Sunday, December 29, 2013

Polka Dot Socks and Jammie Day

Hi, I've declared it Polka Dot Socks and Jammie Day! Hope you can participate with me. I did get up and take a shower but decided that I probably wasn't going anywhere, so get comfy.
 So what's a gal to do in her comfy jammies all day? Well, yesterday I started preparing a quilt to be quilted. This is no ordinary quilt. This quilt was found by a dear friend, in her Mother's house, after her Mother passed away. She was looking through her things and found an antique quilt top, completely hand pieced, made out of flour sacks, clothing, and sheets. She wondered if I'd be interested in quilting it. I've always wanted to finish an old quilt top so I immediately said Yes! It was in fairly good condition considering the age. At the time she didn't know who had made it but has been asking relatives and I think she knows more about it now. It had been used and possibly even washed so the edges were frayed and the fabric faded but no major stains and only a few small holes. So I set out to layer the backing, the batting, and the quilt top on my living room floor, when it soon became apparent that this quilt top was not going to lay flat. No sir. The technology has changed quite a bit in the quilting world in recent years. These old quilt tops were made out of necessity not for show. I struggled with how to get the job done without ruining the quilt or not feeling like I'd done it justice. I decided that if I made some adjustments in several places I could get it to lay flatter. Nothing I would do would ever make it totally smooth out flat but I did my best and eventually got it to a place I could live with it. I decided on a simple grid pattern for the quilting. There would be some puckers but this wasn't a perfect quilt to begin with so as I was pinning it I started connecting to the ancestors who had made it and reminding myself of all the love and work that went into this amazing quilt. At one point I'm sure they were laughing at me, giggling that that was why they never quilted it. But here I was, determined to get 'er done! So yes there are some puckers and tucks but overall it turned out beautiful. I finished the quilting and now I will try to square it up. Here is a picture of it in process. The small pieced squares are a bow tie pattern mixed with plain squares and strips of other fabric I'm guessing was sheets.

Some of the fabrics I really loved. There are a lot of polka dots:).

I'm off all week so I should be posting more of my crafty good times in the days to come. Thanks for stopping by!

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