mumzer

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.

mumzer

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.

Onebyone

I won't waste my time tracing cardboard and hand cutting templates. I don't see any purpose it serves doing that to myself.

tessagin

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.

adamae

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.

tate_elliott

Well, I didn't use cardboard, but the times I've come up with my own design, making my own templates sure helped. As with these.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]517943[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]517944[/ATTACH]

Tate

jaly3162

Do you remember those little "machines" that measured the fabric and how fabric was torn instead of cut with scissors?

Genden

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.

solstice3

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.

Jessie R

I totally agree! My grandmother was the only quilter in the family. I am sure she would use the modern conveniences if they had been available to her. She did love her Singer! And, did her piecing on it. Quilting by hand was all she knew, but, that was done by a group of women around a quilting frame with lots of coffee available, LOL That made it a social event which may be one 'convenience' we are missing today. However, this site makes up for that, minus the coffee