Quilts

[Delmonico]

I think a few around here know I make quilts.  I don't do fancy ones, just nice ones you can use.  Simple squares are one kind I make, these have all been given as presents.  The ones I make for myself and use in my soogan and on the bed are all crazy quilts except one made up with about 6 different kinds of purple calicos, as in all the material has purple in it.  This has a matching pillow case and will fit a hospital bed.  (I was bored, very sick and I hate hospital blankets.  It has only been used once.)

The ones I make for myself are crazy quilts with pieced tops and bottoms.  Some have a top of wool or flannel and the bottoms are calico.  I use used wool and flannel but the calicos are all new material and in my crazy quilts it has to be scraps.  The squares ones I have made are material selected and bought for the person, but my crazies are scraps.

Well about a week before Christmas my mother found out we wern't done with shopping so she mentioned her and Dad really didn't need anything. (Hard to shop for really.)  She said the best present that they really used a lot was when I made them a flannel squares quilt two years ago.  "But I know you won't have time to make one," my mother says. 

Wrong I have an 8 foot by 7 foot crazy quilt top already made, just need batting, tieing and hemming.  Well 6:07am Christmas morning (I checked) it is done and in the washer and Rita and i are ready for a nights(?) sleep.  but it was worth it.

We were sitting on Mom's floor lookin' it over Christmas mornin' and was lookin' at the material.  All the colors of my "hospital quilt"  are there, both colors of the quilted Christmas tree skirts we made two years ago are there.  All three colors of my Nephews quilt I made him and his wife as a wedding present, they got married before I got it done when the wedding was moved to Jan 2003 instead of June cause he had to go to Iraq, it was in his apartment when he got home to his wife.

Several of my shirts are in it, funny some of my shirts and my hospital quilt have matching aprons and dish towels. (Can't resist cheap material if it is pretty.) 

My wife looked it over and pointed out this dress that she had made her or my step-daugher before we had met, some was made after we met and I could remember the dresses and skirts.  Some of the material she could not reconize and I informed her and my mother that it was from the scraps one of her co-workers had sent home to me when I was bad sick in 2002-2003 and was makin' quilts to keep from goin' crazy.  Bet Deb could tell some stories about Mom's quilt also. 

Course the others I have could tell as many stories.

[Forty Rod]

My Mom made me a quilt when I was in the seventh or eighth grade.  It fit a double bed, and many times over the years I'd take it to the mountains with me, lay out a ground cloth and fold the quilt in half on top, then pull a light tarp over the top to keep the dew off.  I'd wrap my boots in my coat for a pillow and go to sleep.  Real snug. 

I finally wore it out a couple of years ago, and Mom doesn't even remember it any more (she's almost 90 and her mind is losing bits and pieces here and there).

It wasn't anything fancy, just a "rag quilt", as Mom called it.  Had some flour and sugar sack material in it, some old shirts, a dress or two, and other odds and ends.  It was mostly yellow and light tan, with lots of other colors mixed in, lots of tiny little printed patterns common in the forties and fifties.

It had had holes burned in it by campfire, cigarette, and fireplace, was torn, moth eaten, worn through, and twisted all out of shape..

Before I finally got rid of it, it was stained by coffee, mud, blood, sweat, and a few dogs laying on it. 

I had patched it to the best of my ability a dozen times, maybe more, and had replaced most of the batting at one time or another, but it finally just got too thin to hold a stitch any longer.  Like so many things, I finally had to let go of it.

I sure miss that darned old quilt.

[Delmonico]

I have 4 very nice old quilts in a trunk.  Next year at Christmas all 3 of the kids are gonna get a quilt made by my Grandmother.  The fourth one?  Well my Great-Grandmother made it, so I'm keepin' it fer myself.   

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Sadly, I don't have the scrap material needed for a crazy quilt, so mine would have to be made from new fabric.

Del, we've talked before about your "tie" quilts. Are they the kind where the actual quilting of the batting isn't done with a machine, is it done by taking a strand of yarn and going through the quilt then back up close to where you went in, then tying off the yarn and leaving about two or so inches of the yarn dangling, cutting that, and making the next tie? I think another word for it is a rag quilt, but I am not sure and the lady who taught me about it died a little while back.

I'd love to make a few quilts, but I just don't have the space to make one properly.

AnnieLee

[Silver Creek Slim]

My grandmother made quilts. I have two of them she made. I also have my baby quilt. It has purple and white squares. Each square is embroidered with a nursery rhyme scene. I don't know who made it.

Slim

[Delmonico]

Yes Annie thats the kind, I don't like yarn though, I use either embroidery thread or that stuff ya make crouchet doilys out of.  (The doilly stuff there seems to be lots of it around here to steal from Rita.)  These are easier and are actually warmer because of more dead air space. 

Most of the fancy quilts that survive are the ones that were sewn cause they were used to cover the bed when company came and such, many were not used every day.  The quicker and easier to make tied ones were the one often used and the were used up and thrown away.  My research says a lot of the everyday ones were pieced on two sides.  They are both warmer and new material is not needed..  Do yer squares Annie, sew them together and when yer ready to tie it, move everything in the house to make room.  That is what I have to do.  Right now most of my sewing room is in the gun room.   Pin the edges and sit in yer chair and do that, ya only need room fer about 2-3 hours.

[Forty Rod]

Slim was a baby?

Hard to imagine.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Slim was a baby?

Hard to imagine.

Slim

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Heck, easier to imagine Slim as a baby than Forty Rod in a teddy, but some of us did that....


<still blind>

AnnieLee

[Forty Rod]

A baby in a red beard?

C'mon.  That's really hard to imagine.

As for me in a teddy, start with a picture of Jabba the Hut.....!

See!  It's easy.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Slim as a baby.

(This one's really bad.... )

[Terry]

AnnieLee.  No room?  My wife gave up using a quilting frame 20 years ago.. She sits on the couch, occasionally glancing at the TV using a large  "quilters hoop".  Granted, she spends several hours a day on her quilts.  Although she is considered fairly quick at making 100 percent handstitched quilts, she only gets out about two a year.

As far as historical reference.  Handstitched quilts were used everyday and will last for a very long time.  Secret to longevity was the quality of the material (much better then) and especially the thread.  You don't want to piece one using cheap Wal-Mart thread.  My wife special orders hers, I forget what it is but it is one of the things she is the most picky about.  Granted, in the olden days they used scraps, rarely buying any material for the purpose.  Today's hard-core quilters use specific cotton material made for quilting and made to last several lifetimes.  She made one about twenty years ago for one of our kids using local store bought thread.  Washing it about once a week, it came apart after a few years and she was pissed.....

[Will Ketchum]

My wife makes both hand sewn quilts and machine sewn.  I just bought her a quilting machine so she can quilt the machine sewn one if she chooses to.

Delmonico, she calls her hand sewn, piece work quilts "Crazy quilts" but after reading about them they really aren't.  She does use every bit of scrap she can.  Even going as far as saving pieces an inch square to use for hotpad type projects.

Last Christmas she made a California king sized patch work quilt  (120"x120") for some friends of ours she fell and broke her little finger on her right hand on December 12th.  She didn't think she would be able to tie it off in time for Christmas.  The head of our department told her to bring it in to work and 5 of us tied it off in the conference room in 45 minutes .

Her parents in their late 80s use a quilting frame made from 2x4s.  We have one but don't have room in our house with the grandkids living here.  I bought her one form Joann Fabrics made from PVC which she just loves.  I have thought of getting her one of the hoops that Terry mentioned.

She does most of her hand sewing while sitting up in bed, pillow in her lap and work in front of her.  She has made many quilts like that.  They are more for therapy that anything else.  They help her relax.  When someone asks how much she would charge for one I tell them at minimum wage they would be looking at over $500.  She mostly gives them away but did make 2 for friends who paid her $150 each but she felt guilty taking it.  Sometimes I can't figure her out

If you are at the NCOWS convention you 2 will have to get together about quilting.

Will Ketchum

[Terry]

I think it's therapy for my wife also, keeps her from getting bored to death.  If I get that bored, I mess with a gun or two plus I always have some project going on.  My wife has made dozens of her all-hand-sewn ones, gives them away - I think there are only about 10 or 12 left in her closet.  She sold one to a good customer of ours once just because the woman really liked it - my wife figured she made 5 cents an hour.  Because of the materials she uses, cost comes to around $150 so she made $200 for labour for six months work   Then she bad about about selling out.....must be some kind of artist thing.....

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

I don't know if it is an artist thing, but I can attest to the "feeling bad about it."

I usually give away the things I make. But one time a lady asked me to make her a cloak. I did and it turned out very nice, but she really wanted to pay me for it. I didn't know what to charge her, I probably had close to $200 in the fabric alone, then there was the labor. But I didn't want her thinking I was ripping her off. So, I told her I got the fabric at a fantastic sale and told her the price was $60. She paid it and was happy with it.

But wanting to pay for it makes me very, very uncomfortable. I make things because I enjoy making them, and a lot of times I give them away because I simply feel like it. A lot of people have been very good and kind to me in my lifetime. Sometimes, I give stuff away so there'll be a balance in the "karma points."

Yeah, I know, I'd probably make a crappy business woman if I tried to make a business out of any of my hobbies, and yep, I'll probably die poor. But I don't mind, as long as I get to do those things that I enjoy.

AnnieLee

[Delmonico]

I make mine sittin' in front of the tv, can't just sit and watch a show.  My output on both clothes and quilts is determined by the quality of the tv shows.  Ain't turned out much in the last 6 months.  I have a shirt I need to finish, different than any most have seen.  Hum, maybe rent a movie and finish it by convention and wear it.

Oh ya I will be there Will at least on Sunday cause I'm doin' a seminar.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

I'll be with you in spirit at the convention.

I don't think I could hand sew a quilt, because of the time involved. It takes me forever to knit a scarf! (The one I am working on is pretty, though; a plum alpaca yarn). But I could probably put together squares on the machine.... would quilting thread from Jo-Ann fabrics run in a machine?

AnnieLee

[Will Ketchum]

Joan say's that she tied one quilt off with embroidery thread but by the time she was done she had blisters on her fingers.

Del, I pretty sure we are going to have to leave early Sunday morning to make it back home and to work on Monday.

o those of you who have the Time Life Old West Series in the book "The Woman" page 75 the young woman second from the left with the needle and thread in her hand bares a remarkable resmblance to my wife when I first met her.  For those who don't have the book it is a picture of 7 woman and 2 children sitting around a quilting frame.  It is in several other books as well. ( as a side note, I wonder how they opened that door  with the big buck mounted to it?  Someone obviously wanted it in the picture)

Will Ketchum

[Delmonico]

It runs in the machine I use the most, never tried it in any of the others.  I use it a lot when I sew bags out of canvas.

[Curley Cole]

Before my mom passed she split up the family quilts between me, my sister and brother.
My sis and I got the "Logan family quilts" guess they were "loomed" they are marked withtthe logan name and dated 1849. Both of them are dark blue and white. My brother got the unfinished quilt. all the squares were cut out and all the rest of the parts are there, but I doubt it will ever be put together, at least not by him...It's interesting to look at the different squares of material and the colors...
I keep mine on a quilt rack, display only thank you, in our guest room...

curley