Oldest Fabric - Box #3

Today I had hoped to link up with Behind the Seams - Fabric Party at Fabric Engineer.

The Party is was a challenge to talk about your oldest fabric.  I am late in getting this post done, but thought you might be interested anyhow.

My Maternal Grandmother was a seamstress.  Born in 1906 she lived 80 years in Pennsylvania.  My Mom used to tell that Grandma's brother (she had something like 11 siblings) raised ducks when my Mom was young (in the 1940's) and they used the duck feed sacks for clothing and table linens.

I think I have inherited a number of these sacks . . . along with other vintage fabric.

In the past I have opened a box from my closet and shown what was in the box.  I will call this Box #3. You can see other posts where I opened boxes in my room:

Box #1

Box #2a and Box #2b

Box #3 is where I keep all the fabrics that I THINK are vintage from my Grandmother.  I have two pieces, same size, of number of these fabrics.

Here are pictures:

I think I've seen this fabric reproduced recently...
Or at least one VERY MUCH like it.

I had another piece of this flowered fabric and used it in a tree skirt for my Mom

as a Christmas gift one year.  

This piece with the houses, children, balloons, etc. is probably NOT a feed sack.  

But I am pretty sure it is OLD - maybe a piece my Grandmother had when Mom was a child.

I don't know about this orange, either.  The print looks more like the 1960's than some of the others.  

It has the same, course texture that the other fabrics have.

I have more boxes in my sewing room...  It's always an adventure to open one up!

CathyH

UFO #6 - June

I am making progress!!!

This is my June Un-Finished Object.

I found this beauty - well, the pieces - in a rectangular Tupperware container about the shape of a piece of notebook paper.  On my bookshelf in the sewing room.  It was well stored - with the extra fabric carefully folded into the box.

My Mom had started this project - and never finished it.  She had sewn all the blue and yellow pieces together and had attached them to the "leaf-shaped" pieces of white fabric.  I had never sewn curvy quilt seams (although I have done a significant number of clothes with sleeves that require curvy seams) so I got to try something new - finishing the piecing for these four circles.

My goal for this UFO was to practice fancy quilting on my machine.  

Maybe you can see it better in the photo below:

I WAS going to try free-motion quilting again (remember: I tried that for the first time for the April UFO) but I was really trying to do some exact quilting on this pretty Double Wedding Ring table topper.  So I first used my walking-foot to quilt the wedding rings. Then I just used my 1/4 inch foot to do the fancy curves and points.

The last time I did fancy quilting, I used thread the same color as the back of the quilt, so the quilting was not very visible.  This time I used a gray thread in the bobbin so the back shows the quilt work.

I also used just a single layer of fabric for the binding so that it is just barely a quarter inch on the front and on the back.  As a table topper, this will also keep the edges from having a raised lip.

For now, I am going to use it on my Grandmother's treadle machine that sits in our entry-way.

I'm linking to  Patchwork Times.

2012 UFO CHALLENGE

CathyH

UFO # 5 May

I have reached my May UFO goal: the top of this quilt:

A previous post described the planning process for this quilt.

My Mom used to make table runners.  The pattern she used had quite a bit of left-overs.  Each of these blocks represent a table runner my Mom had made.  She used to give them away as gifts and gave them to her church so they could sell them in their thrift store.

  I have a dear friend who used to sew with my Mom, even after Mom had moved into the Alzheimers Assisted Living facility. She helped Mom make DOZENS of the table runners. She just recently bought a quilting machine.  How fitting that she will be the one to quilt this beautiful Runner Quilt.

I'm linking this to Patchwork Times

2012 UFO CHALLENGE

CathyH

Mother's Day

Today I want to show and tell.
Show you some quilts made by my Mother-in-Law.
And tell you what a wonderful lady she is.

Almost eight years ago my In-Laws moved from the west coast to live in the same city where we live.  Six and a half years ago we moved next door to them.  My kids have LOVED this: if they can't get enough chocolate at home, they go next door to Grandpa and Grandma's house!

(Grandma has multiple candy bowls - filled with the favorite candy of each grandkid, son, and daughter-in-law!)

And she carries a legacy of functional creativity.
Her Mother made a quilt for every grandchild as they graduated from high school.  Let's see - there were six siblings, two or more kids each - Grandma made over 15 quilts (hand-pieced and hand-quilted) for high school graduations.

Grandma pieced more quilts than she could quilt!!  Some of the quilts my Mother-in-Law stitched were tops that Grandma never got to quilt.  

This Grandmother's Flower Garden is entirely hand pieced 

by Grandma and hand-quilted by my Mother-in-Law.

I  think a lot of the fabrics were old shirts and scraps. 

I love the red honey-comb effect!

The top of this pinwheel quilt was her mother's handwork, 

and hand-quilted by my Mother-in-Law.

Here is her first full quilt made in a sampler class.  (I need to get a better picture: the colors are badly washed out)  This was a class taught at her church - and is probably the first quilt where she purchased matching fabrics for the quilt!  

The Pink and Blue was VERY much in vogue in the 1980's, 

when I think this quilt was created.

She always spoke of the Wheel of Mystery that she took to college.  Grandma had made it. Red and White.  And then my Mother-in-Law made one for on their bed.  It is a stunning pattern and remarkable work.

Hand Pieced.

Hand Quilted.

I wish you could meet my Mother-in-Law.  

She is a blessing to everyone who knows her.  

Every person who crosses her path is greeted with  cheerful joy and gracious hospitality.  

Proverbs 31:29 goes on to say

"Many women have done excellently,

but you surpass them all"

Yes, that describes my Mother-in-Law!

CathyH

Padded Hexagons

I have this amazing collection of Padded Hexagons. My Mom started this project sometime before 2005. I am attempting to complete the project.

I think the idea was for it to be totally scrappy. . . random colors all over the place. Mom had even begun to sew the Hexies together however they came out of her box.

My life had enough disorder - so I started sewing them together into 7-hex flowers of similar colors.

I'll tell about the size, process, and show the ideas for layout next time.

Good night!

CathyH