Quilting Projects

It's a quiet day here on the farm; lots of rain, dreary in fact, but it would be a good time to work on quilting projects -- under a lamp. But I had an appointment this morning with the dermatologist, nothing serious, just a regular sixth month check-up. She did take a little tissue from one spot for a biopsy, but if it comes back as non-cancerous, then I don't have to go back for another year. That's progress! Afterwards I got my hair cut; funny how one doesn't realize how straggly hair can bring her spirits down! Now what I'm getting around to is this: a trip to town messes up the rest of my day! I have lots of things I could, should, and need to be doing.

I have made some progress in quilting this week; the white ribbon quilt (see post for 11-5-2010) is out of the frames. Oh, if only all that is left to do is the binding! But alas -- there's that Scarlet O'Hara block to do over! I guess I'm putting if off as long as possible while I try to figure out what will be the best solution for fixing it, so yesterday I started making a doll. Like I need another craft going!

But, you know quilters; there's always something new on the back burner of their brains, and this is simmering on mine:

There's a shoebox, filled to the brim, with pieces for making a double wedding ring top. Many of the pieces are feed sack fabric; some are from dresses and skirts I had in the 1950s, so you can see why I'd like to use them. But -- I don't want to piece another double wedding ring top; I've done two already and know how much trouble sewing the arcs onto the melon-shaped pieces can be. So, instead of making a traditional wedding ring top, I tried sewing the pieces into arcs, then appliqueing them onto a square of white fabric.

I like the result and may use the pieces this way. It would be good work to do after supper. What do you think?

The calf continues to do well and will be moved to the barn soon where he can be near other cattle.

Old Quilts

There's just something about old quilts that we admire isn't there? Maybe it's the fabrics, the colors, or the fact that most were probably pieced and quilted entirely by hand, and most likely done by the light of a kerosene lamp. And if they were done by machine it would have been a treadle machine. There's the chance they were quilted by more than one woman. Quilting bees were a special social gathering for women of days gone by; something akin to our modern day quilting guilds.

I believe this lone star quilt is a real testimony to the talent of the woman who pieced and quilted it. It's amazing how well the points are matched! It is quilted in a large fan pattern. Upon close inspection the fabric seems to be from dyed feed sacks, both top and lining. This old quilt was found underneath a mattress, lying on top of metal springs, so it's a wonder that it only has a few rust spots on the lining. One other thing which seems to be common in the old quilts is the size; most were not really long enough to cover one's feet.

I love this quilt! It's a Trip Around the World pattern and doesn't seem to be made from sacks, but rather from smooth feeling fabrics. The colors are still fairly bright; just pale pastels to begin with. The lining suffers from a few rusty, torn places, which I feel could be mended. It is also larger than most old quilts; maybe that was the reason for the added border, to give it length. And, it's heavy! but I don't think it's put on top of another quilt, which was done sometimes; probably just the batting.

A very random, snowball pattern makes this quilt. The quarter circles, or snowballs, are string pieced. I imagine most of these fabrics are from feed sacks, although there may be a few broadcloth pieces. It appears to have been hand stitched.

Now this little quilt -- what can I say? The colors were very well thought out, the piecing is good, but somehow, it just doesn't seem finished; one corner is round, the opposite corner is pointed. I think it needed one more row of rings to make it symmetrical. But, no matter how that was, this quilt was very much used; loved to death, maybe? There are lots of frayed pieces; in the hands of certain people it might be recycled into stuffed bears, etc. I have taken parts of an old quilt and framed them, but I don't like to cut up these works of art.

We need to take quilts like these out of storage now and then to let the fold lines relax, as these lines become places where the fabrics may split. And that's true with our new quilts as well. I like to spread my new quilts out flat on the bed to let the fibers in the folds straighten, then when I put them away, I try to fold them in new ways. Ideally we'd have room to store them rolled up but no one has that much room.

Do your quilts need to go to the "beach" and relax?

Now, about yesterday's post: I didn't mean for it to turn into a sermon about thank you cards; however, it sorta seemed that way toward the end. As I said, it shows my age.

Feed Sack Blocks

I love feed sack fabric! Maybe it's because I remember going to the little country store, and after buying the things on the list of groceries which we needed, Mama, my sister, and I would go into the feed room, searching for a sack of feed that was in a bag with the same designs as sacks we had at home. The sacks were more or less a square yard in size, so naturally it took more than two or three to make a dress. In the feed room there was that wonderful, sweet smell of the cow feed. The sacks were in colorful, flowered, or maybe whimsical designs. Feed for pigs, "shorts" as it was called, came in plain white bags and these were used for quilt linings or dish drying towels. They could be dyed for a colored lining. After the feed was used, the sacks were washed on the rub board, starched, dried on the clothesline, brought in and sprinkled down, and then ironed with a heavy "sad" iron. (I wonder why it was called "sad"; because so many times the iron was too hot and scorched the fabric?)

This is a quarter of a block made from feed sack fabric; still a very bright color despite being probably 70-80 years old. Being a very difficult pattern must have had something to do with the fact that it isn't very well put together; too many "Y" seams! It seems to me the individual pieces weren't cut true to the pattern.
Although the points on the edges of this block aren't in the picture, you can see what a finished block looked like; I imagine it's about nine to ten inches, more or less square.

With this block you see that it made no difference if one ran out of fabric to cut all pieces the same; just add another print

These are twelve little squares from feed sacks. I have a small box full of these and other prints; I think they were meant to be made into four patch or nine patch blocks. Aren't they just precious? I had a blouse made from the third one down on the left and I think I had a skirt made from the one to its right. I don't know what is the best way to use them; keep them as they are, or try to match them up with white sacks and make a wall hanging? No matter what monetary value they might have, they mean more to me than any amount of money. The next person possessing them can decide I guess.

The last four squares have a little story behind them: my sister chose the sacks for a dress, but later didn't know if she really liked them, until we found the same pattern and color on fabric in the Sears, Roebuck catalog when we got home. Then it was alright.

Do you remember feed sack dresses or quilts?