Skip to main content

Full of Wonder

I started working on the antique diamond patchwork in hopes that it would jumpstart my quilting mojo again. Bit of sewing trivia: during the Victorian period brown was a predominant color in fabric prints, so much so that quilters and costumers often refer to that time as the brown era.

First I ironed, batted and pinned it. For the backing I used a scrap piece of cream-colored vintage muslin:

I decided to add a touch of my time period using a light gold Holographic Sulky to quilt it (just very simply with an outline stitch; I want the fabrics to be the show-stoppers):

How do I describe what it's like to work on a piece this old . . . magical, really. The fabric patches still have a bit of crispness to them, and yet are as soft as silk as my needle and thread sing through them. The prints are so charming and delicate, and fascinate me endlessly. I feel a connection to whoever pieced this each time I look at the colors and composition, or touch the fabrics:

As I work on it I run my fingers over the precise seams, and wonder where these bits of fabric came from 140 years ago. I think these might have been trimmings from the maker's scrap bag, leftover from the clothes she made for herself and her family.

Once I finish quilting and binding it I think I'll hang it in the office, to remind me that what we love (and what we do with that love) survives us to inspire future generations. :)

Labels:

Comments

the author said…
Seeing if comments are working now.
May 25, 2020 at 4:49 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...
1 comment
Read more

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more

Store Closing Haul

The mega Books-A-Million store over in Sanford is closing, and offered an extra 20% off on their current stock -- all sales final -- so I went over to do some shopping. Safely but sadly there was no one in the store but me the entire time I was there. The Holly Jackson novel is for Katherine, the Halloween board book is for Oliver, and the copy of Garden Spells is to keep on hand because I give that book to everyone. The rest of the books are for me. I love Anne Cleeves, and the Galbraith novel sounded interesting (the first couple weren't, but I'm willing to take another chance.) The Escape Room is by a new-to-me author, plus it was cheap. The GreenCraft mag is just a guilty pleasure. Hopefully the smaller BAM nearer to me won't close. I don't buy many books from brick-and-mortar stores these days, but that's really the last one within reasonable driving distance.
2 comments
Read more