Do any of you ever make one like "they used to do it"?
 

I found a pattern from 1981 in my stash a few days ago. This was before rotary cutting and strip-piecing took over, I am guessing..? It calls for over 2,500 tiny pieces (mostly 1.5" sq.) that are then hand-pieced. I find that, once in awhile, I just have to do one the "old way". Well, not the hand-piecing part, as that is not a strong suit for me! But without the strip piecing, and other quick methods. The pattern is what I have seen called "Burgoyne Surrounded" and each block has like 90-some pieces. There are 20 of these in the quilt.
I like to do one old school(somewhat), once a year, just to feel in touch with all the quilters that have kept it alive. Kinda nerdy, my kids tell me, but if it was good enough for the ones that started it ... then why not keep something of it going from time to time? Besides, the skills needed to do it the old ways are valuable, even nowadays. What about ya'll? Anyone ever go back to the true basics from time to time, just because?

My mom did all her quilting and piecing by hand..I machine piece the majority, but hand quilt all my quilts. I do have a full hand worked project going at all times. This travels with me for waiting times at doctors, and picking up kids etc...I also have times that I just want to work by hand. It makes me feel like my Mom is close by again, and just like to keep some traditions alive

Yes -

Occasionally I will hand piece a block just to figure out which way the seams should be pressed after it's done. I like the flexibility that hand-piecing gives when it comes to pressing the seams.

I do some hand work, however with RA my old hands give up on me sometimes so I find the newer ways much easier on me. I treasure the hand quilted quilts of my Mothers, that is all she ever did.

I don't hand piece but I do tend to favor the older blocks. There's just something very satisfying, about using the same patterns, my ancestors used.

My first 3 quilts were just squares of scrap fabric and old clothes, cut with scissors, and tied with yarn. That is very much "how they used to do it." :)

The old way was because at the time, there was no other way. I always ignore anyone that says it's not a real quilt unless it's made the old way unless I was selling quilts to them . LOL
No way I'd cut quilt pieces with scissors. I'd go back to doing crossstitch and crochet.

No. I also don't grow my own cotton, weave my own fabric or pound my clothes clean on rocks in a river. One of the most prized possessions of any household in the late 1860s was the sewing machine.

I don't do it "just because," and I don't believe hand piecing and hand quilting is intrinsically better than machine work. I do hand work because I enjoy it, and because I don't screw up as much when I go by hand.

I much admire the work that some of the machine quilters do...and I'm grateful for them, because they've helped quilt making boom as a hobby.

Janet

Nope, to impatient. I didn't start quilting until the rotary cutter came into my line of site. I don't even like to hand stitch the binding.....

I hand piece a few of my of my Dear Jane blocks.. with those small pieces it was easier to do the hand piecing...as someone else mentioned it was easier to work the seams as there were many... and I did enjoy doing this as it was fairly new to me. It is always a joy to relax and quilt...we are a very bless group to have found the love of quilting in our lives. :)

Judy in Phx, AZ

i love doing any kind of hand work. I am very much "old school" - no rotary cutter ( I would probably slice off my fingers with it). Old machines, hand quilting.

I was just looking at some of my "old" patterns the other day... the kind with templates. I was wondering if I still could make them or if I'd completely lost my touch for doing it old school.

I did make a quilts before the rotary cutter... There is a reason we are still finding parially cut and pieced quilt blocks and quilts. I won't go back ... everytime I pick up my rotary cutter ... I still marvel what this simple device enables !
Asking me if I would go back... ask me if I want to boil water on a pile of wood I had to cut/split, just to take a nice hot bath.!?! The answer is the same.

I guess I am a NERD then cause I feel I can do a better job sewing by hand than with a machine. And, I'd rather work with templates and a pattern. I understand them. I'm not too experienced with a rotary cutter and all of the different rulers and gadgets.

You said it, Scissor Queen! Like most things in life there is more than one way to do something, and I'm not about to 'look down' on someone else for doing something differently, or for making use of the newest advances to make things easier. I do often hand quilt because I enjoy it, but I use all the modern technology to make the parts of quilting I don't enjoy so much, easier. Doing things differently is what makes this site -- we get to enjoy all the wonderful creations of others and pick up some pointers and ideas along the way.

I understand about feeling a connection to the past doing thigs old school. I just started a king size quilt made with batiks but I'm piecing the whole thing on a treadle sewing machine. Then it will get quilted on our Intelliquilter (computerized) equipped long arm. And completed with hand finished binding. Definitely a mix of old and new.

no cant imagine only scissors and a needle and thread, my quilts would be UFO's forever, got my handquilt from high school almost 2 decades old and its still a UFO

i like the old patterns. That is a really nice one. Too many pieces for me is my immediate thought, then i remember that the "Best Friends" quilt i did last year had as many or almost as many per square. I machine piece and hand quilt for the most part.

I collect all the old patterns I can find, I just love to look thru them and feel that "connection". I use my rotary cutter, wouldn't give that invention up either, and machine piece as well. I was just curious, especially after finding a simplified and faster Burgoyne Surrounded block on the net, if any one used the older instructions with newer inventions. I personally, love to simplify anything I can but still get a greater sense of connection using the older specs for the same patterns. The piecing of individual squares, and rectangles instead of strip piecing everything, that kind of stuff. I have been working an EPP hexagon quilt for my middle son for over a year now and am really enjoying the process... however, I couldn't imagine doing all my quilts this way! My grandma still does everything with scissors and by hand so only finishes one quilt a year, and I am always so impressed by this. I guess I was inspired to ask after reading some diaries of pioneer women on the Oregon Trail in the mid-1800s, and how some of them talk about their sewing progress. Thanks for everyone's input, it is interesting to see all the different P-O-Vs. I believe any quilt is a "Real quilt", if made with love, no matter how it was constructed or quilted.

I do sometimes..it is relaxing.

If G-d wanted me to sew by hand, the machine would never have been invented! that said, I love hand applique though always finish the quilt (including piecing the blocks) by machine. Unless it is a particularly special quilt, I now do the bindings by machine, too.

Years ago, I hand pieced a quilt with 1600 squares. They were 2" squares, and of course were cut with scissors. An elderly friend encouraged me to do it, and I actually enjoyed every minute of it. I have not done that much hand piecing since, but I have good memories of that project.

I just finished piecing a quilt called Eldon, by Laundry Basket Quilts. The log cabin blocks I did by machine (41/2) and the stripes for the diamonds, I sewed on the machine. I cut all the pieces using a rotary cutter. The rest of the quilt I sewed by hand. Its 86 by 86. The pattern included 2 templates, which I used. I love doing hand work. Every once in awhile I like to do a pattern that is a challenge, and I usually do them by hand. I have been quilting since 1974, just started machine piecing in 2004, when I realized I was'nt going to get to make all the quilts I wanted to if I did'nt.

Until last year I did all my quilts by hand. Did not own a sewing machine. Some times I want to do them by hand,but as you all say , my hands wont take it any more. joyce j

I can no longer use a rotary cutter, so I planned to cut my last quilt out the old fashion way. Boy, did I get confused! I got really mixed up trying to figure the pieces out separately. I got it done, and now when I think about it, I don't know why it was so confusing. I'm sure if I got the directions out again and read them, I would get just as confused again.

What Janet said. Also - I guess I don't understand the need to feel "in touch" with the quilters of yesteryear. I quilt because I'm obsessed. LOL!

just for fun I almost always have some hand piecing project going.....some block I just had to try, often making a doll quilt from it.....years ago , before the rotary cutter, I used template (cardboard from cereal box) and sissors (wiss), loved quilting then and love it now with all the fun things....these new little red clips are awsome! My DD and I love our Singer 301(mine is two tone,hers is mocha) and my Bernina 1630 and her Singer treadle, it is great fun to use all the machines on a single project ! In quilting they all play together !!!!

I'm hand piecing a GFG and when it's finished, probably 5 yrs from now, I'll send it to some gals in Iowa that do beautiful hand quilting. I like some hand sewing because it's relaxing. However the rest of my quilts are machine pieced and machine quilted by me.

The only hand stitching I do is cross-stitching, and make yo-yo's. I am thinking about starting a GFG because I like to have handwork going too, but I do most of my quilting with my sewing machine. I did start out though with a template, and cut pieces by hand, only because I didn't know then about the rotary cutter!

I made a Double Wedding Ring completely by hand once, including cutting out all the pieces with scissors. I thought it would be neat to make a quilt the way our great-grandmothers did.

It took me 6 years and turned out fantastic. Would I do it again? Naaaaa...[ATTACH=CONFIG]345788[/ATTACH]

sometimes I enjoy theb old my but since my hands has gotten more arthritis and I have slowed down so much I don't do as much as I would like but I do count myself very fortunate as I took many classes when quilting was making a comeback before the rotary cutter and I learned many things that I can now translate ocer to quicker methods one class I am so thankful that I took was pattern drafting and being able to take any pattern and change the block size
plus the many others have also took many new classes that are wonderful such as free motion hand embroidery by machine also hand applique by machine so there really is some great new ways too

Please join me in remembering that right now, this very instant, is someone's "good old days" and that, most probably, you and I are someone's ancestors.

Hope they don't get my nose.

Par

The new way isolates me in a room away from the family. With templates, hand piecing and quilting I work off a tv tray in family area. I love that ! But these days I combine both methods. I do what is convent at the time!

I began an interest in quilting back in the late 70's and early 80's but didn't get too far along. It was mostly big squares of calico for the top, a thin old blanket for the batting, a big sheet for the backing and a few rows of straight stitching to keep the blanket in place. Also made a few throw pillows with squares cut from a cardboard pattern, they came out kind of crooked but were useful on the couch. First time I really began to see that quilt could be decorative as well a useful was when I say a movie with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, Chevy was her ex husband and kept interferring with her marriage.

Yep, I do.

J J

Not completely....however I do use templates and outline pieces on fabric because I just cannot get the rotary cutter thing down. Hopeless, I think.

when i learned to quilt they didnt have rotarty cutters i learned to do everything by hand as my quilt teacher didnt sew on a machine she now a world known quilter love doing most of mine by hand!!!

I love the rotary cutting and do piece on my machine, but I quilt by hand. I have these great frames and set up in my spare guest room. It usually takes me 6-8 months to do the quilting, as I work a full time job, but I just enjoy the process and don't get in a hurry. My grandmother always had a basket of pieces she had cut out from paper templates, and she hand stitched the quilt tops. I don't think I have the skill for that. Also feel the same way about machine quilting. I consider myself quite accomplished just to be able to sew a straight 1/4 in seam while piecing, but trying to man handle the whole quilt sandwich thru a machine would do me in.

Me too, I don't like the hand work at all, hate having to do the binding by hand. Beside mine hands ache way too much after I do it to make it worthwhile for me.