Quilt Finished...

Quote for the Day:

"Finished is better than perfect"

~a favorite saying amongst quilters

Last year I was gifted some quilt tops from a friend's mother's estate.  Most are pieced by hand, probably using templates and scissors, which makes for some "wonky" quilt tops.  But they are all still beautiful in that special way that antique or vintage items are.

Many years ago there used to be a shirt factory here in Grafton (way before our time of moving here.)  I've been told that you could go down there and buy "remnants" very cheaply, so many of the old quilts/quilt tops from this area have shirting material in them.

I believe that this particular quilt top is made from that mixture of feed sacks and shirtings, probably obtained from the former factory.

Here's a picture of the quilt top when it was given to me....

The middle was pretty, but it had a narrow solid, medium-blue border that was VERY WAVY (meaning that there was NO WAY it would ever lay flat!)  Also, that particular blue was not reflected anywhere in the quilt, so it looked like it was just an after-thought...slapped on for lack of something better.  I also didn't think the width of the border complimented the rest of the quilt, so I removed the offending border and added a wider border made from a 1930's reproduction fabric that complimented the red and pink already in some of the quilt blocks.

I purchased a cream-colored, solid backing and used 100% cotton Warm & Natural batting.  I quilted it on my Tin Lizzie18 sit-down long-arm machine using Aurifil 50wt. cotton thread on top and Bottom Line 60wt. polyester thread in the bobbin.  

I LOVE the way it turned out!!!

One of the feed sack blocks...

Shirting blocks...

The new border I added.  Free-hand feathers...no computer or pantogragh used...just me and my machine.  They aren't the prettiest, but I sure have fun doing them!!!

The back...shows the "figure 8's" and the "loops" that I used to quilt the blocks...

I hope the recipient will like it!  


Loretta

Surprises From a Friend...

Quote for the Day:

“A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.” 

~Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A couple of weeks ago I came home to work to find a garbage bag sitting in my entryway.  Andy told me a friend had dropped it off and said they were quilting scraps that she had found while cleaning out her mom's place after she passed away.  She thought I might be able to use them.

It was almost a week before I had to time really look in the bag and when I did, under the scraps of fabric I found SEVEN quilt tops!  I contacted my friend and asked for sure that she really meant for me to have these and she confirmed "yes".  She said her mom had been an occasional quilter.  My friend said she thought maybe I would like these unfinished quilts!

They are mixed hand and machine pieced and mostly of feed sacks and shirting fabric.  (There used to be a shirt factory in this town many years ago, so many of the old local quilt tops are made from the end pieces of shirting fabric that you could go buy cheaply from the factory.)

Bubble gum pink scrappy nine-patch...

Scrappy bow-tie laid out in a snowball pattern...

Another bubble gum pink nine-patch...

I don't know this next pattern, but it looks like some sort of posy pattern to me.  Anybody know the name of the pattern?

Another scrappy nine-patch...the border looks like it's from the '70's and doesn't "go" with it, so I'll probably take the border off and add a different one...either of muslin or of a '30's reproduction fabric...

A STUNNING double Irish chain!!!   LOVE THIS ONE!!!

And finally...this Irish chain quilt that had all sorts of issues...but that's for the next blog post!  :)

Here they all are after being measured and tagged...

Most are around 81" x 81" so will only need a border added to make them big enough for a queen-sized bed.  Or I can finish them as they are and they will fit a full-sized bed.  

I think they are beautiful and am blessed that my friend gifted them to me!

Loretta

Feed Sack Quilt Finished!

Quote for the Day:

"Do not plan for ventures before finishing what's at hand."
~Euripides

Tonight I finished the binding and then labeled the Feed Sack Quilt.   It has now been washed and is currently in the dryer as I type this post.  :)

I picked up this vintage quilt top at an estate auction for a mere $2.00 back in 2007.  It didn't lay flat, but I "nipped & tucked" it into submission and got it to lay fairly flat before quilting it.  I was then able to "quilt out" what I wasn't able to "nip & tuck" into flatness!   (is "flatness" a word?) 

 

I added the cream calico print border to make it large enough to fit comfortably on a full-sized bed.  (Most older quilts are smaller than today's quilts because our beds are bigger now than they used to be.)

Here's a side view of the quilt that shows the border better...

I used a thrift store-purchased sheet for the backing.  However, the stripes were brighter than I really wanted for this subdued quilt, so I used the WRONG side of the sheet for the backing and put the RIGHT side of the sheet to the inside of the quilt!  :)   (I always browse the sheet section of thrift stores because you can pick up a king-sized flat sheet for $3.00-4.00...much cheaper than backing fabric!  HOWEVER...DON'T use a sheet on a quilt you are going to HAND quilt!  It is nearly impossible to needle through a well-made sheet by hand!  I only use them when I am going to machine quilt a quilt.)

Out of all of the different blocks, I think this aqua fabric is my favorite!  :)  It is such a "happy" color!  :)  

And here's the label...

 
All in all, I'm quite pleased with the way the quilt turned out and I would hope that the original quilter who made the top would feel I did it justice.  :)




Loretta

More Sunday Quilting...

Quote for the Day:

"The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was 

is so we can tell them about our own weekend."

~author unknown

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days...I've been up to my eyeballs in work and appointments this past week.  :(

The good news is that I finally had my appointment with the Pain Clinic doctor...who was VERY nice and understanding, by the way...and am now scheduled for an injection into the right sacro-iliac joint on March 1.  I know, I know...it sounds very painful.  But I'm hoping that this will allow me some semblance of "normal" again in my life.  

I have made so many "changes" in my life and the way I do things so as not to aggravate the pain in my back.  I've really missed not being able to just "do" what I want, but always having to consider how it will effect my back and cause pain, etc.  Having back pain is kind of like having a sleeping dragon that you don't want to awake!  And that is how I've been living my life for the last 1.5 years...doing anything necessary to NOT wake the dragon!  :(


Several years ago...in 2007...I purchased this quilt top made from 1930's feed sacks at an estate auction for $2.00!!!

 

If you are unfamiliar with the term "feed sacks", years ago "staples" such as flour, sugar, rice, and even animal food was packaged in cloth bags.  After using the items in the bags, women would then take the bags apart and use them as fabric to make clothing, quilts, and other household items.  The practice of using cloth bags for packaging ended sometime around the 1940's, so now real "feed sack" fabric is an expensive commodity, but can still be found at estate sales and antique stores.  It is highly prized by quilters because of its history of being used in quilts.  How I ended up with the quilt top for only $2.00 is still a mystery to me.  :)

Anyway...I've had it around, knowing that some day I would finish it into a quilt.

Fast forward to January 2011 when Andy & I went to Florida for a visit/vacation with my sisters and we stayed with my eldest sister, Mary Ellen, at her condo.   In the guest bedroom where Andy & I slept, the bed had a POLYESTER BEDSPREAD on it.  OH, the HORROR of it all!  Seriously...it was one of those slippery, ugly bedspreads that you find on motel room beds.  :(  

I'm very used to nice, comfortable, cotton quilts.  :)   So while we were there I'd wake up HOT in the middle of the night because of the polyester.  Then I'd through the covers off, go back to sleep and wake up COLD.  This went on several times a night for the duration of our stay there.  At that time, I told Mary Ellen that she needed a nice, homemade quilt for the guest bed.  (She already has a quilt I made her for her own bed there.)  :)  I knew then what I would finish the feed sack quilt top into a quilt and have it ready for our next visit down there. 

Since our next trip there is in just a few weeks, I thought I'd better get on the stick!  LOL  One problem, though...the quilt top had been sloppily cut and sewn and didn't lay flat.  It had, what we call in quilting..."C" cups.  Yep...the blocks pooched out in the middle and looked like they should have been holding breasts.  This is why it is soooooooooo important to cut accurately and sew accurately...so everything fits together like a puzzle...not like a bra!!!  :) 

Before I could quilt this top, I had to "nip and tuck" it to get it to lay flat.  I used a very fine (60 wt.) white thread to sew down the tucks.  Here's a close-up view of an area that I tucked and then zigzag stitched down...

Here's another area after it's been quilted....

You can see that the stitched tucks blend in with the other machine quilting stitches.  :)

I'm machine quilting this top for a couple of reasons:  1)  because of the age of the fabric/seams and the tucking that I had to do, I felt it would hold together better with machine quilting instead hand quilting;  and 2)  I need to get it done fast!  :)

I started quilting it yesterday and am about 1/3 of the way done!  :)

Well...I'd better get back to my machine and get as much done today as I can!  :) 

Loretta