Last summer, I made a trip "home". My sister returned an old quilt to me then that I had purchased back in 1975 from the elderly ladies at the nursing home where our grandfather resided. She lives in an enormous old farm house and thankfully she rescued and stored many of the old things from our childhood home, which sat a few miles from where she lives now. I think I paid $5 for it at the time and it adorned my bed in my college dorm until I could afford a nicer spread. Yes, it was ugly! But it held the memories of those nice "old ladies" who were friends of my grandfather. It wasn't in this raggedy shape when I set off for Japan a few years after I purchased it and left it behind. However, it seems it found use with others in my extended family in the years after. In 1984, some 9 years after I bought it, I remember returning home for a visit and being upset with my now ex-brother-in-law when I discovered him using it on the floor bed of his old pick-up truck. That just seemed all around disrespectful to the work which had gone in to making it and to the use of my stored personal belongings in my parents home.
It certainly looked ready for the trash bag when my sister handed it to me and asked if I wanted to take it back to Japan with me. I am a quilter and spotted some interesting fabrics in it so took it with some reservations as I knew it would use up more than its fair share of space
The backside wasn't in as bad shape as the front. However, some of the holes went all the way thru it.
After an attempt to see if I could just replace the really worn patches, I stepped back and decided it was still a really ugly quilt! But, as a quilter, I noticed that actually there had been a method to the madness as it was composed of 4-patch squares and some of them were actually kind of nice. The women who had created this quilt probably would have been born somewhere around 1875 to 1910, give or take. But, they also would have been suffering from Alzheimer's, cataracts, glaucoma, and so on. Some of them seemed to have had a better sense of color combinations than others did. I couldn't fault the stitching, as these blocks were very well matched up with nice even centers by machine stitching.
As I started to take the quilt apart, I started to recognize fabrics. My memory started to jog as to why I had actually purchased the quilt in the first place! I loved my grandfather dearly and like "The Waltons", he lived with us on the family farm. After he moved into a nursing home, I visited him several times a week. My mother started to send along bags of old clothes with me for the women there to use for their crafts projects. Hey, there's one of Grandpa's everyday flannel shirts! Look, that pink and blue plaid was from one of Mother's favorite house dresses! Oh, that blue and gold stripe is from another one she always wore! My mother had been gone more than a dozen years and my grandfather nearly 30, but memories of them started to jump from the fabrics. No, not all of the fabrics within the quilt came from my home but I noticed and remembered several. The variations in the fabrics seemed to span decades of both good and bad design.
Salvaging the best blocks within a mostly light summery bluish tone, I set them as diamonds on newly purchased off-white cotton. I bordered them with fabric salvaged mostly from the back of the quilt where the blocks were larger and in better condition. I used remnants of polyester or other man-made fiber quilt batting. Then, I set to work quilting from a pattern I chose from a book on my shelf at home. Originally, the quilt had no batting and was tied with synthetic blue yarn.
Next:
I still had some interesting fabrics that were more autumn toned that I wanted to save. For example, the block below is one I made from piecing together the best bits of perhaps 3 different blocks. The orange fabric seems to have come from a cake flour bag. Look closely. Do you see the clever little "cake flowers"? The black and white patterned fabrics were tissue thin. They weren't even from the same patterns. I did a bit of a log cabin to combine the floral with the funky balls to make them one. Then, I backed them with new cotton fabric and did lots of stitching to give them some more support.
Each of the blocks have at least part of the original fabric. But, I needed to go into my own supply to add in extra for some of the blocks. Then, I also needed to use some of my own fabric for the border as there just weren't enough pieces left-over that were sturdy enough to start a new life as a new-old quilt. I had some 100% cotton batting in my closet that I really wanted to use up so decided to see how it might change the look of two quilts with the same design but in different tones. Unfortunately cotton batting just doesn't emphasize quilt patterns as nicely as polyester does. They just fade away into the background. Needing a little more pizazz I experimented with a zig zag on my faulty old machine. Then, I strung embroidery floss thru the stitches for instant embroidery. I don't like this quilt as much as the blue toned one, but I'm glad I could rescue some of the cool fabrics within it.
Original created in 1975 by the women of Elm Haven. Renewed in 2012 by yours truly.
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