finish my quilt

what little sewing I’ve done has been mending. Several of my son’s AIO diapers have been coming apart, and I’m trying to get as much use out of them as I can, even as we’re making the transition to training pants. The next meeting of our Stitch ‘n’ B*tch group is next week; I may try to get a square or two pieced.

This Friday night, I get to drive into Austin for an evening away from the boys. My friend K established “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch” night a few years ago, and I’ve been a regular attendee. I’m told that I’ve finished the most projects of any of the other crafters; to be fair, however, I bring a lot of mending. I’ve also worked cross-stitch and needlepoint, and I’ve ripped and repositioned my great-grandmother’s quilt top.

I should state here that I’m a bit of a dinosaur-I do all my stitching by hand. My sewing machine has its place as a tool for some projects, but the feeling that I aim for when I do the piecing doesn’t come forth on a machine. Rather than shop for the perfect shade of blue print, or create a piece for competition, I’m following the tradition of my father’s grandmother and my mother’s mother-taking old clothes, cutting useable squares, and arranging them with no particular pattern in mind. Both of these women lived through the Great Depression, and they made their quilts out of absolute necessity. Oftentimes there was nothing to use for batting, and the backing was usually a large-enough bedspread. These were never quilted nor tied.

Personally, I am looking forward to working on my sampler again. Much of it will be constructed from clothes I wore in late high school through college (mid to late 80’s). I remember cutting up my favorite purple robe and seeing that I’d have enough for more than a few squares. I hope those squares have held up over time.

One is a top that my great-grandmother started, and I finished the re-piecing last year. Now I need to bring it back out of the closet and figure out what I want to use for “batting” (it might be a layer or two of plain old blanket), and I need to find the right backing. I’m going to tie this one, just to keep it simple.

The other quilt is a sampler I’d started in college. All the squares are cut and organized; the next step is to get all the patterns sewn together, then I’ll work on layout.