The quilt police come calling- 80 years on!
10-29-2013, 06:37 AM
#22
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 420
Originally Posted by Tartan
Fascinating! I sometimes wonder which of my quilts will be examined years from now. In your Grandmother's case, it may not be her best but a utility quilt. I dread that my polyester double knit will be my sole surviving quilt. I am tempted to burn it before I die.
10-29-2013, 07:29 AM
#24
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 1,092
I think the quilt police came along many years after your grandmother made her quilt. They probably organized after books came out about quilting with the "rules" laid out.
She most likely worked with what she had at the time.
She most likely worked with what she had at the time.
10-29-2013, 07:35 AM
#25
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 862
What a find! It is certainly worth finding all that interesting detail of construction. Yes, I recommend finding a textile restorer before even cleaning the quilt. I talked to a restorer about my great-grandmother's quilts and ultimately, cut out the best part of each quilt and threw the rest away. The fabric was literally shredding in large sections due to sunlight damage. I rebound the 16 inch sections and enjoy them on my wall.
10-29-2013, 09:50 AM
#26
Junior Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Franklin, TX
Posts: 124
Originally Posted by Tartan
Fascinating! I sometimes wonder which of my quilts will be examined years from now. In your Grandmother's case, it may not be her best but a utility quilt. I dread that my polyester double knit will be my sole surviving quilt. I am tempted to burn it before I die.
My MIL who passed away this year at 102 (!) made several of the double-knit quilts... all of them are log cabin.... I agree, they will NEVER wear out! She also made most of her own clothes, I remember seeing her wear the fabrics that are now in the quilts.
10-29-2013, 10:17 AM
#27
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: AZ and CT
Posts: 4,898
Originally Posted by noveltyjunkie
Thanks folks- I have taken a zillion pics but haven't uploaded any yet- sorry! I have decided to start by noting in an exercise book how each block is made and where each fabric is placed. I am surprised that that is what I felt like doing first, but there you go. It's like making a pattern, I guess, although I have no intention of remaking it. (I make have to remake some parts as a few of the finer dress making fabrics pop up torn in block after block- maybe I could find something similar and get them in there somehow. It is 9 x 10 log cabin blocks and after working much of yesterday and much of today I am on number 14!!! It will go faster from here as I recognise the fabrics (I have only had one block so far that didn't have a new fabric in it- I am up to 68 fabrics total in those 14 blocks) I am laughing at some of her tricks as fabrics which appeared to be different turn out to be small pieces cut from a fabric with a bigger pattern. My jigsaw puzzle skills were never more useful than they are for this project! So far the most poignant bit was looking inside (another!) split in her binding and seeing something brown in there. I feared the worst- insect- bit it was a knot in a length of brown thread. There was something very poignant for me about looking at that knot and knowing that my grandmother's hand made it, without the least idea that I would ever be looking at it. I'm sure she never thought of my future existence, but you never know- maybe that's why her own mother made her redo those centres- "your grandchildren may be looking at this 100 years from now" Roll eyes from teenage seamstress "mo- THER!!!"
10-29-2013, 10:50 AM
#28
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Posts: 554
How wonderful!! I am 77 and I remember my aunts, my mom, and neighbors.. how hard they worked and then sat way into the night with a kerosene lamp burning, to see their work..how my mother, grandmother, and others treasured every little scrap to put into the blocks they made! I would listen to them talk when they got together to share ideas on what they found worked or didn't or traded a piece to fit to help finish someones project..simple things that made all the hard work worth it all.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing!
10-30-2013, 05:18 AM
#30
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Posts: 3
My mother gave me my grandmother's trousseau quilt. It is a strange pink cotton sateen with a wool bat and clamshell hand quilting. It was made by her and her friends. My mother remembers the quilting part; this was a second marriage for my grandmother as her first husband died when my mother was a toddler. This quilt is one of my treasures.
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