Social Distancing Part 44

September 7, Labor Day 

Today, I mostly want to talk about meeting one of my creative goals for this weekend. Both my mother, and her mother were quilt makers. I received my "Grannie quilt" too many years ago to remember. I do know it graced my bed every winter, through many years, and even after I got married, but I finally had to admit that it was showing signs of wear, and I didn't really want it to fall apart. I still pull it out when I'm not feeling well, and need the comfort of a hug from my Grannie. 

Both Mom and Grannie were practical quilt makers. Practical makers in general, I think. They made stuff to get used. Mom made most of my school clothes, like I'm sure Grannie made most of hers. They both tended to make tied quilts, not the more time consuming hand quilted, or even machine quilted ones. The tops were made from cast-off clothing, mostly, or the bits and pieces left over from the clothes they made. Eventually, I started helping piece the tops together, although the ones I did were pretty straight forward strips of squares of wool fabrics. Those made some warm quilts. I know because I have one of them.

My brother Carl also had some "Mom quilts" and his were wearing out. At least the batting was showing through the flannel backing fabric. He and I discussed whether they were fixable, and I decided to try it out. I mean the worst was that they would not be fixable because they were too worn out.

It took me a while to be ready to face the challenge, but one day in the summer of 2019... or maybe the summer of 2018... I took one of those quilts out of the bag, and spread it out on a table, and started cutting the ties. Snip, snip, snip. The batting and the flannel fell away, and quickly stuffed into the trash can. The top seemed all in one piece! It needed to go through the wash, though. Cold water it is, and it survived the washer and drier without a problem. I was afraid some of the panels would start to ravel on the outer edge, so I serged around the freshly cleaned and dried quilt top. Then, I folded it up and set it aside again. Whew.

This year, I had planned on that quilt being a summer project that I could take to a big table at Cruces Creatives to work on, but then pandemic happened, and I haven't been there in months (although I did renew my membership!). I looked at batting, and wasn't thrilled with what I found. Not so much of the high loft my mom would use. So I picked up a king size piece of warm and natural, thinking I could at least double that if I wanted to. Then, I found a fun piece of flannel with sunflowers all over it, that I though would go well with the greens and browns that made up a lot of the quilt top. Carl liked it too.

Flowers that aren't too girly

I had talked to Carl about working on getting the layers of the quilt put together this weekend, and then reminded him - and myself about that - on Friday. We decided we would work on it today. Not only did we get the layers put together and pinned, we got the thing tied!

Yay! a tied quilt!

It still isn't finished, of course. I'll pull the flannel around to the top of the quilt and sew it to the edges of the top to create the binding, just like the original. Even though the loft on the batting wasn't what either of us would have had for our first pick, it has a satisfying heft to it with two layers. We did take the pins out after the photo was taken, and it is waiting on cooler days for the sewing to happen. I am really happy with our definitely amateur efforts! 

Another view of our success!

I really felt like we connected to some family history today. My mom passed away in 1996, and yet, she was with us today, tying that quilt. To be fair, I'm sure she and Grannie would both have both been a little critical of our methods, but I also think that they both would be happy that it meant more to both of us than just throwing it away. Celebrating practical crafting in a time when it isn't as common as it used to be. It definitely means that someday, the other quilt will also get the treatment. Today, I'm happy with what we accomplished.