Remember when?
#51
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 525
LOL you sound like me but if it works why spend you hard earned $ if you can do it yourself cheap. I make templates from cardboard as I can't see spending for a template that I may not use again or would rather put that $ into material for something else. I also use my scissors at times and also copy patterns from children's coloring books.
#52
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 525
I remember as a young mother I saw an advertisement for making a quilt from jeans. I thought with 5 people in jeans I would have enough material in time. Years later I found my squares and by hand I made my first big quilt. My oldest son still has it and uses it.
#54
Power Poster
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Corpus Christi, Tx.
Posts: 16,105
When I got married the first time, I got my paternal grandmother's wringer washer and her tubs. I was so excited. I would get up early and start my laundry around 6 a.m. I could have most of it done by 9-10a.m. My ex was a machinist so I would let his clothes agitate in Lestoil for about 30 minutes. That grease and oil was going to come out of his work clothes or go in the trash. Luckily for our budget it came out. Loved hanging the clothes out on the line. If it rained a little it was great for the ones that would have to be ironed. Roll'em up and stick 'em in the fridge. Lost a few buttons but learned how to sew them on correctly. Didn't use much starch except for dress shirts and blouses. I did more sewing than I thought come to think about it and all by hand mostly mending. Wish I had a clothesline. Often it would come in handy.
#55
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 559
Remembering a blue enamel and chrome gas iron that used white gas. Mom would have a cup of it on the table nearby to refill when she needed it. One of us was a toddler, thinking it was water, drank some. Someone had to go to neighbor Menno's quickly to get some cream as an antidote. I guess that worked as we all grew up to be adults. In frigid Kansas winters, we hung up clothes outside and they froze dry. We wore several pair of Moms castoff tan stockings with holes in them being careful to not match the holes, when we hung up clothes on three long clothes lines for a family of five girls, a boy, Mom and Dad and sometimes hired help as they would live in. White linen tablecloths, white dress shirts, tea towels, dresser scarves, red & blue handkerchiefs, white ones, overalls...oh, yes, cloth diapers. Wow! We were textile rich. Mom had barrels of scraps left over from sewing dresses.
Love todays conveniences.
Love todays conveniences.
#56
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Cary, NC
Posts: 383
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#58
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 390
Do you remember when your mother shopped at JC Penney they wrapped her package in brown paper and tied it with string that came in a heavy metal string holder? She paid the clerk in cash. The clerk put the money in a tube, pulled a rope and the tube sailed upstairs to the cashier who made change and sent the tube back. Margarine came in a plastic bag, white in color with a color bubble you popped. Then if you were the lucky child, you got to knead the color through the margarine to make it yellow. Back to quilting--anyone remember the quilt frames up in the living room? The neighbors would come in for several days to gather around the quilt until it was done. There was a lot of talking and laughing and my mother had much good food to serve and us Kids hoped for leftovers. Then there were the quilts made from tricot, pale pastel colors with intricate quilting designs. My memory was that the nylon tricot was slick and tended to slide off the bed. My mother's church group used to hand quilt quilts for people to make money for church activities and charity work. They charged $25.00 to quilt a quilt.
#59
Power Poster
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Citrus County, Florida
Posts: 10,849
We only had scissors to cut fabric with? Up until a few years ago I didn't use anything but.
Sewing machines only sewed straight lines?
I sewed on a treadle through college even though Mom bought me a Singer "touch and sew" which never worked right.
Electric irons were only "dry"
Dry iron... Dampened clothes and rolled them ... Then still used a soda bottle with holes in top to sprinkle.
We "made" starch at home.
Stay-flo (?) starch . It was in a bottle and blue. Wash, rinse, dip in diluted starch and hang on the line.
Cotton, wool, silk, and linen were the only fibers available for fabric? (also jute for burlap)
I think I can go back almost that far.
Fabrics and thread came with a "boilfast" label?
I remember boil fast on thread. Will have to look through the old spools.
Pieces were cut out one at a time - templates were not made of plastic - cardboard, metal, paper
Cardboard and paper glued to sandpaper so it didn't slide easily are what I remember. I bought a metal template at a quilt show a year ago just to have it.
Sewing machines only sewed straight lines?
I sewed on a treadle through college even though Mom bought me a Singer "touch and sew" which never worked right.
Electric irons were only "dry"
Dry iron... Dampened clothes and rolled them ... Then still used a soda bottle with holes in top to sprinkle.
We "made" starch at home.
Stay-flo (?) starch . It was in a bottle and blue. Wash, rinse, dip in diluted starch and hang on the line.
Cotton, wool, silk, and linen were the only fibers available for fabric? (also jute for burlap)
I think I can go back almost that far.
Fabrics and thread came with a "boilfast" label?
I remember boil fast on thread. Will have to look through the old spools.
Pieces were cut out one at a time - templates were not made of plastic - cardboard, metal, paper
Cardboard and paper glued to sandpaper so it didn't slide easily are what I remember. I bought a metal template at a quilt show a year ago just to have it.
#60
Member
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: N. Central Texas
Posts: 20
When people tell me how their great grandmother made 'real' quilts I say that's because they didn't have the new tools we have today. And if they did can you imagine the masterpieces that they would have made? Many gave up making quilts when their hands no longer could manage scissors or hand stitching even thought they loved doing it.
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