It's Just A Jump to the Left...

I'm stretching a bit with today's title, but given the last two quilts were from the late 1800's, there is a bit of a time warp going on with today's offering. And for some reason I'm addicted to these darned song lyrics. Anyhoo...


This quilt comes from my Dad's side of the family and is of much more recent vintage. Mom remembers that it was a gift for their wedding in 1968. It is a true scrap quilt -- lots and lots of fabrics in this one and lots of combinations. They all appear to be cottons, though, some could be blends. There are feed sacks, shirtings, possible dress materials, even some cord material in there. The white areas all appear to be plain white muslin though. The size is approximately twin. Again, no quilting on this one, but it does have a batting which looks like it is a layer of white flannel and it is tied. One tie through the center of every single star and tie in the corners where every block meets.


Mom remembers that my grandmother on that side tied this, but we both agree it is unlikely that she actually did any of the piecework. My grandmother had her talents (the woman could bake like no other, and remind me someday to take photos of the baby clothes she crocheted for me) but sewing was not really one of them. It's much more likely that this one is made by the same person who made this quilt. Especially since there are a lot of fabrics that are common to both pieces. That would mean that it was probably pieced by my great-grandmother, and more likely my grandfather's mother. My grandmother's mother was a German immigrant and I just don't see her doing much of this patchwork -- though, I could be wrong. Any clues from my friends in Germany as to whether this would have been common there in the 20's and 30's? It's much more likely that the top was already finished and my grandmother simply tied and bound it. Or, that it was even farther along than that when my grandmother gave it to Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, anyone who would have the information is now gone.


The blocks themselves are interesting. They are hexagons with a six pointed star in the middle. The finished sides of each hexagon are 2 1/4". That's a whole lot of small piecing for those stars. I'm not sure if these are hand or machine pieced, I've seen evidence of both in the blocks though. I don't know the name of the block (if anyone has any information it would be appreciated) but it does explain why I absolutely LOVE hexagon designs in quilts. These quilts are ones that really mean "quilt" to me. I grew up with them. I remember using them for picnics, camping, snuggling on. They were not put away as "treasures" as Mom said "They were just quilts, we used them." And yeah, that's exactly how it is supposed to be :0).


The edges are bound, but rather than cutting off some of the hexagons to create a "squared" quilt, the binding follows the hexagon pattern all the way around. Part of me shudders at the thought of having to turn all those corners with binding. The other part of me is doing some little dances of glee going "I've gotta try that." I'm not sure which part is going to win eventually (though I'm kinda voting for the sane part that says 1/2 blocks at the edge aren't so bad...).


Now, given that the quilt has been used, and used well, there is some damage. Some of the fabrics have not held up. There are wear spots and some tears and some staining. Mom wants to wash it to see if the stains will come out, but with the state of some of the fabrics -- I'm not so sure. However, I mean, I could do some rescue work here. I can trace the pieces, create templates, replicate blocks and replace them. I have the skills, I have the technology, and more importantly, I have...

this. No, this is not the same quilt. It is the twin to the one I've been showing you. Fraternal twins -- but twins just the same. :0)

Unfortunately, time has not been as kind to this quilt as it has to the first one. While the first one has a quite a few damage spots but may be salvageable, this one, um, this one is a cutter. I think Mom had a small coronary when I looked at the second quilt and said that -- but, honestly? That's what it is. It got better when I stated referring to this one as the "donor" quilt.

While the donor has pretty extensive damage, there are some good spots that I could lift out blocks and replace those in the first. Having said that, I'm not planning on doing this rescue any time soon -- but, eventually, yeah, I'm going to do it. I'd also like to try my hand at making a few of the blocks with some modern fabrics. Now, will I end up with enough blocks to make two twin sized quilts? Um -- yeah, probably not. That's a WOLE LOT of hexagons folks. And here I thought Jane Stickle was crazy -- looks like that kind of insanity runs in my family too. Especially since I also remember my grandmother having two of these quilts at her house when I was young. I remember sleeping under them when I went to visit her for a week every summer. What happened to them, I don't know -- but think, making enough of these blocks for 4, count 'em 4, twin sized bead spreads. EEEKKK!!!! I'm hoping for enough patience with the pattern for maybe a pillow. Possibly a throw.

I hope you've enjoyed the quilt show from Mom's house -- I've still got more photos to share of other works from Mom's, just not quilts. These are all MUCH more recent vintage as well. As in, well, my lifetime since I made most of them. And I still have goodies to share -- retail therapy and some current crafting. Not much of the current stuff this week -- I've been digging out and dealing with a sick Miss Tinkerbell. She managed to survive being exposed to my strep throat without catching it -- but, another kid at daycare seems to have passed it on to her. UGH. Until next time!

PS -- SPELL CHECK WORKED!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!

The Show Must Go On

Or rather my own internet "Mom's Quilted Treasures" quilt show must. (and hey, I've managed a post title that combines a cliche AND a song lyric/cultural reference -- cool) Thanks to everyone who has been saying such nice things about my great-great-grandmother's quilt. But it's not the only quilted treasure hanging out at Mom's house. This next one actually belongs to me, but I decided that it needed to be in "Mom protective custody" for the time being. My housekeeping skills and the quick hands of a toddler mean this one just doesn't have a spot to be cared for properly in my home right now.


This quilt also comes from Mom's side of the family. One of my aunts received it when my great grandmother died and passed it on to me almost two years ago because she knows how much I love quilts and quilting. According to my aunt, it's not from my great grandmother's side of the family, but rather from my great grandfather's. According to my aunt, my great grandmother said it was "old." (and given that SHE was born in 1896, that says something) And that's about the extent of the sure information I have about its history.


The quilt itself is a largish lap/smallish twin size. The blocks are log cabin blocks that have been foundation pieced (more on how I know that in a minute) and set in the barn raising pattern. The center blocks are not the "traditional" red or yellow -- the are a variety of fabrics that match the light logs in the blocks. All of the dark logs are solid black fabrics with the lights being composed of various solids and prints. Since that side of the family is from Kentucky near the Ohio river/border -- there may be some Amish influence (ya think?) but this is NOT an Amish quilt. At least, I'm pretty sure it's not. Why do I say that? While solids are more traditional, I have heard of Amish pieces that use patterned prints. Yep -- but, I've never heard of an Amish quilt that uses silk. Yep -- unlike the last quilt -- this one is not pieced from calicoes (though there are some used as foundations). All of the logs are silk and/or silk crepe, and that includes the plaids and the red binding.


I'd give a detail shot of the quilting but, well, there isn't any. Nor is there any batting. It appears the foundation pieces were joined and then it was backed and bound which probably means this was not meant for use as a bed covering. Well, heck, given the materials used, I'd doubt it was meant as a bed covering as well. Maybe a table covering? Anyway, because of the materials used this one also has some pretty extensive damage in areas. You can see here where the blue silk is these logs is simply desintigrating due to time. There are several spots on the front where this is happening. (and also partially how I know about the foundation piecing :0) )


Also interesting is the way the logs are put together. they are not simply sewn to the foundation and folded back like we do modern paper piecing. they are sewn down and then a knife pleat is created so that all of the logs are actually "pleats" on the front. Hopefully this picture explains better than my words are doing. It's kind of neat though.


The backing is made of one piece of silk crepe material in a brown and white pattern. There is one corner where there is a rip in the backing (it goes all the way through to the front) but it shows the stitches on the foundation really well and it shows where a plaid was used as a foundation. The stitches here also look like they are hand stitched. So, if pressed, I'd say this one was at least partially hand pieced. If I HAD to put a date to this one, I would guesstimate that it's roughly the same age as the one my great-great-grandmother made. Though, I will give it a bit more leeway in the "earlier" department. I'm going to say anywhere from 1870-1890. I can't go any earlier because of the log cabin blocks and I don't want to go much later because of my great grandmother's comments about its age.


Also, while the blacks appear to all be one type of fabric -- they aren't. The one photo I took with a flash really shows the number of different black silks that went into this piece.


One thing that I'm not sure I've been able to show with the photos are the colors in this one. Yes, the black stands out, but really, what I noticed about it this time were all of the colors in the light side of the blocks. Look at that purple, and the green. Just yummy. I so could see myself wearing those colors. Heck, I could see myself wearing most of the colors in this quilt. Not so sure about the plaids though. :0)


The thing about this quilt for me is that it invites dreams and speculation. Let's face it, there is a LOT of black silk in this one. Why would someone have that much black silk? Was this a memorial quilt and when the maker had put aside mourning dress did they use the fabrics to make it? Were they bits and pieces left over from dresses? Were the light blocks from dresses from happier times and possibly some from half mourning (lavender) with the blacks of full mourning combined? Were these bits of white silk (which is tissue thin and delicate -- I tried touching it, then thought better of it when I realized how thin it acutally was) the remnants from a wedding gown lovingly preserved? All of those questions are ones that spin through my mind, and because I have so little information about it -- I can dream over. I know it makes bad history. I know its what leads to over romantacized notions of quilting. I know. I also can't say for sure that is what this quilt is. But I can have fun dreaming :0).


I have two more quilts as part of my mini-show to share tomorrow and I will finally be able to get to the retail therapy and other progress on projects. Thanks for indulging my trips through my family's quilting history. I'm off to do some more digging out cleaning and to dream about my long ago relative who decided to make log cabins out of silk.

And now for something completely different

I thought I might actually post about some crafty/quilty stuff. I know, kind of a stretch for this blog, but hey, it's there in the title. As for when I will stop using cultural (pop or otherwise) references and song lyrics for my post titles? Um, probably not anytime soon.

First though, the obligatory vacation photos. (hey, it wasn't really a vacation, but it's the closest I've come in a long time) This is part of the view from my Mom's back porch. For a flatlander like me, going anywhere there are tall hills (also known as mountains) is kind of cool.

I always forget how beautiful the desert can be when I leave there. It is stunning. And the night skies? Oh my, it really makes you appreciate just how much you miss due to light pollution in other places. Of course, it could also have something to do with the higher elevations. If anyone's curious about the location of these mountains and the desert -- they are in the Mesilla Valley of southern New Mexico. Las Cruces to be precise. If you get the chance -- I can't say enough nice things about the people there (Hi DJ!) and their hospitality. They do need to do something about their speed limits though. I think there was one road I was driving on the entire time that was over 35 mph. UGH. (sorry, I'm way too used to lightly populated areas having much higher speed limits)

Anyway -- I didn't see a whole lot of the area on this trip. I spent a lot of time at Mom's house hanging out and getting her stuff when she needed it. But this is good from a crafting point of view. I had some time to work on a couple of projects (which I'll show later) and, more importantly, I was able to take photos of some of the crafty treasures hanging out at Mom's house. Some are things I made, and some are truly treasures handed down in the family. Yep, some lovely antique quilts!!!!

Today's offering was made by my great-great-grandmother. It's unsigned, but Mom remembers it from her childhood and also remembers helping her great-grandmother by threading quilting needles for her. The quilt is roughly queen sized and is a two color pink and white quilt. The pink is a lovely dotted double pink and the white is plain white muslin. I don't know what the pattern is, but there are feathered triangles surrounding large white hexagons. An approximate date on this one is anywhere from 1880-1890. The date is based on the date of my great-great-grandmother's birth and the date of my great-grandmother's birth as Mom is pretty sure this quilt was made by my great-great-grandmother as part of her trousseau. Location of creation would have been West Virgina.

Each of the plain white hexagons is quilted with a feathered wreath with cross hatching in the center of the circle. I don't know enough to even guess at the number of stitches per inch, but it looks pretty darned good to me. Each of the feathered triangles is quilted about a 1/4 inch in from the seams. I wasn't able to get a good shot of the back (would have involved more work than I care think of to take it off the wall) -- but the back is plain muslin with at least one spot showing some repair.

The borders on this one include a small border of triangles and a larger border of the double pink. Before the border begins there is a cabled quilting design. The final border is quilted with diagonal lines, and a few of those do get a bit wonky in places. I'm not sure if a single person quilted this one or if there was a bee of some sort. Either is possible, which might explain the care in the main circles with the slightly wonky edge treatments. Or, it could just be the edges were harder to work with.

There is no binding on this one. The edges are folded in and finished that way. And just to show you the scale of those triangles, here's a picture with my finger in there. Let me state I do not have big hands (the rest of me, sure, but my wedding ring is a 5 1/2). My assumption is that this one is hand pieced, though I'm not 100% certain on that one. It seems likely though.

I do love this quilt. It really is a masterwork. There are a few damage spots, but for its age it has held up remarkably well. And the damage? Some sun fading on one side (no, not from Mom hanging it up, there is more light in that room for the photos than really ever gets in there) that was there when Mom got it. One spot on one triangle where the fabric looks like it has torn slightly, but otherwise, pretty darned pristine. Mom had the hanging sleeve added to it sometime in the early 80's after it came to her when my great-grandmother died. It's hung in her home since. Someday, it will hang in mine, and I will be glad to know I come from a line of quilters (even if that line was broken a bit before it got to me :0) ).

And just to show that I didn't spend all of my time gazing at the mountains, marveling at the fact that my toes were warm for the first time in months and staring at beautiful antique quilts. Here's a shot of some knitting I did while was on a plane and waiting for Mom to get out of surgery. Another pair of mitts. Or, well, a single mitt anyway. No, Sharon, this one isn't yours -- yours I'm making you wait to see :0). This one is for another exchange I'm working on. And I do hope the recipient likes the colors :0).

And still no freakin' spell check. ARRGGHHHH! Oh well, I have a couple more family quilts to share and the retail therapy excursions, plus more works in progress...but, I need to go dig out my house. Somehow leaving suddenly and leaving my husband and 2 1/2 year old on their own for a few days means my house is even more of a disaster than usual. Time to acutally dig out! (wish me luck, I'm going in...)

Mail Call

I mentioned in my last post that while I was internet impaired a few goodies showed up in my mailbox. Since these goodies are quilting related, I thought I would share the postal offerings.

My first squishy package (ok, so this one wasn't technically a squishy -- it came in a box, but hey -- the contents are squishy) was from my Mom. No, this is not one of my quilts. Don't I wish I could do applique like the work in this one as well as the foundation piecing it represents. Nope, this one is a genuine article 1930's feedsack (and probably some dressmaking and other assorted cottons) top. I love the colors in this one -- bits and pieces from all sorts of prints. There are some cheddars, some bright pinks, lots of blues, lavenders -- a true scrap quilt all the way around.

So why did my Mom send it to me? Well, my dad's sister gave it to me sometime in the early 90's -- long before I had begun to quilt myself. The top was pieced by one of my great grandmothers (which one? I have no clue -- my instinct says it was my grandfather's mother, who was a farmer's wife. But it could have been my German immigrant great grandmother as well -- though not as likely. I know -- bad me for not asking when it was given to me. I may have been told, but I now don't remember. Why not just ask my aunt? She has since passed away so -- no one left who could tell me). When my grandmother died in 1990, my aunt found the blocks for this quilt among her things (again, this could still mean it was made by either of my great grandmothers). She put together the blocks and backed the quilt as a summer spread and gave it to me. At the time I was living in the dorms so it ended up at my parents' house.

Why did I ask for it now? Close to 20 years after I'd received it? Well, I appreciate it more now for one. And two, well, this might be something of a rescue mission. My aunt, lovely woman that she was, was not a quilter per se. Crochet -- oh gods yes. Embroidery, some. Some sewing. But not really a quilter. When she put the backing on this quilt -- she used what was economical and convenient. Namely a sheet. In a, and I'm sorry if anyone out there likes this but blech, a gods awful color somewhere between brown/tan and orange with neither of the good qualities of either of those colors (and I must say -- the color doesn't look that bad in the photo -- but you will have to trust me when I tell you that in person, it is so much worse).

Aside from my aesthetic sensibilities being offended by the backing -- there is also the problem of damage. My aunt used a polyester thread to put on the backing (which is simply folded to the front, not bound on and there is no quilting or tying -- really, a summer spread). Which has, oddly enough, not torn through the feedsack cream backing of the blocks, but the cotton/poly blend sheet. Oh, and notice the polyester batting stuffed in the folded over sheet to make the "binding". So, one of my summer projects is going to be a rescue mission. I'm going to remove the binding, add a new backing of some 30's reproductions (possibly pieced, but also possibly just a solid color) and add a "proper" (yes, I know folding the backing to the front is a perfectly acceptable way to finish a quilt -- I've used it myself, but given what has happened here, I think I want something a bit more stable) binding out of some feed sack reproductions. I am not going to quilt it -- I'm really not sure how well it could handle longarm machine quilting and I don't have the skills (yet) to hand quilt it. At which point it will be ready for generations 4 and 5 (myself and my daughter) to use and love.

I'm going to have to apologize here for the length of this post -- but if I'm ever going to get all the stuff I want to say up and get caught up, this one needs to be long. And maybe the next two or three as well.

My next piece of love from the post office came all the way from Australia!!! A while ago, I had asked Tracey over at ozcountryquiltingmum how she made her chooks she sells at school fairs. I thought they would be a cute little toy for my daughter. Generous soul that she is -- she offered to mail me one. I am continually amazed by the generosity of quilters and crafters the world over. So here is a photo of the package that arrived. Not one, but TWO chooks -- one for dd and one for me! (I still have to re-stuff them, but that is on my list for today!), a bit of the lovely satin she was using for pillows, I'm thinking it would make some lovely sachets for my closet, (not in the photo because I couldn't wrest it away from the two year old who says 'my puse') a lovely little bag (actually, it's in this post -- the white bag with the Winnie the Pooh applique) and a piece of chocolate (also not pictured as it went almost immediately into my stomach -- I suppose I could show you a photo of my cellulite, but, um, that's not fair to the small piece of chocolate, I've had to work a long time for a body this bad). Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Tracey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And finally, for now, (I'm betting there are many people who are celebrating the end of this post) I've had a request from Laurie over at The Wooden Spool for some detail shots of my god daughter's jacket as well as some requests for information (Laurie -- you're "no reply" when you comment -- so I have to do these publicly). So, in order of asking -- Yes, I probably will make another one of these. Probably more than one. My daughter LOVES hers, and when she outgrows it, it will be time for the next size up. She still has two sizes in the pattern before she outgrows it, so I foresee more of them. Also, if you just use the pattern with plain fabric (no quilting) it works up quickly and is still cute -- so it's great for using as baby gifts. Yes, this version is mostly Lakehouse fabrics (last year's version of the DayZ line) with one or two additions from my scrap stash. If you find out that Holly Holderman has a flickr group -- would love to submit the photos! Hope these are the kinds of detail shots you wanted!

That's all for today -- need to run to Target and get a few other things done. I might even get to some quilting time! I still have post office goodies to share (like the two above aren't enough?) and some more of my own work. I also have another photo request or two that I need to get to (need to take the photos first though!). Hope everyone is having a great weekend.