattern from Michigan Farmer magazine’s quilt pattern
service. There wasn’t much around in the 1950’s, since the big quilting
movement was yet to happen. The pattern only had a number, no name.
Grandma and I both pieced blocks, using scraps from her collection, and unbleached muslin (she called it “factory”).
This was my first attempt at hand quilting. I did it over Christmas break during my first year of college. (Remember black and white photos?)
My quilt got finished in 1960. Grandma’s remained a stack of blocks
(she died in 1961) and a few years later my mother made them into a
quilt for my brother. Many more years later, when my children were
nearly grown, my mom gave me 18 more blocks that were left over from my
brother’s quilt (Grandma enjoyed piecing, and just kept making blocks,
without really counting if there were enough to make a quilt). They
languished in my closet for some time. After all, what do you do with
18 blocks? They don’t fit the usual parameters of a quilt. About the
time my first grandchild came along, I had the idea to make a quilt for
each of my three children’s first child, so that each family would have a
quilt made by the child’s great-great grandmother.
Do you remember your first quilt?
The
leftovers from the recycled wool Fireside Star quilt were sitting there
staring at me, so I needed to do something with them. I saw some
similar pillows in a quilt shop, and thought they would be a good way
to use up some of the scraps. I had to use flannel for the green, as
there wasn't any green wool. The stitching is NOT hand buttonhole
stitch. I don't DO handwork if I can help it! My machine has a very
nice double buttonhole stitch, so I use it.
By the
time I got done with the pillows, there were no large pieces of wool
left, but it was still sitting there staring at me. So--let's use it
all up. I can't bear to see scraps of non-traditional fabrics sitting
around. Quilting fabric scraps abound, but the others I seldom use, so
don't really want to give them space. So after a 1 1/2 hour search, I
finally unearthed the nearly 30 year old bear pattern. Patchwork
bears--so cute. They're ready to spruce up the space for
Christmas. My 5 year old great-granddaughter Bella was here when I was
making one of them, and when it came to the stuffing, she was eager to
help. She's not ready for the sewing machine yet, but the stuffing was a
way she could be involved. When she can sit still for 5 minutes, and
reach the foot control, I'll teach her to sew.
I
promised that I would post pictures of the finished Fireside Star
quilt. It is already on my bed, and ready for me to try it out
tonight. Can't wait to snuggle up under that wool and flannel!.
Here's
the whole thing. As I said, because I was using recycled wool
clothing, no pieces were big enough to do large areas, so several
different backgrounds were used, as well as two fabrics for the large
star points, and the border was the leftovers. Obviously it is not
going to be making the rounds of the shows, but know what? I took it to
my quilt guild for Show and Tell today, and they loved it. At least
they said they did!
A little closer in toward the center. The quilting is a bit more visible.
Really zeroing in on the center. I love that quilting design and will most likely do it again.
Same
design in the corner. The tan piece was maybe coat fabric, as it was
heavier than some of the others. Really makes the pinwheels pop.
The
quilting is much more visible on the back. As I said in the previous
blog, this is purely a practice piece, and has bumps,bobbles, and
birdnests. But it was a great learning experience!. Anyway, done is
better than perfect, as they say.
I've
been very lax about posting to my blog. I'm starting a new one
associated with my website and will try to be more diligent about
keeping up with it. Things have been crazy busy for me lately. Someone
once told me that when you get older, it takes longer to even turn
around. Maybe I'm turning around too much!
Recently my daughter gave me a box of old wool clothes that she had been saving to make a braided rug, which didn't look like happening any time soon. I deconstructed them and washed them in hot water, then dried on high in the dryer. Not exactly felted, but dense and clean!. After staring at them for a few days, and being in the midst of another project (Fireside Star) from the book Flannel Gatherings, I laid that project aside for a while and proceeded to make a wool quilt for my bed. Needles to say, it is full of interesting things (some call them mistakes). First of all, there wasn't enough of any one fabric to follow the pattern, so I substituted where necessary. Next, I should have pressed the seams open to reduce bulk. I quilted it on my Tin Lizzie, and had some problems with the thickness of the 3 layers of wool quilt top, batting, and flannel backing (I wanted it to be WARM). So there are lots of bobbles and bumps, but overall, I am satisfied with it, and I will be the one sleeping under it, so that is ok. My main reason for making this quilt, since I rarely use patterns, was to bring my longarm quilting to a new level. I pretty much do meanders and feathers, and this one looked like a challenge. I found the designs not as difficult as they looked at first, once I got a good look at them. I'm posting the picture of the unquilted top here and will post the finished product when I get the binding completed.  |
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Back to the Beginning
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