Better Late Than Never

You may recall how I sewed a quilt for Diana before she went off to college. Well, although Calypso is not in college this year she is away from home.  Christmas 2011 I gave her the fabric for her own quilt.  Given all the insanity of 2011 It didn't get done in time for her graduation....or for her departure to the internship program she is in....or...uh...even for Christmas 2011.  It did get done for this past weekend though in a great final push of sewing, clipping, washing, and drying.  Here is the evidence.

It was the same pattern as her sister's, just a different color scheme.  This is only the second quilt I have ever made in my life so I decided to stick with what worked in terms of the pattern.

A close-up of the texture.  Unlike really traditional quilts this is a rag quilt made of flannel and with exposed edges intended to fray.

Calypso approved of the finished product even if she was kind of annoyed by the photo shoot.

Isaac has begun asking when he will get a new quilt. He's a sophomore. Maybe I should start now to have it done in time for graduation...

Slice of Lime-Sew What?

Just prior to being hit by the plague I did accomplish something over the holiday weekend.

You may recall how I made my first quilt two years ago for Diana's graduation....ok, fine, I didn't actually finish it until 15 minutes before we drove her to college but the idea was there.  Well, Calypso is set to graduate this June so that means this Christmas she gets her fabric.  Last time, Mom and I went halvsies on the cost of fabric (it ain't cheap, lemme tell ya) since she is my quilting/sewing mentor (the woman has made more quilts during her lifetime than I think she can count and I recall playing under her frame as a child...quilt frames make the most awesome set up for blanket forts, by the way). We planned to split the cost again. Last time we had a hard time finding what I wanted in my area. This time Mom suggested we head closer to the Lancaster County area where fabric stores are plentiful, well stocked, and generally cheaper.

She had hoped we'd be able to find what we wanted at a Mennonite place that was selling flannel for a dollar a yard in October.   For the record, a dollar a yard is unbelievably cheap.  We arrived and their prices had increased to $2.49/yard, which is still crazy cheap considering the good quality of the fabric but the selection did not include the colors we were looking for.  I was able to get the batting layer for a great price though.

After I checked out I had to go looking for Mom, who had gotten talked fast to another lady making a coat.  they traded suggestions.  Mom gave altering tips and the other lady hipped us to another fabric place she was sure would have some things we'd like so everyone benefited.  Mom and I headed down the road and very nearly missed the place.  From the outside it looked very tiny and not at all promising.  From the inside it was completely amusing.

Floor to ceiling it was packed with bolts of cloth stacked in an disorganized, ominous, Jenga-like fashion.  It was pretty hilarious.  We were greeted in a friendly manner though and asked if we needed help.  We asked if they had flannel and where it might be.  The clerk directed us to the back corner of the store.

Here's mom squeezing sideways through the aisle.  We giggled the whole way to the back of the store, marveling over the stacks and wondering how anyone found anything.  Once we found the flannels we rooted through the skewed towers of bolts and found a few colors we thought might work.  The challenge was how to get at them without topping the whole wall of fabric on our own heads.  At that moment the clerk poked her head out from behind a row of teetering bolts, peered down the narrow aisle, and asked if we needed help.  After retrieving a step stool and getting her weightlifting workout we had 6 bolts to look at and decide upon.  The lighting was pretty bad so Mom and I brought them to the front to be able to see them better.  We noticed the sign on the door warning us against stealing and asked if we could just open the door to get some good light.  The clerk said we could go outside with the bolts if we wanted.  Mom was delighted and promised not to steal the bolts.  The clerk laughed, gestured at the disarray surrounding her, and declared, "I don't think anyone would notice if you did!  Just before you got here I was nearly buried by an avalanche of Christmas potholders!"

We found two suitable bolts and shared another chuckle as the clerk swept aside a pile of who knows what on the cutting table in order to cut our yardage.  Mom and I hit a third store to find the last color we needed.  It was more expensive and not nearly so entertaining a place as this little country store.

Slice of Lime-Leaving the Nest and Feathering a New One

As I mentioned, the finishing of the quilt came down to the wire. I finished clipping the raw edges the morning we had to take Diana to school. Then I had to take it to the laundromat to wash and dry. It took a loooong time to dry. What was I to do while sitting there waiting. Oh, I can take a Slice of Lime picture!* Tada!

Also as previously noted, I had just enough time to throw the quilt on the line and take a few pictures before it was time to load up Jezebel the truck and head out looking like the Clampetts so we could deposit Ellie Mae Diana at one of them there fancy colleges. At this juncture I'd like you to take note of the expression of misery on Calypso's face. The child is not happy about her sister being away. Isaac, on the other hand, sang the following ditty to the tune of "Ding dong, the Witch is Dead."
Ding dong she's finally gone,
I can't wait.
It's gonna be great!
Ding dong the belligerent one
is gone.

Since I was somewhat rushed upon returning from the laundromat I forgot my good camera. Dangit! The rest of the pictures are with my camera phone which doesn't do so well in certain situations. While Calypso was sinking into depression, I was heartened to note all the dorm staff bedecked in brand new tie dye shirts.

Exhibit A on the rotten results the camera phone gets in low light. We got Diana all settled in (note the quilt on the bed). For her sake I was glad to see the walls were a basic white, not the putrid institution green when I was a lowly freshman at this very same school a long, long time ago. It was also clear to see that while we thought Diana had taken everything but the kitchen sink she was far more restrained than what we saw being hauled into a number of other cubicles. Oh, and they now have cable TV hookups in each room! You gotta be kidding me! We weren't allowed a TV in our rooms at all! There was one TV in the lounge, no cable, and you'd better hope you liked whatever everyone else liked to watch. Cable TV in the room...is THAT what the room and board fee goes for? Sheesh.

It was kind of sweet to see what sorts of "comfort" items Diana packed to take with her. There was a little pillow she made in Home Ec., a couple of stuffed animals, and most touching to me....Silky. Silky is the blanket I designed and cross stitched for her when she was a baby. Once upon a time it had a satin binding she liked to fold into a point and hold in her pudgy little hand to flick while she sucked her thumb. Silky's binding has been worn to a fray. So here sits Silky atop the newest comfort item, the quilt now dubbed "Fuzzy."

Everything was in order so we had one last hug. Good luck, kiddo. We love you.

*No Limes entered washers or dryers during the process of cleaning the quilt or preparing this post.

Yes, I Did!

Way back in February I put up this post where I said I was going to make a quilt. It's got a picture of yards and yards of fabric that needed to be cut into squares. By the end of that month I actually had all 900 squares cut. You can see that pile at the end of this post. They sat for a while before I assembled some of the 3 layer sandwiches. The first ones were completed just before I wrecked Beulah the minivan of love. Then they sat until the end of July or so when was able to sit at a sewing machine for long enough periods to get anything done. I figured I'd better kick it up a notch or two to get this thing done in time for Diana to take it to college. Then I began running into a few roadblocks, not the least of which was the "Great Spackle Incident."

Monday I finished sewing. Tuesday I began the arduous task of clipping all the raw edges. Since this is a rag quilt the seams are left unfinished on the top and then clipped every half inch or so in order that when it is washed those edges fray, giving it a fuzzy appearance. The clipping took a much longer time than I anticipated. I am glad I was smart enough to invest in this spring loaded set of snips which automatically open back up after you take a snip, otherwise I might still be clipping.

After finishing the clipping late Tuesday morning (did I mention we had to leave to take Diana to school at 3:00 pm?) I dashed off to a couple of last minute errands then the laundromat to wash and dry the quilt so as to remove spackle crud and hasten the fraying. I think my mind was a little frayed so I guess it was good that I found this sign on the washing machines otherwise I may have gotten confused and climbed in myself. Seriously though, makes you wonder what sort of lawsuit occurred that requires this warning now, eh?

No such warnings were posted on the dryers so theoretically you can tumble dry your kids if you hose them off outside first. The quilt took forever to dry. I kept pumping quarters into the machine and cranking it to high heat.

I got home all of 15 minutes before it was time to pile into the truck and take the kid to her dorm. That was just enough time to throw it over the washline and snap a few pictures of the finished product. Here is what the back of the quilt looks like (except that top row flipped over). The back is all neat and tidy with no raw edges showing...

...unlike the front which is all fuzzy.

(There were a couple more pictures of the process before clipping but Blogger is being a pain and won't let me upload anything else right now.)

Not incarcerated yet thanks to my own procrastination.\

I've been sewing furiously. The quilt is fully assembled but now needs every seam clipped before I haul it to the laundomat to wash it. I spent 4 hours sewing last night and another 3 today to finish assembly. I've been clipping for the last 2 hours and still have over half the quilt to clip but my right hand it beginning to curl into a claw and my shoulder is completely tensed up. Diana goes to college tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if I can manage to finish thing fully in time.

The combination of spackle dust lint which coat the mucous membranes of my nose, sinuses, and lungs provide an interesting manner of asphyxiation. Excuse me while I hork up a hair ball and blow some particularly interesting snot rockets. (You know, that rednecky maneuver where you just close one nostril and shoot the snot out the other one.) I figure if I can work up enough respiratory force they could be some deadly projectiles once I give them enough time to harden up.

Stitches in Time

When I was small my mother allowed me to use her old sewing machine once she replaced it with a new one. It was an old, blue Singer that was notorious for jamming. It drove me out of my mind. I had not yet developed skill so the least bit of resistance or malfunction tripped my frustration. Mom would happily sew away in her own little world and I'd want to throw the blue beast on the floor. I couldn't understand what on earth she enjoyed about sewing when all I ever got were tangles, knots, and a jammed machine. "Keep at it, don't give up, take your time. You're just a beginner. It will get easier." But I couldn't get past the frustration.

I could do basic repairs like sewing on buttons or fixing a seam by the time I entered Junior High when I had to take Home Economics. The teacher was a miserable woman who found out my mother was a seamstress and therefore expected perfection from me. This did nothing to endear me to the art of sewing. Mom got me through that class with her gentle patience and encouragement...as well as the secret agreement that my teacher was in fact being a completely nit-picky twit. In the meantime, I picked up crocheting from my grandmother. I did graduate high school knowing how to read a pattern and construct a basic garment, nothing too fancy or tailored very precisely though and it had to have explicit instruction from which I would not dream of deviating.

In college I picked up cross stitching and continued a little crocheting. I began to see how these sorts of things could be relaxing, contemplative, restoring, even meditative. I made a lot of gifts that way. Especially in college, in between reading, studying, and writing papers, it felt good to disengage the brain for a bit and focus on something else and yet have something to show for the time. I even went so far as to design some of my own pieces since I couldn't find patterns like what I wanted to do. Mom and Nana were delighted to see I'd found some sort of art involving needles and threads and that I enjoyed it and made it my own. They encouraged that and showed off my work to people they knew. I felt like I had accomplished some rite of passage.

Shortly after getting married I acquired a very old, very heavy, but very trusty sewing machine from our landlord. It had been his grandmother's and it seemed his fiancee turned up her nose at the old machine. I was delighted to receive it after giving it a try. It worked like a charm and had an external belt and other features that made maintenance easy. I could do repairs and minor alterations now without having to rely on mom's machine when we went to visit. I also had fun making just a few very simple outfits for Diana when she was a baby. Mom was thrilled to share some baby patterns with me and coach me along the way. Heavy as my machine was, I paid to ship it to Trinidad when we moved there.

Then in Trinidad I found I was pregnant with Calypso. Diana had been born in the middle of winter so most of my maternity clothes were winter-wear, which was much too heavy for the tropics. Off the rack maternity clothes were either hard to come by in Trinidad or extremely expensive. I had my mom send me some patterns and I set to work sewing since fabric there was very inexpensive. I had a couple of disasters and Mom was not close at hand to help me figure out how to fix them. It was just the machine and me. I ripped out mistakes and resewed new mistakes and jerry-rigged some I just couldn't cope with ripping again. I also had some nice successes. Mom wanted to hear all about it and see pictures. She laughed about my endless mistakes but commended me for figuring out how to make it work telling me that was a normal part of the process. I felt more confident. Then we were robbed and the thieves took my machine. We had a very high wall with broken bottle embedded in it. I will admit I prayed they all got a hernia or two trying to heft that machine over the wall.

When we came back to the US and Mr. Lime found a job, he got me a new sewing machine. It was a pretty basic model but it did what I needed it to do and has remained reliable. I continued to do repairs and minor alterations and the occasional item of clothes for the kids or me. Then came the challenge of costumes for the living history farm where the kids and I have volunteered. I was able to lay my hands on a basic pattern for the blouses and bonnets...VERY basic. Basic as in, "Here's a rough shape to cut out with a bunch of pieces but we aren't going to give you any directions as to how to assemble them. Oh, and for the skirt you're completely on your own. Here's a picture of how it should look." Yowza, I was just a wee tad nervous about this whole endeavor. Thankfully, I had some borrowed garments I could examine to see how they were constructed and I had a book that explained different techniques. I was thrilled when I managed to produce wearable, reasonably accurate costumes AND to have my mother tell me they were well-constructed. This is the woman who made my wedding gown, her gown, and all the gowns for my attendants, the woman who made my prom gown and Diana's, the woman who had been making quilts since before I was born (including one for me with scraps of my old baby clothes and kitchen curtains she had also made). This woman looked on my work, the work of a kid who used to scream and cry at the old blue beast sewing machine, and she pronounced it "very good."

So now I am working on this quilt for Diana. Mom and I worked together on the one I have on my bed but she did at least 85% of the work. I committed to make my first ever quilt from start to finish for Diana. Mom has advised me. She helped buy the fabric as a gift for Diana. Mom asked if I wanted her to help sew it or if I was determined to do the project myself. I told her it's my goal to do all the work myself on this one. It's the next rite of passage for the machine and me. She seemed to understand. The more I get to know my way around the machine the more accomplished I feel and the more I understand about Mom and the line of seamstresses, knitters, tatters, and quilters who came before her in our family.

This past week and weekend it's rained a lot so I have been catching up on this project because in three short weeks Diana heads off to school. The quilt needs to be done by then. In the process I am finding the stitches don't just bind fabric together. They are binding generations.

Quilts on Tuesday-Old and New

Let's start with another old quilt. This is another of the many quilts I recently acquired from my Dad's side of the family. My mom seems to think Dad's grandmother made this Sun Bonnet Sue baby quilt in hopes that a baby girl would use it. Since my dad only had a brother that has yet to occur. I am thinking if I ever have a granddaughter (though let me be very clear this is not something I am in a hurry to have!) she ought to get to use this.

Here's a close up so you can see some of the pretty calicoes used in the background. If you click you can get a better gander at the hand stitching done to applique Sue to her square. I find it interesting that the actual quilting on such an old quilt is machine stitched.

Although Sun Bonnet Sue is the main focus in this girl's quilt I find it really charming that the border fabric is in a cowboy print. Could there be some sweethearts trying to round up Sue?

In new quilt news, this is what 900 flannel quilt squares look like. I finished cutting them all this week so now I need to start assembling the 3 layer sandwiches that will make each block. I've had some good suggestions from other folks who have made flannel quilts in the past. I appreciate the words of wisdom from experienced quilters. One has advised me that the flannel will stretch around and pinning is important. That might seem obvious but I have to admit I tend to avoid pinning when I sew straight seams. My mom also suggested I do some test blocks with scraps to see whether or not I may need a walking foot for my machine since I am working with so many layers of fabric.

Finally, Mom suggested I give poor Betsy (my sewing machine) a tune up before I run her so hard. I am realizing I also need to clear a sufficient space on my sewing table to do all this sewing. Somehow that seems more daunting than actually sewing this quilt...

Quilts on Tuesday-Getting Started

Some time ago I mentioned I was going to attempt making a full-sized quilt for the first time in my life. It is to be for Diana to take with her to college. At one point she said she was not terribly concerned about the design so long as the quilt was flannel. That worked out well for me as a mere novice since it means I can get away with making her a rag quilt. Rag quilts have exposed, frayed seams and seem to be a fairly forgiving form. Her design will be made entirely of squares so I won't have to drive myself bonkers making triangles and other odd shapes meet up exactly.




The trick was finding enough flannel in enough colors to go with the design I intend to do. I adapted this for a larger quilt. My mom plugged it into her jazzy quilt software which calculates yardages and then off we went to find flannel. Neither of the fabric stores in my town had anything close to an adequate selection of flannels unless I wanted cutsie baby patterns or matronly Victorian designs. Mom and I did some scouting and found some nice yard-dyed plaids at a place about halfway between where we each live. So my first lesson was in the difficulty procuring what you really want. My next lesson was in the astonishing cost of fabrics. Mom went halvsies with my on the fabric since it was a fair amount more than I expected and I didn't really have any other ideas for Diana's Christmas present. Here's the haul. The three plaids will make up the top of the quilt. The three solid colors will be the back. The white flannel, which is a king size set of flannel sheets I found on sale for $20 (woohoo! doing the great bargain dance...waaaaay cheaper than a comparable amount of yardage off a bolt) will be the center layer of the flannel "sandwiches" which will make up each square.



Now I had to get to work cutting squares. I realize some of my readers are quilters but for those who aren't let me explain the tools. I have a big cutting board with measurements on it and that odd looking ruler/straight edge, also with measurement markings. This all makes it easy to line up the fabric and cut accurately sized shapes. For small projects I have an ordinary clear ruler/straight edge and use a separate cutter that looks sort of like a pizza slicer. For this project, since I knew I had thick fabric to cut through and more of it than I have ever done before I was a little concerned about how Janita (my once demolished but now mostly recovered left hand/arm) would hold up. This new gadget has the blade attached to the ruler so I couldn't accidentally veer off and miscut. Given how much I spent on the fabric I thought that might be a worthy investment to help prevent some fatigue for Janita and costly mistakes as a result. It worked pretty well in the manner I hoped. Lesson 3, however, was in the old adage "Measure twice, cut once." Uh yeah, I mismeasured a few strips and cut them too small. Fortunately, I had enough extra fabric to cover my mistakes. Once the strips were cut I just sliced them into squares.


Here we see 2oo 6 inches squares of flannel cut from 2 of the fabrics. I only have 300 more 6 inch squares to cut and 100 11 inch squares to cut. Then the sewing begins. Stayed tuned to see how long it takes me to get all this done and how many more lessons I have to learn.

Finally, I leave you with a picture that is somewhat symbolic of how this project feels a little like a mountain to scale. I'm realizing how much work it will be and I'm a little nervous but also excited and anxious to look down from the summit of completion and say, "I did that!"

Quilts on Tuesday-Let's Go Crazy

Here is one more of the quilts that was found in my grandmother's cedar chest. I am not in possession of this one, which is a crazy quilt. My stepmother held onto it because it is her favorite. I have always been fond of crazy quilts myself. I did take a picture of it though so I could share with you all and so I could ask my mom what she knew about it. Mom seems to think the crazy quilt was more related to my grandfather than my grandmother. She believes it was either given to him by his grandmother or possibly by his mother-in-law. I'm going to have to do a bit more investigation into that because my stepmother had it appraised many years ago and the appraiser seemed to think this quilt was produced in the 1940s, at which point I believe Pop-pop's grandmother was already dead.

In any event, let me give you a little information on crazy quilts in general. From what I have read, crazy quilting was a Victorian fad that generally combined fine fabrics such as silks, velvets, and brocades in asymmetrical, seemingly random patchwork patterns. The patches were sewn to a base fabric then embellished with ribbons, lace, buttons, or embroidered motifs. The borders of each patch were also stitched decoratively. No insulating batting layer was used between the front and back. On one quilt there could be several different patterns of these joining stitches. Early crazy quilts were often intended to be a decorative showpiece of the quilter's needle skills more than to be a functional bed covering providing warmth.

However, the one our family has is not a Victorian quilt. Later, it was more common to find rayon crazy quilts made with a batting and the quilts were tied through each patch. This allowed for warmth, and greater durability so the quilt could function as a useful bed covering. On our quilt there is still the haphazard patch placement and the decorative border stitches. There are also multiple thread colors in the border stitches but only one pattern used throughout the quilt. There is heft to our quilt and you can feel that there is a layer of batting that feels like either an old blanket or possibly a threadbare older quilt. Ours is less fancy and more utilitarian than the Victorian crazy quilts but I still love its wild splash of colors. I don't suppose that comes as a shock to any of you though.

Quilts on Tuesday-Old Quilts in a New Year

For Diana's birthday my dad and stepmother gave her my grandmother's cedar chest. At that time I acquired most of the quilts which were stored inside the chest. I'm not entirely sure who made most of them but two that were inside I know my mother made. This first one I remember her working on. My grandmother was a cat lover. She always had a cat in the house. She also had a large collection of cat figurines. When my mom offered to make her a quilt she naturally wanted cats on it. In case there was any doubt that this was a quilt enjoyed by a cat lover, when I opened it up I found it covered in cat hair. I took a picture of it and immediately put it in the wash. Some of the old quilts I have I'd be afraid to wash but this one seems to have held up pretty well.

Here's a close up of one of the appliqued blocks. You can also see the hand quilting around the edge of the block and a little on the backing peeking out underneath where I folded it back.

Next is the quilt Mom made for my grandfather, who was a WW2 Navy vet. I only took this close up because it's unlikely the quilting would have shown up very well in a shot of the full quilt. The top is simply solid blue with most of it quilted in the anchor motif. The border is waves. The corner folded over shows the backing. I don't remember Mom working on this one but I do remember Pop-Pop tearing up when she gave it to him. Once he composed himself he talked with her about the techniques she used (he was fairly skilled with a needle himself) and praised her skill.

Quilts on Tuesday-She Must Be Crazy

Recently I did a series on quilts in my possession and why they are so special to me. As I have said before, it is hard for me to consider sleeping under a commercially produced comforter. Mom mom has kept me in quilts since I was four. She has also provided quilts for each of my kids since they were infants. Unfortunately, since Diana got a double bed about 4 years ago she has been using a soulless commercial quilt.

That will be changing in the next few months. She will be graduating and heading off to college in the Fall. It is important to me that she have a decent quilt to take with her. We have talked on and off about a quilt for her for some time. She expressed a desire for flannel. Here is an example of the pattern of a rag quilt I want to make for her. It seems like it will lend itself to my very beginning level of skills and my interest in piecing rather than hand quilting. Rag quilts have exposed frayed seams and no bound edges. This pattern sticks with squares, which will make piecing easier for a novice like me.

Although my mom could easily make any sort of quilt Diana could want I really want to do most of the work with Mom as an overseeing consultant or maybe an assistant. I think it's time I learn to do something of this nature. I have to say Mom has already been indispensable. I showed her the design, told her how big I wanted each block and how big I wanted the finished product. She punched all the information into some snazzy quilt software she has and it told me how much fabric of each color I'd need. She also agreed to go halvesies on the fabric since the cost of that kind of serious yardage stopped me in my tracks. Since a rag quilt basically is three layers of flannel it ran into some hefty change. I did manage to find plain king-sized flannel sheets on sale for $20 which I will use for the middle layer. BIG bargain! Woohoo!

Now the fun part comes. For Diana's birthday I gave her just the sheets but didn't tell her why. She is confounded as to why I got her king-sized flannel sheets. For Christmas she will be getting the plain backing fabric from me and the different plaid patterns for the top from my mom. It's going to be an interesting stretch of time until Diana finally knows what she is going to be getting because it is driving her crazy trying to figure out why she got the sheets.

Ssshhh....don't tell.

I'll keep you posted on the progress once she gets all the fabric and I start actually assembling it. If I succeed I can cross #46 off my bucket list.

Quilts on Tuesday-Learning a Little

Anyone out there getting tired of this quilt series? If you are fear not, this is the last one for a while. I've showed you a lot of my mom's work that was done for me. I've shown you work by other family members and friends. I've told you how I grew up playing under quilt frames and how my mom has been willing to make the types of quilts I love even though it involves a lot of piecing which she is not overly fond of. This week I'll finish up with a little of my own work (and still more of my mom's).

This first piece is just a four block table runner. The friend who made the batik wall hanging ran a workshop to teach the log cabin technique. I was eager to give it a try. The idea of doing an entire quilt was more than a bit daunting. Doing four blocks and putting them together under the supervision of someone experienced was doable. You might ask why I didn't learn from my mom. Well, she had taught me to hand quilt and I was halfway proficient at that. I like the piecing of traditional patterns though and that has never been her thing. Here is my finished project. I don't use it on a daily basis but I do use it when I have a big meal with guests because the quilting of the runner makes it like a nice thick hot pad.

Here's a close up of one of the blocks so you can see some of the fabrics a little better. I did the quilting on this "in the ditch." That means the hand quilting goes right into the seams joining the strips of fabric so it it only enhances the piecing design as opposed to drawing attention to the design of the stitching itself. It was a fun little project and when I explained the technique to my mother she was interested in learning it herself. It was kind of amazing to me to be able to teach my mother something about quilting since I am only a beginner and she's been doing it her entire adult life.

Finally, we have the quilt mom made to replace the tattered log cabin quilt she made me 20 years ago. Once again, she told me I could choose any pattern I wanted. Once again I asked for a heavily pieced quilt. This time I found a pattern in the Amish style which means it is done in all solid. You'll notice the table runner is made of prints like calicoes and such. This quilt has only solid colored fabrics. If you know anything about me you know I like bold color. As I looked through different books this one just grabbed my eye immediately.

Mom, in her great love heaved a sigh and agreed to make it for me. She also suggested it might be fun to work on together. She agreed to do all the large and complicated blocks that you see running up the sides. I agreed to do the pinwheel patterns that go up the middle as well as the flying geese strips on the other sides of the large single blocks. I realized this picture doesn't show the flying gees so here is a picture to let you see what that pattern would look like. Pinwheels and flying geese were reasonably uncomplicated blocks for a beginner like me and if I did them it would free Mom to figure out how to do some of the crazier ones that she'd never done herself. It also makes it special to me that we worked on this quilt together.

Once all the blocks were done she assembled the entire top and did the quilting and binding. Since her arthritis has made hand quilting too painful she machine quilted the blocks in the ditch and then added some other patterns within the black strips. I didn't want the quilting to detract from the patterns of the blocks so the patterns in the strips are just parallel lines with the occasional, random mirror of either a flying geese or pinwheel pattern. The top came out beautifully with the traditional look I really wanted. The totally non-traditional part is the backing, which was as close to tie dyed as we could find. I love this quilt for so many reasons. The love Mom showed again in being willing to make it, the time we spent working on it together, the traditional top, the crazy back are all things that make this MY quilt in ways that no commercially produced quilt could ever be. Oh, and one more thing...Mom has her own tradition. She says a quilt is not complete until a drop of blood has been spilled on it. Some people think that's a bit gruesome. We're not talking crime scene spatters here, just the natural occurrence of pricking your finger at some point during the process of handling needles and such. When the minor accident happens the quilt is christened with that little drop of blood. Yes, Mom and I both "completed" this quilt in her traditional fashion.

Quilts on Tuesday-By Another Hand

So far, all but one quilt I've shared has been one my mother has made. This week I'll show you quilts from other people. As most of you know I have a special love for tie dye. Batik is another of my favorite ways for fabric to be designed. When I lived in Trinidad I was able to buy some really beautiful and good quality batiks for far less than the cost in the US. I took advantage of that. I have a batik dress I made from fabric purchased in Trinidad that is still a favorite. One day I wore it to church. When a quilting friend there saw my dress she immediately started salivating and asked where I got the dress. When I told her she begged me for scraps. In fact, she went so far as to check my hem and ask me to shorten the dress so she could have more. If you know anything about fabric prices in the US you know buying enough batik to make a below the knee length dress ain't cheap.

I handed over some of my scraps and then my friend asked when I might next be traveling back to the island. When I told her I planned to go that summer she very sweetly implored me to take money from her and bring back batiks from Trinidad...pretty please? I thought she'd weep when I told her I'd be perfectly happy to do so and countered with my own request for some small thing made from a few of the scraps of whatever I brought back. A deal was struck.

When I went into the shop I knew had the largest selection, hauled about 10 bolts of batik cloth to the cutting table, and asked for only half a yard of each the clerk was perplexed and had to ask what on earth I planned to do with such pieces since they were far too small to make garments. I told her the story and because she was so "flattered" that Americans would make a special effort to come shop for batiks at her store for the deals, variety, and quality she excused herself for a moment before returning with an armload of "special" batiks from the back room. Yes, she smelled a sale. Yes, she made the sale...when she offered me a "special" price that stayed within my friend's budget. My friend was ecstatic with the selection I provided her.

Flash forward to Christmas. At my church we have a secret pal group. At the beginning of the year you pick a name out of a hat and for the year you send anonymous notes of encouragement to the woman whose name you choose. At Christmas we all reveal ourselves with a small gift exchange. Imagine my surprise when the gift I received was from the woman I had done the batik shopping for.

Isn't it beautiful? We shared quite a giggle over me having carried back the materials for my own secret pal gift. I treasure it though. Sadly, she is no longer with us but my little wall hanging is a lovely reminder of her sweetness and her skill.

Next is a quilt that was cross stitched by my paternal grandparents. In their later years when their physical health did not allow for much activity they'd spend many hours doing embroidery. Yes, my grandfather did too. After his mother died when he was a child he lived with his grandmother for a time. She taught him how to cook and sew and do needlework. He produced work as fine as any woman...better than many, in fact. He could fix a diesel engine, plumb or wire a house, coax crops from the earth, and sew or embroider with skill...but I digress.

When I graduated high school my grandparents filled my cedar chest with hand embroidered tablecloths, kitchen towels, and pillow cases among other things. They both died before Diana was a year old. A few "works in progress" were found among their things. Unbeknownst to me, my stepmother salvaged one before my father went through the house indiscriminately throwing things away. She paid a quilting group at her church to bind and quilt the top my grandparents had embroidered and it was my Christmas gift the year after their deaths.

Here you can see a close up of both the hand quilting and the embroidery. It's one more treasure that holds special memories of loved ones.


Finally, among the "works in progress" my stepmother also found some long ago completed works. She and my mother looked through what had been saved from my father's fit of declaring things garbage and were able to identify the source of most of the quilts. This one remains a mystery. It shares some of the fabrics my mother used in her first full sized quilt but it is not one she made. Mom's best guess is that my grandfather may have decided to attempt making a quilt around the time she did but it's really only a guess...although it's based on knowing he enjoyed sewing and my grandmother did not. It's just a little too small to properly cover a twin sized bed so we use it to curl up with on the couch.

A quilt is a hug from someone who loves you.

Quilts on Tuesday-Oh, Baby!

The first quilt my mom ever made was a doll-sized quilt with appliqued tulips. Since that time she has made more baby quilts than I can even remember. She likes making baby quilts because they are quicker to do since they are small and they give her an opportunity to play with new techniques she wants to try without having to commit to a huge bed-sized quilt. She has made baby quilts for many grand nieces and nephews as well as children and grandchildren of friends. For a while she was also producing several a year for Project Linus which is an organization that provides "security blankets" for critically ill or otherwise traumatized children.

It was natural that once her own grandchildren started arriving she'd provide each of them with a quilt. Before I share the ones my mom has made though I will share one my great grandmother made for my uncle when he was a baby. My paternal grandmother wanted to give me the one that had been made for my father but it has pretty much fallen apart. Since my cousins had no interest in such things I was blessed with the one made for their father instead. It's much smaller than the crib-sized quilts my mom made but it was the perfect size for when my kids were in bassinets and cradles.

Here's a close up of the hand stitching holding the bird appliques to the quilt top. Although I'm not a big fan of applique I have always though this was such a pretty piece. It has held up beautifully for being over 70 years old and the colors are still so vibrant.

Here's the gratuitous "cute baby shot" of Diana sleeping soundly under it.

As promised here are the baby quilts my mom made for each of my kids. Diana's is appliqued. Mom also made my wedding gown and all of my bridesmaids' gowns. If you can see, the bear is wearing a white top hat. That is satin a satin scrap from my gown. The red saddle and rocker are scraps from the bridesmaids' gowns.

For Calypso's quilt Mom enjoyed experimenting with fabric paint. As it turned out, yellow was Calypso's favorite color for a long time.

When Isaac came along Mom was learning to cross stitch so she cross-stitched the designs on the top of his quilt. Her cross-stitch period didn't last long since she was beginning to develop arthritis in her hands and even hand quilting soon became a thing of the past for her. She indulged herself in a top of the line sewing machine and now machine quilts.

Each of these quilts are carefully packed away to be passed on when my children are having their own children. My grandmother crocheted blankets and sweaters for me and for my children. My mother made quilts for each of us. I'll have to make something for the next generation when it is my turn. I hope my kids don't mind tie dyed onesies...

Quilts on Tuesday- Tradition

I mentioned that I have the first bed sized quilt my mom produced many decades ago. Before I get into the main part of the post I thought I'd show you a quick shot. It hangs over a banister in my foyer so it's one of the first things you see upon entering the front door. It's significant not only because it is her first but because it is patchwork. You'll find out why as you read on.




You've seen the quilt my mother made when I was four and the one she made when I was thirteen. You may be getting the idea that quilts mark milestones in my life. How perceptive of you. The next milestone in my life was high school graduation. Mom told me I could choose any style of quilt I wanted. When I made my choice I think she immediately regretted giving me the option. I wanted a patchwork quilt.

Now understand, as much as my mother loves quilting THAT is the part she loves. She likes the needle work, the rocking of a needle through many layers in order to make lovely patterns with the thread. She does not enjoy cutting bits of fabric into particular and precise shapes, nor does she enjoy sewing those pieces together in exact patterns. She actually dislikes that part and had not made a patchwork quilt in probably twenty years even as she cranked out all manner of applique (which she finds far more forgiving and much more fun than patchwork) and plain top quilts with much stitching.

Did I mention I picked a patchwork pattern with roughly a bazillion pieces to it? I wanted a log cabin quilt. As you can see below, each 10 inch quilt square was made of 17 pieces a fabric. Mom makes quilts big enough to extend down the sides of the bed until about 8 inches before the floor. When she started this quilt for me I only wanted it sized for a double bed. Before she finished making the individual squares for the top I upped it to a queen size because I had gotten engaged. So figure enough of those squares to make a quilt that big. You do the math, it makes my head hurt. It made my mom's head hurt too.

Why did I torment my mother so? Well, I always loved the variety in a patchwork quilt. I loved the idea behind using all sorts of scraps and how so many of them would each have their own story. In the two squares below there are fabrics from old kitchen curtains and from the outfit my mother sewed for me to wear on the day my adoption was finalized. I wanted a very traditional looking quilt where I could have all sorts of wild fabrics bumping up against each other.


In addition to the personal history and wild colors in the fabrics, I just loved the geometry of the thing. You can see each square is divided along a diagonal which separates a dark side from a light side. The varying ways in which the individual squares can be arranged gives a number of different optical effects. Each effect has its own pattern name. I chose the "Barn Raising" arrangement (concentric light and dark diamonds) as a nod to my Pennsylvania Dutch roots. I don't have any idea if the pattern comes from the PA Dutch or not but the name certainly is evocative of a community of Amish coming together to get a job done. The individual squares also vaguely reminded me of a Greek Key pattern so it was a nod to my birth heritage as well.


My mother would work on the quilt and then put it aside for another smaller project she could easily complete before coming back to my seemingly unending quilt. Those of you who are quilters might say she could have rotary cut the strips and sewed it together lickety split and you'd be right. However, neither of us knew of that technique when Mom made this. She cut each piece with scissors instead.

Much as mom loves the hand quilting, by the time she got the top together she was kind of sick of this quilt and I was soon to be married. It had already been 4 or 5 years since I had chosen this pattern. She asked with an air of desperation if I intended for her to hand quilt it or could she just tie it. I had also asked her to use a sheet blanket for the batting instead of the fluffy polyester batting which was a cinch to quilt through. She was not looking forward to trying to hand quilt through all the seams and a blanket. She breathed a great sigh of relief when I told her to just tie it with knots through the center square of each block.


We used the log cabin quilt hard for 15 years. I still think it's a beautiful work but the heavy use took its toll and it, more than any of the others I have, shows its wear. In spite of what I might ask for, Mom once again offered to replace it with a new quilt of my choosing, but in the interim I needed to use a commercial comforter (it did its job of keeping us warm but what a soulless thing it was). I think I may save showing you "the new quilt" until after I've shared some of the others I have lurking around my house.

Quilts on Tuesday-Many Hands

As I mentioned yesterday, I was at the local Harvest Festival helping over the weekend. Last year I shared about the pretzel making I do there. Since I have started this series on quilting I thought I'd share about that part of the festival today. The Harvest Festival is the big fundraiser of the year. Visitors have the opportunity to learn about Pennsylvania German farm life in the 1800s and all that was involved in keeping a farm and household running. There's also plenty of traditional food to taste, a one room schoolhouse program, and a small encampment of Civil War reenactors. One of the things done to both demonstrate and raise some funds is a quilt raffle.

Each year at Harvest Festival a quilt which was completed during the year is displayed and raffled off. In front of the one being raffled the quilters sit and work on the quilt for the following year. Since I was on my own lunch break when I had a chance to come visit the quilters it was also lunch break for several of them. Normally there are several women working together on the quilt, not only during festival but through out the year as they cut and piece the patches as well as finish the quilting.

When I asked the quilters if I could sneak around behind them to get some pictures they told me to be sure to get a close up of the stitching. They were proud to show off their handiwork. It was a bit of a challenge to get the picture since the wind was blowing the quilt as it hung on the line but I hope it gives a feel for the lovely hand quilting.

Each year the quilting group chooses a traditional design to share with the public and each year visitors wait with great anticipation to see the finished product. It's a wonderful way the group gets to share so much time together making a beautiful quilt which can be used to raise money for the farm and be enjoyed by whoever wins it in the raffle.

Here is just one of the many hands that helped make the quilts. Beautiful isn't it?