I Made It, and I Have to Live with That

Soooo, I was at my parents' house recently, and I grabbed a bag of random fabric out of the closet in my old room to bring back to Austin. I figured I would analyze the contents for craft potential. In the bag, there was a familiar partially pieced patchwork quilt top by my great-grandmother, Alice. 

Unfortuantely, sometime in the late 90s, I attempted a little patchwork piecing of my own. I gathered some of the loose squares my great-grandmother cut for her project, along with fabric from my Mom's scrap stash, and a terry cloth towel (?????). This monstrosity was the result:

Yeah, so the giant yellow square is the terry cloth towel. Not only is the tag still attached to some of the towel, but it shows on the front of the would-be quilt top.

Classy. On the one hand, yay for my fearless, crafty, younger self. On the other hand, yikes.

The best thing about this patchwork project is definitely identifying the fabrics left over from costumes my mom made for school plays in kindergarten and fifth grade. 

I think the orange sparkly fabric came from an old shirt of my friend's that we cut up.

As for the towel, I definitely remember pulling one out of the linen closet that I didn't think would be missed.

Speaking of misses, do you have any quilting endeavors hiding in your house that are equally horrifying? Have you ever tried piecing an old terry cloth towel into any of your quilt tops?

At least I've set the bar for weirdness high. Happy crafting!

Alice's String Quilt

I've shared with you before some of the quilts made by my great-grandmother, Alice, like a patchwork square quilt and a Double Wedding Ring quilt. Today, I've got an awesome string quilt of hers to show! It's all hand pieced and hand quilted.

True to her style, this is another large bed quilt. My limited wingspan is not enough to spread it out. I need to whip up one of those crafty quilt photo frames like Heather did over on fiberosity. 

Alice sewed clothes in addition to quilts, so there's no doubt some of these scraps were leftovers from garment construction. I'm in love with the little bunnies in the blue fabric in the foreground.

This quilt has definitely been loved, by people and maybe some moths. Oops. I love the brightly colored print below the worn yellow strip, though. I so hope that fabric was leftover from making an amazing dress.

The binding was made by folding over the back of the quilt and hand stitching it to the front. I haven't tried this binding technique, but I see folks doing this now, too. There are some tutorials out there.

The back is just two pieces of yardage sewn together to make a wide enough back. I've seen so many beautiful modern string quilts. This one fits right in with its improv style. It's such a treasure, and I'm glad I get to share it with you.

Hang on to those scraps. There could be a string quilt in your future that someone will treasure for years to come!

Happy crafting!

A Visit from the Quilt Fairy

My friend scored this quilt top years ago at a garage sale with plans to finish it. It's hard enough as a quilter to finish your own projects, never mind picking up someone else's unfinished top as a non-quilter and making it into a usable quilt. She finally decided to take it off her To Do list, by giving the quilt top to me. Hooray!

It measures 84"x68" which means it could make a home on a full size bed, I suppose. The fabrics are not soft, and they're not very tightly woven. Some of them are really charming, though.

The cowboys and the yellow paisley prints are lots of fun. I don't know that the sashing fabric would have been my first choice for a quilt top that required so much work, but it is well pieced.

And all pieced by hand. Shazam. Very impressive. I've never made a block with eight intersecting points. 

I guess I have to put that on my To Do list, right along with finishing this quilt top. It's definitely been waiting long enough.

Have you ever taken a vintage quilt top and turned it into a finished quilt? Would it be wrong (or a waste of time) to take the blocks out and sash it with something cuter? The fabric in the blocks is still scratchy. I'd love to know what you think!

Happy Crafting!

Alice's Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Earlier this month I introduced you to my great-grandmother, Alice. She was a prolific quilter, and I was lucky to have her in my life until I was ten.

One of my favorite quilts of hers is a Double Wedding Ring quilt. I was fascinated by the illusion of interlocking rings when I was a kid, and it reminded me of the Olympic rings.

I was so intrigued by it that I was inspired to make a Double Wedding Ring quilt as my first project when I started quilting. Oops. I was crazy ambitious, but it did come together by hand (over a number of years). I wish I had a picture to share, but it was gifted away. While my Double Wedding Ring quilt used templates for each piece in the ring, Alice's definitely doesn't.

Rather the pieces in the ring seem to be assembled haphazardly, and the ring may have just been cut out of a pieced section. Highly crafty. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the curved sections are put together. I get such a kick out of these wonky pieces when I think about how long it took me to cut out all of the pieces that made up the curves in the quilt I made. At least I had a rotary cutter.

I loved showing this quilt at the February Austin Modern Quilt Guild meeting, since we brought quilts that inspired us. Everyone loved the yellow binding. 

I sure do, too. The back is all green fabric like the background fabric on the front of the quilt.

It really shows off the quilting. With so much effort put into hand quilting all around the pieces and in the middle of the blocks, the back looks as pretty as the front to me. I definitely did not go into this much detail when hand quilting the Double Wedding Ring quilt that I made ;-)

This is a perfect example of why Clare at selfsewn prefers solid backs to pieced ones. The quilting really does stand out when the back is once solid piece of fabric. 

I'm humbled and happy whenever I look at this quilt. I hope you've enjoyed getting to know it, too!

Happy Crafting!

A Tale of Two Patchwork Quilters

The reason I'm so passionate about quilts is this lady:

This happening gal is my great-grandmother, Alice. The quilts she created had such an impact on me that I didn't pause to think how weird it was to be working on a queen-sized quilt in my dorm room freshman year of college. Clearly my coolness is innate.

My mom said Alice's quilts often used scraps from garment making, but there were a few places where yardage was bought. The combination of scraps and purchased yardage resulted in some great patchwork quilts.

From a distance, you get the feel of the piece as a whole. It's lively, and it's bed-sized (hence the use of a ladder and my failure to fully stretch it out). While it might not be the most beautiful patchwork quilt you've ever seen, it's not the least attractive. 

I can't say as much for some of the fabrics. 

As a child I was fascinated by all of the different colors and textures of the fabrics.

The magic of patchwork is the different fabrics read as a whole when you step away. Somehow they become something beautiful. 

Two pieces of fabric were joined to make a wide enough back for this quilt. That's as close to piecing a back as Alice ever came. No one pieced quilt backs then, and it was complete news to me when I started quilting again last year. If people were piecing backs in 2001, I didn't know about it. 

What's especially fascinating to me is the way Alice bound the quilt.

It's really as if the backing was just wrapped around the front and folded under before being hand sewn to the top.

If anyone binds their quilts this way, I'd love to hear about it. 

I knew it was time to share photos of some of Alice's quilts after seeing Clare's beautiful patchwork quilts on her blog, selfsewn.

from this post

Kapow! Now those are some beautiful patchwork quilts. All of Clare's tiny squares recalled my great-grandmother's patchwork to me. Clare has a great blog, and I'm so happy to have discovered it last month. I've since pored over it and found her making the same observations about patchwork.

"To tell you the truth some of the hexagons, in my mind are downright hideous!! But strangely they do work together as a whole."

I love it! 

Clare kindly answered my questions about her quilting process. Her stash and her quilts both seem to come together in an organic way. She'll buy fabric anywhere. "I like the unusual fabrics and the more colourful the better!" It's a rarity for her to buy fabrics at full price. She's been known to barter at French flea markets and walk away the victor with old French overalls.

from this post

I love Clare's position on piecing quilt backs: she doesn't do it.

Clare points out that no one is interested in the back unless you're entering a piece into a competition, which is not the point of her quilting. When you've put so much work into the front of the quilt, who wants to piece the back? She says she would never get anything finished if she had to piece quilt backs as well, and she would prefer to invest that fabric in the quilt top. Plus, Clare says when the back of the quilt is a whole piece you can really show off the quilting. So true.

Clare's quilt tops come together from her stash. She keeps a lot of scraps, some of which are quite small, and she rarely buys fabric especially for a project. I think it's interesting that she calls herself an "independent quilter." She doesn't limit herself to the fabric fashions and the latest designers. "I do not like quilts made with one collection, I find them too matchy matchy," she says. Good point.

from this post

It's not at all surprising to hear that from a person who makes such beautiful patchwork. However, it is interesting that she feels this puts her on the outside in some way. She says "I really don't consider myself to be a 'proper' quilter, I don't really follow any rules."

from this post

For me, it's concerning when someone making beautiful patchwork and quilting very much in the style of my great-grandmother feels that her approach is against the mainstream. I worry that too many rules are being applied to the craftiness of quilting if you can be mainstream or independent. Clare talks about the simple squares being a nice break from her intricate paper piecing. While she admits "matching all the seams perfectly was a little tedious!!" Alice did not go to as much trouble. Her patchwork squares don't always match up perfectly, and I find it a relief.

from this post

I know Clare's beautiful projects would have been a hit with Alice, who would have loved that fussy cut hummingbird. I'll share more of Alice's quilts in the future. In the meantime, quilt without rules and go check out selfsewn. You're in for a treat! Clare's writing is hysterical and her patchwork is the prettiest I've ever seen.

I'm linking up with Schwin & Schwin and Creative Itch.