Thanks all for your thoughtful and kind responses to my last post. It made me glad that I put it out there. I really appreciate your feedback, and most of all, the fact that you come here to read this blog. Yer the best.
I'm working on a new quilt project. I've been wanting something to keep my hands busy while I watch TV in the evenings, but also something that is portable and can go along to play dates and doctors offices. So I've started piecing a hexagon quilt. Its the english paper piecing method, (note: I can't actually find a link for the specific method that I myself use, so maybe I should get on that and make my own tutorial. But it's late a night right now, so that will have to wait) which some people find tedious, but I just love. Also, the Dutch post-war immigrant in me loves that I get to use up all my tiny, tiny scraps and little bits of thread. So satisfying. Its going to take me forever, as I'll need hundreds and hundreds of these little patches to make a whole quilt. But I don't mind as this is really one of those projects where the process is as pleasing as the end result. Also, I've decided I want it to be a charm quilt, with no two patches the same. So obviously that's crazy and obsessive, which is probably why I find it so appealing. It'll be a challenge, but if they could pull this off back in the 1800's I don't see why I can't too.
But after a few weeks I was quite amazed to find that I'd made a whole bunch of patches and was somehow through all my scrap. Which is not to say I'd used up my scrap, but that I'd used a little bit of each kind of scrap I had. I somehow don't want to cut into my uncut fabrics (vintage bed-sheets and pillowcases mostly) because what if I need to use them as real pillowcases one day and then there is this annoying little hexagonal hole in them. You see my dilemma. And I really wanted this to be a real scrap quilt, so I decided I needed to look further afield and raid other people's scrap.
That's how many of the real old charm quilts got made anyways. Back in the days when fabric was dear and not nearly as abundant as it is now, women would give each other little bits of scrap to vary the fabrics in their quilts. Imagine, when you made perhaps one new dress a year and carefully used every little bit of fabric that was left over from them. It makes you look differently at every old quilt you'll ever see. Nobody ever purchased fabric for the sole purpose of making a patchwork quilt! Patchwork patterns happened as a result of what you had left over.
And since I love that idea, I need to find more 'left overs'. So I called up a friend of my mom's who also quilts, and asked if I could raid her scrap. She very kindly said yes, and I headed over to her house to find some little bits. But of course, every quilter has different tastes, and though I want this to be a proper charm quilt, I do have a bit of a colour scheme in mind. Since my scraps are mostly old bedsheets from the 60's and 70's, there is a certain quality to it, of colourfulness and high contrasts. She had a lot of batiks in neutral tones which though very pretty is not so much my style. I did find a nice handful of scraps that would suit though, and was very happy to have them. But she suggested to me that I come visit the quilting group she attends at her church on Wednesdays. They make quilts for people who are dealing with cancer treatments, so that they have something soft and warm and non-institutional looking when they are in the hospital. All their fabrics are donated by members of the church community, and she said they get a lot of old bedsheets and stuff, so I should come and take a look at their scrap. Apparently they have a ton of it.
So this afternoon I headed down there to dig through their scrap buckets. They store their fabric in some cupboards in the church's nursery room, so the Little Dude and the Baby could play while I did some digging. Which was such a win/win situation. There is nothing L.D. loves like a room full of toys he's never seen before. I was there for more than an hour and they were both as happy as clams the whole time.
And I'll tell you what, that church scrap was AWESOME as they are very organized and it was all in bins marked by the size of the scrap. Brilliant. Wish I was as organized. And they also said I was free to look through their yardage and cut corners off it if I wanted to. As I browsed their stacks I saw some lovely old prints; really sweet vintage fabric. So I asked if they'd be interested in selling any of it. I'd noticed that the quilts they were making leaned towards using the more brightly coloured, current fabric, and most of this vintage stuff was as the bottom of the stacks. So they very kindly agreed that I could buy the vintage fabric from them and they could then use the money to buy things they really needed, like batting and solids and whatnot.
So have a look at the lovely fabrics I got from them.
This was the first one that caught my eye. So simple but so fun. The colour scheme is very seventies.
This one feels very 50's to me. Isn't it lovely?
Ach, and how sweet is this?
There were a bunch of these little calico prints. The colours are so soft and sweet.
Here's a similar one.
And this little sweetie.
Completely different, but just as compelling (to me). I love the contrast and starkness. Also, there is quite a bit of inconsistency in the printing (see the little white bits where there should be blue in the lower right hand corner) but I kind of love that.
This organic dot is also quite fun, but my favourite part is that it still has the original hand written tag on it.
This feels so very 50's to me. I wish I had enough to make a dress. But alas, its only a little piece.
And how cute is this? I love the cross-hatching background.
I think this one may be my favourite. When I was showing these to hubs he commented that they seemed like old lady blouses. He's exactly right, except that I don't think that's a bad thing. This one make me think of a Liberty print. And I would be delighted to get my hands on some real, original Liberty print old lady blouses.
And that doesn't even count all the good little bits of scrap I got from them! It'll keep me busy for another couple of weeks I'm sure.
Anyhow, today was a very good lesson in hidden treasure and "ask-and-ye-shall-receive". It makes me think that I need to ask more people if I can look in their scrap baskets. Also, church basements are full of gold.
I could look at photos of vintage fabric forever. I thought 50s too for the same one you did, and I think it's because of the turquoise in it.
Posted by: Steph | 08/21/2012 at 06:26 PM