LenaBeena

I remember helping my Grandma smooth the batting in her quilts. I have some and treasure them especially the one with patches made from scraps of my school dresses. She made them from feed sack fabric. It was fun to go with Grandpa and choose the colors and patterns I wanted. And yes, we are lucky today. Don't think my hands could pull as well after all these years.

AlaskaAlice

My post just disappeared!
We used all kinds of things for quilts. worn out clothes..older blankets that were patched and put inside.. nylons. baughten bats were not like they are now and we had to use what we could..We even cut up wool underware.. that was to worn the wear any more. overhaul patches sowen together made wonder picknic quilts to set on and put food on for 4 of July gatherings. or ball games..etc. I remember setting on the quilt in progress. stitching and tying.. wind would blow piles of snow in the cracks of the door and windows. so sitting on the blanket would help to stay a bit warmer. cat tail fluff was gathered like cotton. for stuffing..Some wonderful stories can be told of adventures.. working to just make enough to do the necessary servival things. My first pair of shoes cost .25..carding fiber for bats ..we mostly used wool from sheep..Today here in Alaska the art of spinning and carding is still done. to make threads for weaving or knitting. It really is kind of fun when you have a fun attitude. singing reading stories, while everyone works at quilt bees is not done so much anymore..I was born in 1936.. my kids were born late 50's and early 60's..Life is fun when you are blessed!

KarenR

My kids use these to groom our sheep for the fair. So yes they can still be bought.

Feathers-N-Fur

My FIL is 78 and tells me stories of his mother quilting. She combed wool for batting, then tied her quilts, then removed the ties and recombed the wool again each year, then tied them again. He seems to enjoy my quilting, no one else in the family has quilted since his mom.

Friday1961

But I think this would have been in the 1920s or 1930s, not the 1950s or 1960s! I remember those decades and I think quilting, unless in very rural areas, perhaps, was more advanced than that.

themachinelady

Oh I remember cording sheeps wool on those carders in the 40's. After shearing of sheep or someone who had sheep, my mom would get some of the wool, wash it in her gas powered wringer washing machine that my dad had put a motor on for her, sort of pull it apart by hand to dry good, and then I would have to sit and card the wool on those (I called them wire brushes) to get all the impurities out that the sheep had picked up out in the fields. It took quite a bit of carding to get those nice clean brick sized pieces of wool batting and then they were laid side by side of each other in the middle of your quilts or comfortors (what we call tied quilts). If it was quilted the quilting had to be done pretty close together. These wool quilts were seldom washed as we wash everything today. I can remember my Grandmother making muslin strips that would fold over the top of the quilt. They sewed buttons on the quilt and made buttonholes in the strip so you could button it on the quilt and then take that part off when it became soiled from your chin and neck area. My Grandmother tied most of her quilts (or comfortors) and you would have several on your bed. They were warm, but they were also heavy as well. Then you also slept on feather beds. Once you had what we called a ;warm nest as we called it, you were toasty for the night. We often wrapped old sad irons or bricks with several layers of rags or old overalls to warm the bed before you got in it as most bedrooms had no heat in them. I can still remember sleeping in a cold bedroom with the featherbed and comforters at my Grandmothers when I was in high school in the fifties. As they say, "Been there done that" and I could survive in hard times if I had to, and sadly some of the younger ones have no clue how to survive hard times (thru no fault of their own). We have it so much easier these days.

maviskw

It's wonderful to hear about the old times. But you brought up another item. I wonder how many know what a sad iron is?

sak658

I have some sad irons..when I was 9..my mother heated her irons in the fireplace somehow..and I can still see her ironing my dad's white shirts...he drove a school bus..I learned how to cook cornbread and iron those shirts before I was 9...then our house burned down that year and we had to move...I don't remember using those irons after that...the reason for the fire...my mother had the lining in a frame for a quilt and she was taking cotton and putting it in on the lining.I don't know where she was getting the cotton from....my brother was down the road playing with neighbors and he split his pants..he came home to get Mom to fix them..he was 15 at the time..he ask my mom if he could help her put the cotton on the quilt..she said "No Son...you will get it too thick for me to quilt...so these frames hung from the ceiling and it was in what we called the fireplace room..there also was a bed in there..there was a chest sitting in the room..my brother turned around and picked up a kitchen match and like a kid he flicked the head of the match with his fingernail...why I don't have an idea...me and my sister was across the road playing and my baby sister was only a year old..when he flicked the match..it lit up and came off and up and came down in the cotton on the quilt..and it started to burn..the ceilings in the old house were low and my mom ran out to the pump on the back porch to get a bucket of water..and she grabbed my little sister and sit her outside of the back porch..by the time she got back into the house with the water...the fire had already spread to the kitchen which was the next room..she ran back out..grabbed my sister and my brother was running around screaming ...Mom..I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to do it....bless his heart he was so scared...the old house had wall paper on all the walls and ceiling too I think...there was no fire dept..back in those days out in the country..thank goodness we all were ok.. but my mom had canned hundreds of jars of food and they all blew up..and the butane tank...she had washed that day for us and my grandpa and grandma on my daddy's side and the fire went down the clothes lines and burned up all our clothes..so we were left with what ever we had on...by nightfall..neighbors and friends had came and brought furniture , clothing some money..and moved us up the road about a mile to a little 4 room house..My mom had a little china doll that she got when she was 4 years old..all she found after the fire was her head...I have that doll now..I had the body, hands and feet replaced for her several years ago..my mom was born in 1910..she passed away in 2004..so the doll is 99 years old now...this is the doll in the pic..but the sad irons that I have didn't belong to my mother...she didn't like old things much...guess times for her[ATTACH=CONFIG]406040[/ATTACH] were not so good..she liked new and pretty things...didn't mean for post to be so long...but brought back so many memories...good ones and some not so good..and thankful that I'm here today and can still remember..

plugger

I would like to thank you all for the help given with my question.
I hope I didn't offend anyone by saying older - what I really was trying
to say was those that have been around quilting longer or had family
quilting back in the day - I have only been quilting for 10 years
thanks again for all the help

Daylesewblessed

Thank you, sak658 for a beautiful story! What a wonderful role model your mother must have been for you!