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

Old Loves & Such

My guy kindly bought me my favorite Chinese take out the other night, and my fortune cookie offered up an interesting story starter: This sounds sweet, right? Only the first thing I thought of was an old love coming back from the dead . . . . must be October. In other lovely news, my favorite hand-dyed thread artist, Lorraine from Colour Complements , is moving her business from Etsy to her own web site. Many of my favorite sellers on Etsy are leaving due to the whole "free shipping" coercion debacle, which has also soured me on the site. To show support I did a little shopping at Lorraine's web site and got in these: I love her threads and trims; you simply can't buy anything like them anywhere. Her work makes my specialty thread box look like a treasure chest: At night I'm spending just as hour working on quilting the scrap project runner, and I'm making slow progress: I'll keep quilting the runner while I try to decide on a design for t...
2 comments
Read more

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

Wild Ride

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds is an epic, dazzling film that hurls you into the Korean version of the afterlife while showcasing some of the most impressive special effects I've ever seen in any movie. The story begins with the death of firefighter Kim Ja-Hong (Cha Tae-hyun) who jumps out of a burning building with a child in his arms. The kid lives, but he dies at the scene. Two strangers inform him that he has passed away right on schedule, and toss him into a vortex that takes him to the world of the afterlife, where he meets his three guardians: Gang-rim (Ha Jung-woo), Haewonmak (Ju Ji-hoon) and Lee Deok-choon (Kim Hyang-gi). At the gates of the afterlife Ja-Hong learns that he is considered a paragon (an exemplary person who lived a noble and self-sacrificing life) and is eligible to be reincarnated -- but there's a catch. First he has 49 days to make it through seven hells in which he will be judged on his sins. His three guardians will help and defend...
Post a Comment
Read more