Olivia's Grammy

Check Thrift stores for old clothes. I bet you could find some prints that way.

Lostn51

Well its Saturday morning and I am going out there and dig through my stash and see what I can come up with. I will make this one for myself as a lap quilt the exact size that the original is now 64"x88". I am doing this one so I can get a feel for how she did it and see what I am going to run into when reproducing the original.

The fabrics I will use for this one should be interesting since I have some that I have never used before and I have never done a scrappy before. And I am going to SITD on this one to make it go by faster. I want to see if I can make it in one day!! :-D

But I am going to do an exact reproduction of it using materials close to what she used for my wife and another one for her brother and his wife.

And thanks for the idea of Thrift Stores for the material!!! I bet I can probably find some of the exact patterns there!

Billy

dunster

That's a wonderful piece of family history. I'm thinking that if she worked in a garment factory she may have had access to mill ends.

RedGarnet222

That is the thing about old utilitarian quilts the fabric often was from different eras. It kind of looks like there are some sixties and some fifties in there. But because many of the fabrics are kind of timeless. Who knows?

It is a nice old quilt and you are lucky to have it. Bless her heart, she sure was a frugal woman. You gotta love that! ps... Paisleys have been around for ages!

Edited to say ... I Love that roaring fire in the picture. It looks so homey.

Quilt4u

Wow!!! Very nice.

Lostn51

Thank you, we love our little house!!

It was built in 1951 and one of the few that are still remaining in my neighborhood. All of the others have been bulldozed down and have 6000 to 8000 sqft homes built on top of them. It has a couple of additions done to it (my sunroom, 3 car garage) and a quilting studio built in the back yard but I still have tons of grass to cut!!

As for the quilt's design name it is officially named "Proud Mary" named after Valerie's mother and it was one of her moms favorite songs!!


Billy

Lostn51

WOW!!! :shock:

It was a little more to it than I thought but at least I have the quilt top cut out. I finally finished cutting it out and arranging the fabrics on the living room floor close to 11 pm. There are 21 different fabrics in this quilt!

Since the heat is out in my studio (I will be putting in central heat/air when I build the addition later this spring summer) I elected to use one of many treadles I have here in my house to sew it on. I picked out my 1921 Singer 66-1 for this job. :-D

If everything goes well I will have the top completed today and sandwiched ready to quilt next week.

Billy

maryb119

Your daughter should treasure the quilt. Not only was it made by a grandmother she never met, but it is a little bit of family history, too. Quilts are a family legacy.

Tink's Mom

What a treasure! They are most likely cutoffs from the factory where she worked. She was frugal and a piece of fabric was a piece of fabric, but it was made with love.
I'm so glad that the quilt survived. After my Nana passed away, my Papa took the two quilts that his Aunt Annie hand made, and used them in the garage. One in the trunk, to wrap up the push mower for at the cemetary, and the other for covering the snow blower.
I was able to rescue the one from the snow blower. The other one was in shreds :( . I think that was the first time I ever yelled at my Papa, but I was sooooo mad at him for destroying those quilts...
His answer, "They were just old quilts, no one was using them"
GRRRRRRR, I still get upset.

Marcia

Billy, what a great family treasure! I am so glad that your daughter showed it to you and that you can "date" the quilt and teach her to value it--not only for its warmth, but also for its family history.

Thanks for sharing.