Old Methods, New Methods

I remember sitting with my Grandma Cline while she worked with quilt pieces. She was petite and I was just a kid, so we'd sit together in her chair. Usually she was cutting pieces (while I drew or wrote on a paper tablet), and I remember how she did it. She'd hold a cardboard template against the fabric in one hand, and cut it out with scissors (kind of free-handed) with the other hand. Space being at a premium in her little house may have been one reason, or maybe so she could stay sitting down. But I can still see her yet cutting out quilt pieces this way!


My way is to lay out fabric and use a ruler and pencil to mark out EVERY PIECE individually, then cut them all out. Yes, that may be tedious to some, but with my obsessive-for-detail personality, it works for me and I'm satisfied and enjoy doing it that way.


In recent years, the rotary cutter and cutting mat have come into use, along with fast-piecing that makes it possible to put together a quilt top in a very short time. At one point I got a small mat and rotary cutter, and they stayed in their packages for a year or so before I got brave enough to use them recently. I'm still getting the hang of it, but did use this method to cut out border and binding strips, and it was certainly faster.


In the same idea, I sure had to convince myself (the ultimate traditionalist, wanting to quilt just like Grandma did) to use my sewing machine for piecing blocks and tops. Let's just say that at this point in my life, I'm tired of "slow," and wanted to get some projects going without taking a year to piece a small top by hand. Good grief, once I used the machine to piece, now that's the ONLY way I want to do it! It does give more consistent, straighter, stronger seams, so there are definitely plusses to this method. But if I was a pioneer out on the prairie with no sewing machine, the hand-piecing would be the ticket.


I have one thought - what would Grandma have thought of the rotary cutter and mat? Piecing a quilt top in one day? Machine quilting?


That's another thing I've taken some time to warm up to - machine quilting. It is pretty, it's just that my "traditionalist" attitude had to give it a chance. It has its own good things, and can be very effective for a quilt. So though I haven't done that yet (but might try a small project?), I now have room in my "quilting repertoire" for all these new-fangled things and methods that STILL end up with a beautiful, hand-made treasure.

Old-Timey Comforter

Comforters are a nice alternative to a quilt - they're still decorative and warm, but just a little easier and faster to make. They're tied in intervals with yarn or heavy string, instead of quilted in fine stitches with thread.


It was expected in Grandma's day for a girl to have a quilt or quilts in her hope chest. Then it was important to keep a lot of quilts made when needed, to keep the family warm at night.


Pictured here is one of Grandma's babies, sitting in a warm, homemade comforter on a chair. This seems to be a popular way to photograph babies back then. These heavy, warm comforters seem to have been made from heavier men's clothing material.





Though this isn't the same comforter pictured above, it was one of Grandma's, and is made from heavy material, with thick cotton batting, and I think an old blanket was used for the backing. Talk about heavy, warm and toasty!




Here's a closeup of the arrangement of pieces in blocks. The comforter the baby is sitting on seems to be a 9-patch, while this one seems to be more of a 6-piece arrangement in each block, then put together with sashing of various kinds.




This shows a corner section of the back, showing what I'm sure is an old blanket of some kind. It's fairly worn in some places, especially on the edge. We used it a lot when I was growing up to put between bedsprings and the mattress to protect the mattress from the springs. Well, in the last few years I put a stop to that and it's retired to a careful rest.




This shows the hand stitching on the back edge - the top was simply folded over the edge and stitched to the back. You can also see the kind of yarn that was used to tie the comforter. In this case, Grandma used two colors for tying each knot.





Like I said, this combination of heavy fabric in the top, a heavy cotton batting, and a blanket for the backing makes this really warm. You pick it up in any way and it's definitely got some weight to it! It reminds me of an old comforter at a friend's house once. I think it might've been her husband's folks or something. It was a comforter that had a WOOL BLANKET for filling plus whatever other layers might've been in it - it was as heavy as lead! But it was sure warm, toasty sleeping. :)

Progress

Making progress -


Here's the material I cut out of the two skirts:






Plus, progressing with quilting on the Jacob's Ladder and this Log Cabin:

The "Curiosity" Quilt

In the first post on this blog, I showed a picture and article from back in the '60's, of my Grandma Cline and some of the quilts she had made. In this picture, again, you can see a quilt to her immediate right (viewer's left) called a "Curiosity" pattern, according to the article:





I have this very quilt! After Grandma passed away, her things were divided up, and we ended up with this quilt. I remember that one of the years I was in college, I used it as a bedspread in my dorm room. So it's showing a little wear from that and all the previous years, and all the years since. And somehow, I see there's some water-damage of some kind, but not completely ruinous.


There are several things to notice about this quilt. The solid blue used in both some of the blocks and for sashing between the blocks. Added piecing of strips and/or various little pieced blocks to make the finished block sizes match. All the various prints and patterns, which is one thing I always enjoy about old quilts - seeing the types of material available back in that day. And for some reason, I particularly like the border and binding on this quilt - it's fun and colorful! Here's a picture of the whole quilt - sorry this one is just a tad blurry:




Here it is in sections - top left section ...




... top right section ...




... bottom right section ...




... and bottom left section.




Now to show the blocks, in no particular order.


A little flower basket and a square to help fill out:




Lavender flower:




Tan-and-white pieced block - wow this looks tedious to me! There are two of these blocks in the quilt, this one looks best:




A pieced hexagon with four 9-patch blocks:




Pink and blue "flower":




Double 9-patch:




Fan with 9-patch:




Friendship block - "Miss Was":




Spiral, blue with interesting black print:




Red and white blocks on point:




A 9-patch variation with "pointed" corners:




Blue plaid pinwheel:




Two star-type blocks:




Spiral, blue with rose print:




Spiral, blue with floral print:




Bowtie:




Crazy-pieced hexagon with interesting-patterned black fill-in strip:




And lastly, a favorite "corner view" - showing a 4-patch (in each of the corners) and the border and binding I like so much:

And ....

.... this one's gonna get cut up into squares, too. (See previous post.) This, plus what I get from the other skirt, should make a decent-sized comforter. Hopefully. :)

Repurposing

This is a skirt.


This is only a skirt.


If this had been an actual wardrobe item, I'd be wearing it.


(Remember those "broadcasting tests" on TV and radio? ha ha)


In these times where we tend to "think green" (recycling, etc.), the word "repurposing" often comes up. Instead of throwing an item away, you overhaul it for another purpose.


I am going to "repurpose" this skirt.


I got it at the thrift store for A DOLLAR. I liked the "country prints," and I like long skirts. But it's a little big on me, so it tends to slide down, which bugs me. The style isn't what you'd call "current." The materials are pretty bold. So I'm picturing .... a tied comforter made out of big squares, with a denim-colored binding. It may not be very big, it may be a "kid-sized" comforter. But that's where it's headed at this point! Of course, it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind if she wishes. :)


This all makes me think of a favorite old-time saying:


"Use it up; wear it out; make it do or do without."


Thinking that this skirt really doesn't have a future if I send it back to the thrift store, I'll give it a whole new life as a totally different item. And have creative fun in the process!

Tiny Quilt

Here's the teeniest, tiniest quilt I ever made. Well, it's technically not exactly a quilt, since it has no batting and no quilting stitches. But it's definitely patchwork and has the look!





Here I'm holding the quilt, to give an idea of its size, about 5 inches by 7 inches. If I remember right, those itty-bitty triangles were *really tedious* to work with! Hence, I've only made this one, and that was a long, long time ago. But it fits nice in the little rocking chair. :)