Help needed with design using vintage pillowcases
 

This is probably going to end up a long post, if you stay with me, bless you:

My husband (to be) and I bought a house in 1980. It was a house built in 1918, the current owner had been there since 1921 and it looked like it had been remodeled 40 years before, so it needed help. The woman was confined to one room on the first floor, and went to a home (I’m so sorry if that is not the current word used nowadays, its what was said back then) The house was sold including all its contents, it looked like someone from 40 years earlier lived there, completely furnished.

It included a bunch of embroidered, with crocheted trim, pillowcases, which she had done. Most were new, if not all – do not remember which pile is which.

The piles:

My husband and I married in 1981. Luckily we had a formal photo with his Grandmother, as she died that fall. Of his brothers, 2 were still in high school, and one did not have a girlfriend. His dad was this woman’s only son, so we helped take care of Grandma’s stuff. No one had any interest in the quilts or pillowcases so I took them. I made sure each of the brothers got a quilt, though I doubt if they exist now. (I had already rescued a quilt that Grandma made, that my husband used to wrap up his tools in his van! NOT a quilt appreciative family)

So I had the pillowcases from the woman we bought the house from, Grandma’s, and I went to farm auctions and garage sales in the 80’s and added to my collection. I knew someday I would use them for something, if only just holding them to pass on.

I have debated with myself over the years, whether to just keep them as is, or use them to make ‘something.’ They’re not quite as pristine as I remembered, some were lightly used, some have yellowed where folded, and I’ve been wanted to make a square to put diagonally on my king bed. I’ve seen that look is quite acceptable now, and it does cut down on the size. I was dreading having to fmq a king size quilt on my domestic machine, this is the answer I was looking for!

These are the pillowcases I have, and I do have many yards of crocheted edging that could be used, from many doilies, scarves, etc.
So my question is, does anyone here want to throw out ideas of what to do with them? What I want is a 45’ to 60” square that I can lay on the top of a plain green bedspread.
Complicated is great, I’m up to the challenge.
The 3 walls are a darker shade of green, and our wallpaper on the wall behind the bed is black with lots of pastel colored old fashioned fantasy (definitely not real) flowers, and this is behind out brass headboard:



So here are the pillowcases (I have others that will not be cut up and do not ‘mesh’ with these)

The colors go with the room perfectly imo.
All the crocheted edging goes all the way round the edge of the pillowcases, so there's a lot there too

I'm sorry that I have no constructive advice. All I can say is that you have a real treasure of beautiful creations and I hope you find a solution! Thanks for showing us!!

I've been collecting vintage pillowcases and dresser scarf sets. I want to use them in little girl's dresses and maybe as the centers in a crazy quilt. Pieces of the lace could be used in the quilt blocks also. Course that means they have to be cut up.

I just finished Cindy Needham's class on Wholecloth Quilts on Craftsy. Cindy does a lot of work with vintage linens, and the class gives examples of how you might use these treasures. Don't be scared by the "wholecloth" aspect. The entire class is taught on a domestic sewing machine, not a longarm, and the techniques are not that hard. She will even show you how to use the lace at the bottom of the pillowcase in your quilt. I wish I had saved some of the lovely pillowcases and other linens from my younger years. I do have two tablecloths that I will use for wholecloth quilts, after I practice on some that I hope to find in the thrift stores. Have fun!

They are beautiful! I wouldn't have the heart to cut them up but I'm sure they can be made into something beautiful. The Craftsy class mentioned above sounds like it would be a great help to you.

I will be following this thread closely. I too have hand embroidered vintage pillowcases that I would love to turn into a quilt of some kind. I have asked on this board before for suggestions... Perhaps we can both find a good way to showcase these beauties! Yours are very beautiful!!

I hope someone has a solution because I also have lots of vintage pillowcases just like yours!! Thanks so much for the post!

They are so beautiful!
I once used embroidered linens like this to create curtains and valances for my very feminine Shabby Chic bedroom. I also used them to line the visual edge of shelves in an antique secretary - behind glass doors - on which rested my family photos collections.
And once I used them to make neck roll pillows for my bed.

Jan in VA

Oh my gosh I don't have any ideas, but your collection is gorgeous and I am quite green!!

I did a search...

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...w=1138&bih=554

http://www.pinterest.com/blueyedjac/hankie-ideas/

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...w=1138&bih=554

http://voices.yahoo.com/make-pillowc...-11583708.html

And here's a thread from a couple of years ago, maybe something there will stir an idea or two.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...s-t181317.html

I used to make pillow cases like those. In fact, that was what I gave my brides maid and made of honor when I got married. For a while I was giving them to everyone in the family. So it saddens me when I see they weren't used. So my first response is: Put them on pillows and use them! My grandmother saved the ones I made until one day she asked herself what was she saving them for?

Wow!! Sounds like many of us are "sitting" on these vintage pillowcases! I too have probably 10 sets. Have to carefully look at all the suggestions. Must be something beautiful... just waiting to be made!

My Great Aunt use to make these so I had bunches in what her and my Gramma referred to as my Hope Chest. And through the years I have added to the collection I made several skirts for myself in the early 70's-which I still wear : ) I also made dresses for my 3 GDs which they all love and -even tho the oldest wears her's as tops now they are loved. I had thought about putting them in a quilt but felt they would be too girly. But my plan was to cut the case's 4 inches above the design-both layers stitched together at the cut and over lap them with a 3 inch exposure of the white. As I am writing it hit me this may even make a nice QAYG .. Well I hope you are happy - Now I have another idea for a little girls quilt to add to my list At this rate I will be here til I'm 130 yrs old LOL

My MIL embroidered lots of sets of these but they were for standard-sized pillows so I removed the embroidered hem-parts and put them on our kings w/ a pretty band. we DO use them and i love the look. If you decide to cut it, a crazy-patch type border around a center motif would be nice...or the reverse of that with crazy-patch in the center and a plain, but scalloped border? if you use mostly white and cream for the crazy patches and keep your patches fairly good sized, the embroidery will not be lost in the design.

Okay, this was the first quilt that I began working on when I retired in 2011. I had all of my grandmothers' pillowcases and wanted to make a quilt with them. It is all hand quilted after I carefully sectioned the embroidered ares off including the crochet detail on each of them. It took me almost a year to hand quilt them only because it was my first to do. Here are the pictures. Hope this might give you some ideas.

I have seen quilts made from vintage Hankies so there must be a way to make a quilt from these, although I don't know how. Please post again when you decide.

I have no ideas but they really are quite lovely!

center of crazy quilt Hmmmm.....

Craftsy was offering a free class, and I chose one taught by Cindy Needham. It was
wonderful and I thought to myself "She was so good, any other class I take, if not taught by her, could possibly be a waste." It's good to hear she's teaching another - this time I'll pay!
I forgot she did a lot with vintage linens, thanks for the reminder. I'm certainly going to check into it.

I kind of feel the same way, about cutting them up. Then I got to thinking, they're just going to sit in a bin in my closet, and there are some that will not be cut, so I've come to the conclusion whoever made them would rather they be enjoyed. That's kind of why I want to do something 'challenging, they are worth the work and I sort of owe the maker

I'm trying really hard to not turn the room into too feminine a place, but since the pillowcases have a history with our house and with his Grandma, who of the brothers he was the closest, I'm sort of getting a pass to use them. Plus, Grandma made the quilt too.

Thanks so much for the links, I'm going to be busy!

I am soo-oooo jealous. I will be watching what you decide. The cases are beautiful! I have collected over 250 ladies hankies from family, friends and sales. The are just waiting for me to do something with. I am leaning toward a crazy patch quilt. Some are very fragile types of fabric so will probably use some sort of foundation to sew them on first. Just waiting until my brain comes up with an appropriate foundation.

You know, I felt that way for awhile, but we use, and have always used, king sized pillows. I have some others that just do not blend with these, so they will be saved, and I know my husband will not like sleeping on these. That way of thinking kind of helped me to use them, but in a different way

good idea Hmmm....

Oh, how beautiful! And yes it did, lots of ideas

I have 18 hankies that I won't even attempt at this point. I'm pretty sure they came from auctions and garage sales though. One interesting thing - There are 6 hankies that were obviously for children. Maybe someday I'll have a grandchild......

I got to thinking, there are so many that maybe making each of my 3 kids a quilt of some sort using them would work out too. To be given to them when they are older of course, or marked with their name and left in my estate LOL
I have 3 quilts from her that are saved for them

As you might be able to tell, I'm big on 'family history' and kind of feel like I'm just the keeper of things, just to be passed on to future generations. What they do with them is up to them, but I feel obligated to do my part.

This is totally not quilt related, but it's Grandma related:
When she died she had a chest in her basement that had a scrapbook of all the newspaper clippings she thought were important to her at the time (as a kid and a young adult) and another scrapbook full of valentines she had received as a kid and young woman. This woman was in her 80's in the early 80's, so these cards are quite old.

There are many many photos of her on her honeymoon, and with my fil when he was little, for example in his pedal car, etc. Her first husband, my husband's grandfather, had a coal company that she took over when he died as a young husband. I have a photo, 8 x 10 that seems to be professionally done, of her standing in front of the company's sign. Priceless

I can tell she was a keeper too, we have my fil's collection of banks from when he was a kid that she kept, and his child sized rolltop desk and chair. Even his wire rimmed glasses!

When he was 10, my fil supposedly caused the car accident that killed his father. She never had another child, though she did remarry. You know, I should write all this down

I knew her for 3 years before she died, we were on our way to becoming good friends.

I really really treasure all of this, I can only hope they will continue to be treasured by future generations, with a few of my own creations added in.

Yes, you should definitely write it all down.

Yes, RugosaB, do write all this down. I am also sort of the keeper in our family, and how I wish I had asked many more questions of my dearly departed family to pass on. Your children will appreciate your writings one day! I would love to have written stories concerning my heritage. A couple of DH uncles have done just that, of which we have copies. They are treasures for sure.