Have you discovered old quilts and/or patches in your attic or a closet?  Are there quilting patterns there?   

When cleaning out a closet in the old farmhouse where I grew up, after my mom developed Alzheimer’s, I discovered some old quilting patches.  Some were simply pre-cut pieces and others consisted individual blocks with the pieces stitched together.

I’d never seen these before and knew my mom hadn’t made them.  Although she encouraged me in my quiltmaking, she hadn’t done any since she was a young girl.  When I discovered them, Mother no longer had any memories about the blocks and pieces.

So I let my imagination take over.  These pieces must have been something given to Mother after her mother died because there were other mementos of that era in the box.  If my grandmother made them, it wasn’t when I was quilting with her. Perhaps they were from earlier days than that.

My daughter framed some of them as keepsakes for relatives.  Now that we have some books on fabric history, perhaps she and I can somewhat date these pieces.  This is another instance where I wish that quilts could talk.

Have you found any old quilting secrets in your attic or closet?  Share with us!

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

Post from: Blisstree

Are There Quilting Secrets in Your Attic?

 If your quilt could tell a story, what would it say? I think of the quilt I call, The Wedding Quilt.  I recall it always lying on the bed in the guest room of our farmhouse.  I can visualize one day, as Mother, Sister and I cleaned the room and made the bed for a visit from my aunt and uncle. 

Mother had aired the quilt on the clothes line on the south side of the house and now was folding it to place at the foot of the bed.  I don’t know if Sister or I asked a question or Mother was reminiscing.  However, she related that this quilt was one Father and she received as a wedding gift about 10 years before.

She probably told us who gave it to them, but now I don’t recall.  I hope someday that information will come forth from my subconscience.  Then I could better piece a story together.

If the quilt could talk, it might tell:

• Who made it.
• Where the various fabrics came from.
•  Who selected the pattern for the quilt.
• Did more than one lady sew and quilt it?  There were many fine stitches so it took quite some time.
• What did the quilters say as they worked on it.  Everything was made by hand, not by sewing machine.
• Does it recall Mother’s pleasure when she received it?  She must have treasured The Wedding Quilt because she placed it on the guest bed where it was used occasionally, not every day.

When I had to move Mother to my home after she developed Alzheimer’s, I found the quilt, now tattered and worn, midst a pile of old papers and rags, in a closet.  It also had been damaged by mice who must have liked the fabric and batting.

However, I’ve been able to salvage pieces of it and now am wondering what to do with them.  I also wish the quilt could talk and tell me stories of its origin.

What stories do your quilts tell?   With those you make, you’ll recall when, where and why you made them. 

Why not write these stories down?  So you’ll leave a legacy and future generations won’t be left to wonder.

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

Post from: Blisstree

If Your Quilt Could Tell a Story

I hope I’ve encouraged you with your quiltmaking and fabric art this year, have brought you  information and insight, have gotten you to look at some of your work with new insight and to explore different techniques.

Here are some 2007 posts you might want to check out:

Memories of Quilting and Tea with Grandma

My Mother, the Country Grocer, Inspired My Quiltmaking

The Importance of a Smile in Your Quilting World

Acrostic Quiltmaking?  Sharing Poetry!

Quilting & Patchwork Blogger Guest at Lifestyles Channel Promo Day

A Very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(c)2007 Mary Emma Allen

Post from: Blisstree

Quilting & Patchwork Throughout 2007

  As a new year approaches, I’m making plans for this blog and what I’ll include throughout 2008.  Input from you, my readers and friends, would help me make this a blog that will help, inform, entertain, and encourage you as you pursue your quiltmaking and fabric arts this year.

*Quilting Memories and Journaling – Due to the great response I’ve been receiving (comments on the blog and in private e-mails) to my posts about quilting memories, family legacies and preserving these, I will do more along this line. 

*Introducing Other Blogs – As I browse around the blogosphere and communicate with other quilters and fabric artists, I find so many interesting blogs.  I’ll do, at least monthly, a feature about what I’ve discovered.

*Interviews – Possibly you’d like to see interviews of quilters.  These might not always include those with nationally and internationally known names, but quilters who even might live “in your backyard.”

*What’s New?  – This can include new tools, techniques, and news of interest in the fabric art world.

What else would you like to see at Quilting and Patchwork?

(c)2007 Mary Emma Allen

Post from: Blisstree

What Would You Like to See at Quilting & Patchwork in 2008?

I don’t know if she bought it, or found she had an extra.  However, it was one of those tomoato red ones with the little red ball or tomato attached for keeping needles and pins sharp.  This remained in my sewing box for years.  (I have no idea where it, and the little sewing box Nanny gave me, disappeared in my many moves.)

When I was a 4-H leader, I taught the girls how to make pincushions for a sewing project.  Many of them exhibited theirs at the local fair.  

                 My treasured pincushion is one I use today.  My daughter made it during our 4-H years.  It consists of blue and white fabric with a piece of white lace around the middle.  The pincushion is shaped somewhat like a flattened ball with stuffing (the girls used polyester pillow fill).  However, it still serves me well.

My mother-in-law made me a crocheted pincushion one year as a Christmas gift.  It, too, has disappeared.  But for awhile I had both  my daughter’s and Mum’s pincushions to use.

Pincushions as Collectibles – Pincushions, along with other antique sewing accessories, are among the items that quilters often collect.  My daughter (now a quilter herself with her Meandering Threads blog) and I are always looking for sewing and quilting related items to add to our collection.

Post from: Blisstree

Quilters’ Passion for Pincushions

My maternal grandmother, Nanny, taught me the first rudiments about sewing and quilting when I was 6-8 years old.  Our first sewing sessions together consisted of making clothes for my dolls.  Nanny even made a cloth leg for one of my dolls who lost hers.

Then Nanny let me help her make quilts for us four children.  I recall sitting at her kitchen table, cutting pieces, then sewing them together by hand.  This went on for many days whenever I’d visit Nanny and Auntie at their Trails End farm. 

Often while Nanny and I worked on quilts, Auntie cooked and baked.  The memory of freshly made bread lingers.  I can almost taste a warm end piece spread with homemade butter.  (Perhaps that’s where my desire for crusty bread rather than cake or cookies developed.)

Later, after all four quilt tops were finished, Nanny, Auntie and a neighbor lady, Susie, spread backing, flannel sheet filling, and pieced top on the large table in the dining room.  I’d call this a quilting bee, even though the ladies tied the quilts rather than hand quilting them.  I was thrilled, and felt so grown up, that they allowed me to help.

I still have that quilt Nanny made for me, with my intials embroidered in the corner.  Even though it’s well worn, I treasure it.

Why don’t you share your memories about quilts and Grandma.  Even though you may not have made quilts with her, perhaps you have one she stitched for you.  Or have you been making quilts for your grandchildren?

Post from: Blisstree

Quilting With Grandmother

*Visit your grandparents.

*Invite your grandparents to your home.

*Take them out to eat.

*Send them a note, a card, a gift.

*Phone them if they live too far away.

*”Adopt” someone for a grandparent if yous live far away or are no longer living.

*Teach grandparent appreciation to your children.

         *Make a Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt! 

*Write  “What grandparents mean to me”  story and post it on your blog.

*Tell your children and grandchildren about your grandparents so those stories aren’t forgotten        and lost to your family history.

*Recall quilting with your grandmother…or resolve to do some quiltmaking with Grandmother  (and Grandfather, too).

How are you remembering Grandparents’ Day?

Post from: Blisstree

Quilters, Take Time to Remember Grandparents’ Day!

“Yes,” I thought, “time does lend humor to situations we find difficult to laugh at the time they’re happening.” 

Then I recalled situations in my quilting business I can look back on now with humor.  If I’d learned to see the humor while they were happening, I wouldn’t have had so much stress at the time.

*”Mary, the batting is coming through the back of my quilt like popcorn,” a customer commented.  When I looked at her queen sized quilt, I had to agree.  Little tufts of the polyester/cotton batting were coming through between the threads.  Research revealed that this was possible when you used polyester/cotton batting with some fabrics.

The daunting task of replacing the batting was time consuming, involving taking out all the ties (fortunately it wasn’t hand or machine quilted), ripping out the border seams, removing the batting, putting in new and finishing the quilt again.  I was fortunate that the lady was understanding, patient while I fixed the problem.  Fortunately she still wanted the quilt.  I now can share this incident with other quilters and laugh, instead of moan, hopefully encouraging them.

Since those experiences with the earlier business, Jim and I have tried to find humor in situations, even though we sometimes have to stretch to do it.  This doesn’t mean disregarding the problems or being slap-stick silly.  It has taught us to try finding some humor in our day to get through the tough times…and to inspire others

I frequently call to mind a quote of Florence Littauer’s in her book I’ve Found My Keys, Now Where’s My Car?  She relates various episodes of her life of getting through the tough times as well as developing her writing/speaking business.  At the end of each chapter, which she sparks with her definitive sense of humor, “Make the Tough Times Count.”

Sometimes you can do this with humor and sometimes not.  But humor will help lighten the load…and make a chuckling, often encouraging, story later on.

Post from: Blisstree

Brighten Your Day With Humor In Your Quilting Business

 Until then I didn’t even know I had a muse or was supposed to!  However, as I put pencil to paper, a whimsical lady appeared, who seemed to be floating in air above a desk with my work.  Now when I’m asked if I have a muse she comes to mind. 

         Does this apply to my quilting, too.? Could you say that someone or something inspires you…one person or feeling more than others? 

 My thoughts of quilting so often go back to my grandmother sitting in her rocking chair beside the kitchen woodstove on winter evenings when I was ill with anemia and spent much time with her and my aunt at their Trails End Farm.  There Nanny taught me to stitch quilt pieces together from the flowered sacks the chicken feed came in. 

Nanny’s mother-in-law was a quilter, too, although she had died before I was born.  However, these ladies, along with stories my mother told about quilting on the farm when she was small, linger in my mind as I ponder my Trails End qulting heritage. 

So, if I were to say I had a muse, it might be the lingering aura of the Trails End quilting ladies.

Do you have someone or something that inspires you with your quilting?

Post from: Blisstree

Do You Have a Quilting Muse?

If you have, or can obtain, the March issue of this magazine, you’ll find more information on Gathered Yo-Yo Flowers in the “Quiltmakers’ Workshop” portion.

Have fun making these lovely yo-yo flowers.  Perhaps this will bring back memories of quilting with your grandmother, as it does with some people.

Post from: Blisstree

Yo-Yo Flowers – a New Twist on an Old Technique for Quilters