Sunday, July 19, 2020

Quilts in my future

My grandmother used to make the most wonderful quilts.. she was so thrifty in her crafting it was awe inspiring..
not one bit of anything was tossed if it could be reused..
my favorite quilts were the ones she made out of grandpa's overalls for the top and his flannel shirts on the underside...
she used whatever fabrics that were worn too much for a sturdy outer side piece on the inside.. didn't matter if they matched weights she would layer the light ones..

 then she tied them with yarn as they got so heavy it was impossible to machine stitch them..
They were so heavy you could barely move under them.. the idea of the new weighted blankets makes me laugh.. they have nothing on hers lol..
Movement may have been limited but you were definitely toasty warm..

very functional and to me beautiful..
she would let me help cut and even do some sewing.. on her treadle machine.. at the time I started helping I was about three so it was a very big deal to me.. she knew I  couldn't get it moving too fast as I wasn't able to reach the treadle very well.. but loved every second of it..

 I have dabbled in sewing ever since..
 made a large part of my kids clothes..
made some for myself..
but never got to those quilts I had dreamed about doing..
 I plan on doing some purely out of salvaged fabrics.. recreating what she made I highly doubt I can pull off..
I am not lucky enough to have such a strong sewing machine or wringer washer for that matter..
grandpa used to have to help wash them as lifting when wet wasn't an easy job...
machines these days couldn't handle it :( ..
I do want to try a few others.. what we used to call fancy ones.. she was pretty good at them too..
I have been making masks for months now.. I didn't think to safe the smaller pieces of fabric until I had made a few hundred or so..
Dawned on me I could stitch them together to make a bigger fabric.. found out afterwards it's crumbs quilting for small pieces and scrap quilting for the bigger ones..
I am as careful as I can be when cutting fabric so there isn't much 'waste ' to begin with but I  did take a couple of hours off to just play with making bigger pieces... 
Good practice for my future quilting projects 

Stay safe.. wear a mask.. wash your hands.. 
Best wishes