Friday, February 12, 2010

A Really Ancient Cloth!

Marie over at Ancient Cloth has started a quilt from recycled clothing from her family! It’s a wonderful idea and I’m sure it will give her a lot of joy as she puts it together and one day will give her the joy of memories when all the kiddies have flown the nest! I shared a story with her about a little quilt and she suggested I share it here:


I made this small hexagon quilt; all handstitched when I was in my early teens, maybe a bit younger. Mid to late 70’s (I think it was ‘finished off’ maybe in the very early 80’s!)


My Mum was a dressmaker and I used scraps from her sewing room floor! There is everything from exotic silks to pieces of wool and felt! I put a backing on it later; and eventually it became a doll’s blanket for my girls… I remember which fabrics were from clothing my Mum made for me or herself. When she saw it when visiting once, she could remember almost all of the clients and the dresses she made from each piece!

One of the silks has disintegrated completely and the backing shows through (Ummm… I obviously didn’t know about wadding! – Actually as a larger quilt it would have a nice weight. Although technically it’s not a quilt unless it has 3 layers. Is that right? ) There are cottons and jerseys in the mix too- all sewn in together! From memory it was paper pieced! The distortion of the felts etc is probably due to a necessary wash when the girls were using it! Even now it has a generous dose of cat fur- funny where those feline girls hang out! And even funnier, I don’t know why I’ve hung onto it; I’ve certainly never thought of it as special! So, thank you Marie for making me look at it in a different light!

Now, I'd better hurry up; it's off to work I go!

Have a good look around Marie's blog while you're there... She's very talented and her posts are interesting reading!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a similar quilt that I made at a similar age. I sometimes look at it and remember the fabrics and where they came from. A real treasure.

Jacky said...

Thanks for sharing this story and photo of your hexagon quilt...it is a beauty. I love the vivid colours and the fact that your mum could remember all her clients from the pieces of fabric.
Those felines of yours have good taste.
Good luck with your new job, sounds like they are good people to work for!

Jacky xox

p.s. loved the blue moon ATC in previous post too. You have me looking at my old jeans in a new light.

Marie said...

Your quilt is lovely! I think it is a treasure and the stories it holds are beautiful. I could see it even being incorporated into a big quilt someday and passed along ??? or framed and hung on a wall. I guess I am a wee bit sentimental lol. Thank you for your kind words
: )

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