Reading about Quilting

I just finished this book a couple days ago and mailed it off to my quilting mentor.  It is a collection of old short stories where quilting was featured.  Many of the stories had been published in magazines popular to women.  At first the stories seemed pedantic, simplistic and sexist, but then, the settings were in the 1880's and early 1900's and many of the editors were men, so when looking at it in that light, I began to enjoy them for what they were.  The end of the book held a nice list of all the quilting books they'd found in their search.

I hope my quilting mentor reads this book and enjoys it like I did.  She is researching and collecting research books on old quilts.  She rebuilds them in the current, acceptable way which includes saving and "sandwiching" the old parts, rather than cutting and replacing like I had done with the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.  

Rebuilt Sun Bonnet Sue

I rebuilt this quilt using as much of the "Sun Bonnet Sue's" that were salvageable from a friend's quilt that her grandmother, Annie Cordelia Earle,  had made years ago.  My friend, Lesley, wasn't sure exactly when her grandmother had finished the quilt.

The quilt had seen good use over the years and was well loved so it was well worn.  Figuring out how to rebuild this quilt, with my new quilting skills and still learning, and trying to stay faithful the the original quilter's style and measurements, was quilt the challenge.  I'd figured this would take me all winter, but instead, I finished it just after Christmas. The biggest mistake I made was in not pinning (basting) it tightly enough through the three layers.  There is some puckering on the back that the original quilt did not have.  It laid flat.  Now I know how to correct for that (using painters tape or masking tape and laying the backing on the floor, taped, before layering the others, and using a "grapefruit spoon" to place the basting pins.

It was such an intimate thing to make this quilt.  To make any quilt really.  People who don't quilt and who are given a quilt by someone, really don't have any way to fully appreciate the time and the love that went into a quilt.  I know now.  It is amazing.  It is a beautiful labor of love. 

A friend suggested I take a piece of the old fabric, still in good shape, off the original and sew it on the back and put both our names on it.  And sew I did.

Quilting Socks

My quilting mentor and Thelma to my Louise sent me these socks.  I've earned my quilting wings, uh, er, socks, she said.  Love 'em. 

My Granddaughter's Quilt - FINISHED!

We drove to Connecticut while I worked on trying to finish my granddaughter's quilt.  I'd convinced myself that it was OK if it wasn't finished by the time we got there. It wasn't to be a Christmas present (you can't give a child  a quilt for Christmas - it's just not a good Christmas present) so I figured if I had to sit and work on it while chatting and enjoying time with our family, that was no problem.  Still, part of me wanted it to be finished by the time we pulled up to the house.  

Five minutes before we arrived, I put in the last stitch.  

On this quilt, I sewed the pieces together on the sewing machine for the topper.  But I hand-stitched everything else - I quilted the batting and backing/lining together, doing a "stitch-in-the-ditch" and hand stitched the binding.  

Working on Granddaughter's Quilt

I took a break from quilting for a while to get Christmas cards out.  I stopped working on the Sunbonnet Sue quilt in order to get this one done for my granddaughter, for Christmas.  

Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt Travels to North Carolina and Back

Quilting with my friend and mentor, Karen, in North Carolina.  Last April, Karen got me started making traditional style quilts, doing the hand stitching to bind the layers.  I am still making progress on the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt and am almost done.  All that is remaining are 15 pink triangles around the edges and stitching "in the ditch" around the binding seam.  So, you are thinking that 15 triangles sounds like a lot.  I guess so, but that is how optimistic I am.  A couple good days and I could be done.

I took a break though because my friend, Les, who I am doing the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt for, doesn't have a deadline for when she wants the quilt.  The deadline was self-imposed.  I wanted to get it done before Thanksgiving, in order to give me a couple good weeks to get the next one hand stitched - the one for my granddaughter.

But here's what happened: I committed to doing the turkey for my daughter-in-law who is hosting Thanksgiving this year.  She is a vegetarian so it makes sense that someone else should offer to do the turkey, so I did.  And I offered to make the mashed potatoes, a butternut squash dish and a cranberry dish.  And another turkey got added in there as well.  As I sat quilting in the RV, and it was Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and I'd not really even decided on recipes, much less gone shopping.

And not only that - I had bursitis in my left shoulder and was in a lot of pain.  I think it was brought on by being hunched over for hours at a time quilting, tensed, as I pressed and pinched the fabric with my left hand while pushing and pulling the needle through the layers with my right hand.  It got so painful that I couldn't reach my left hand straight out in front of me without pain, such as to turn the radio station.  I couldn't lift it to fix my hair without pain. I was having trouble sleeping, i.e., rolling over was difficult.  Not to mention that I like to sleep on my left side.

Add to that some more whining: both my hands were messed up again dating back to a motorcycle accident I had several years ago where the backs of my hands slammed into and broke my side mirrors.  The glass and impact cut up my hands, severing some nerves.  After all these years, they were both almost back to normal.  Normal, being that I never thought about them anymore.  Never had pain or tingling.  I could wave at people without my middle through little finger on my right hand dropping forward.  But now it is back.  I don't have the droopy fingers but I have bright bouts of pain as I try to put on my coat or do anything that causes the little bump that has resurfaced, to be touched (like reaching my hand under my pillow at night.)

And I'm not finished whining yet.  The dry winter air caused the calluses on my left hand finger tips to crack and bleed. If you haven't ever hand quilted, calluses get developed due to getting poked with the business end of the needed, feeling for and guiding the needed through the layers.  So I realized I was putting tiny blood spots on the back side of the quilt.

....and I was developing a cold.  Dave and I almost never get sick, but yet here I was, sick.  I think it is due to stress.  And believe it or not, even though I am not working at a job anymore, and can do pretty much whatever I want, I was pushing so much to get this quilt done on a self-imposed schedule, that I became stressed and caught a cold.

So I packed it up and put it away for a few days.  

Sun Bonnet Sue Progress Report

I am making good progress on the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt that I'm rebuilding for a friend.  Her grandmother made it for her daughter when she was born. It was almost all in shreds except for a few of the sun bonnet sue girls that could be saved.  I cut them out and saved what I could.  My friend and I purchased new pink and off-white muslin as close to the original as we could find.  After working the sun bonnet sue repairs and piecing the top, I started hand stitching in the center of the quilt and am now finishing squares around the edges.  Then I will do the triangles on the edge and bind it.  Close but still no cigar.  

 Have quilt, will travel. Here I am working on the quilt in the closed bar that belongs to a friend.  Dave was helping make repairs and I accompanied him just to have a change of scenery from the inside of the RV.