Quilt Repair

I've been meaning to share this for a while, and kept forgetting -- so I'm doing it today because it's been on my mind!

More than two posts ago, I had a quilt repair adventure.

I confess I don't do much quilt repair -- including of the quilts given me by my late Aunt Alice Rennie (1907-2002) and her mother, my paternal grandmother, Maria Flood McIntosh Rennie (1875-1961).  

I have several quilts Aunt Alice made for me as a young woman -- a Log Cabin, an embroidered quilt (from a kit with printed fabric), a Dresden Plate and others.  One is a throw-sized piece, complete with Prairie Points on 3 sides, that is (of course!) in pristine condition!  It will outlive the planet, I expect!  Another is a double-bed quilt she made for my husband and me after I supplied a great deal of the fabric -- scraps left over from my making garments for me and my daughter back in the 1980s -- a mix of cottons and poly-cottons.

As a girl, Aunt Alice made a coverlet in red and white (a coverlet is a quilt without batting) which I've given to my daughter, and later in life, my husband and I commissioned her to make a double wedding ring quilt for my parents (2nd marriage for each), for their 25th wedding anniversary (1982) -- I got that one back when my mother moved into assisted living and no longer owned a double bed (1997 or so).

I also have a quilt that Grandma Rennie made for me that was given me just before she died, and I have something even more precious: a crazy quilt block she did as a 'practice piece' in 1894.  She dated it, and embroidered her maiden name initials (she was about 17 at the time, and didn't marry my grandfather until 1903).  I've had it 'preservation framed' and it hangs in my sewing studio.  The one she made for me when I was a girl has some holes in it; I don't use it, but keep it safe in my linen closet; it's a pink-and-white nine-patch variation.

I have repaired none of these, although many of them have worn pieces or bindings with worn spots.  I haven't dared.

That said, back in May the owner of our hamlet's local "vintage market" approached me with a quilt someone had dropped off to sell.  It really wasn't sale-able -- it was stained as well as worn -- but she liked it and decided that if the worn blocks could be repaired or replaced, she'd keep it for herself.

When I examined it, I came to the conclusion that the top was made long before it was sandwiched and quilted.  The top's fabrics were cotton, maybe from the thirties or forties or later but definitely before the age of synthetics.  The blocks were a good size -- 12" or so, finished; they were 9-patch blocks composed of half-square triangles, lights and darks.  There was wide sashing between them, and a wide border -- all of which was a white, somewhat heavier fabric -- possibly an old sheet.

The top was enveloped over white polyester batting.  The batting had thin and lumpy spots but the backing was pristine -- and the quilt was tied with acrylic yarn at the corner of each block and in the centre square of each 9-patch; in other words, very sparsely quilted.

It reminded me of stories of an old quilt top done by a grandma, found by a young grand-daughter or great-gran, maybe around age 12 or so, who asked Mom to help her quilt it, sometime in the late nineteen-sixties or early seventies when that awful batting was becoming popular.

I told the market owner I would do my best to repair it.  She supplied me with some old gingham aprons to cut up for the blocks, and off I went.

There were 3 blocks that had completely disintegrated -- two in one row and one on the other end of the quilt.  I began by taking out the first and making a sample, which proved to be too small. (I can do math but I muffed it this time!)  

First old block removed

Two more old blocks removed

And here are the new blocks:

First new block -- both from aprons
provided by the shop owner.

Second new block - the floral is from my stash 
of inherited cotton fabric and the
green is from one of the aprons mentioned above.

Third new block - my recycled fabric
The plaid is from an old shirt; the other
from donated cotton fabric.

I had to use a combination of machine stitching and hand-stitching to insert them into the top, in order to avoid taking the entire thing apart altogether!  There were inset seams that I could only do by hand!

There were other blocks that needed hand-done repairs because seams were split.  Can you tell where the split seams were?

Once all the new blocks were stitched into the quilt and the others repaired, I put new ties in to replace the ones I'd removed for the repairs.  I didn't add any new ones, as that would have spoiled the look of the original top.  These ties were wool though, rather than acrylic yarn.  Wool is better for tying quilts because it felts when washed, thus staying tied through time.  That said, this quilt will probably be washed only gently by hand, and left to dry in the sun, given the age and overall condition of the top.

All in all, the work took about 15 hours to complete, not counting the new block I made that was too small.  I took all the materials -- including that block -- back to my client, and we negotiated a price for my time.

It was an interesting adventure, but I'll admit I don't want to make it a focus of my quilting going forward! 

Since my last post, I've finished another top for a give-away throw quilt, and have made progress on my socks and cross-stitch, but I'll leave that for another day.  In the garden there's been a harvest of a bumper crop of raspberries, with more waiting in the wings, so I'll leave it there.

Over at Off the Wall Friday, Nina Marie has finished her first hooked rug -- a new-to-her passion I share, as you well know, Gentle Readers.  So...have a great rest of your weekend and off you go -- to knit, to crochet, to quilt, to cut fabric, to hook fabric and yarn, to stitch into linen or aida cloth, to repair quilts or make new ones -- wherever your hands and your mind and your fancy take you!

Until next time...a bientot!

Do You Take Time Off?

C'mon.  I'm pretty sure you do!  Alright: I know you do!  Even if you're thinking about your art work 24/7, sometimes it's time to step away and attend to Other Things.  This can be particularly true if you're the only one in your household, so you have to pause from time to time to Take Care of Business.

And that's pretty much what I've been doing since my last post. My "break" began, really, at the end of April, right after the Lacombe Art Show & Sale.  It's not uncommon for folks to "crash" (or at least, slump a little) after a big event, and I did.  My hands, especially, didn't want to have anything to do with using my sewing machine or cutting fabric.  My hands wanted to knit and embroider and garden and hold good books.  Believe it or not, they even wanted to peel recalcitrant wall paper and wield a paint brush and roller.

And so they did.

The need to paint a wall in my bedroom began a good three years ago (or longer), when Miss Pookie Cat (seen here supervising the tulips' growth) found a loose edge of wall paper -- an edge that had been pried loose a few more years before that, by my grand-cat, Princess, on a visit to my home.  Said edge had been hidden safely from prying paws for years, because that side of my bed was along the wall and my own cat at the time -- Diesel -- was too large to get between the wall and the bed to play with it.

Enter Pookie, the kitten, in 2012.  Some time in her first year or so with me, she discovered what fun it was to dive down beside the bed.  What treasures lay in the drawers that she could access from behind?  And wait!  What's this?!  Loose wall paper!  What fun!!

And so...bit by bit, she attacked it -- when I wasn't around or paying attention -- until there was nothing for me to do but peel it off in a swath, rendering the wall decidedly ugly.

That's when I decided to move my bed so that it was at 90 degrees to the wall -- hoping that this would motivate me to finish the job and paint the wall.

It took me a good three years (or more; I lost track) for that ploy to work -- but work it did, last month.  Here's a shot of the Peel in Progress.

For a brief moment, I entertained the thought of not peeling the last two sheets of wall paper -- hitherto unscathed -- and just painting 2/3 of the wall...but I knew that would likely look too weird.  Sigh.

So I proceeded to finish the job.

In the process, though, I had to prepare the rest of the room, and that included Getting Rid of Stuff.  Said "stuff" referred mainly to books I'd either read and wouldn't likely read again, or books I no longer even cared about reading, and to yarn I'd been given or rescued that in reality, I'd never want to knit with.  Knitting friends, the local lending library and the church's annual Yard Sale were the beneficiaries.

And I ended up with a room that -- with the bed back along the wall -- feels much more spacious and open.  Lighter, even.  With room for some new artwork (even my own pieces!) on the wall...

Over the head of the bed (L): an embroidery of
a patchwork quilt, stitched by my mother.
Hanging on the rod: Ivy for Faithfulness, a very early attempt
(by me) at turning a traditional pattern into something "arty" (2010).
On the bed: my "Not so Grand Illusion" -- from a Bonnie Hunter
Mystery.  On the wall at the right:(top) a knit sculpture by Julie Mears:
Underwater Mini #1 (2008); bottom: my own work -- Rock Face III, 2014

In the midst of sifting and sorting, I tackled my guest room (aka where I store my art work) and opened my blanket box for the first time in years.  Therein I unearthed quilts I'd made -- one for my daughter and one for my late godmother -- and some I'd been given on my aunt's death, which I'd forgotten I had.  One of those I showed you, now adorning a bench in my Outdoor Studio in good weather.  Several others have now come out to hang on quilt racks -- one in the guest room, and one in my own room:

On the wall (L): two floral cross-stitch pieces
done by my mother; and (R) one "Just Nan" sampler
embroidered by me in 2005.  On the desk: a runner
I made for Canada 150 in 2017 from a free "mystery"
pattern, and a tiny sampler -- Take Time to Cruise --
designed by Jeannette Douglas for her first stitching
cruise, which I took in 2009.

Here's a close up of that cozy corner.  The chair is antique; I believe it belonged first to my maternal grandmother, but it could be even older than that.  I know I've never seen another like it.  My mother refurbished it with the needlepoint decades ago.  To protect the seat, I've pinned (with short  T pins) thereon a small hanging I made in a class in another lifetime -- that I'd forgotten I had.  It seems to have worked (thus far!) to keep Miss Pookie from clawing at the chair's upholstery.

On the quilt rack: at the back, a 9-patch variation created by
my Aunt Alice Rennie sometime in the eighties, containing
fabric I gave her from garments I was sewing at the time. The
red-and-white print was from a dress I made my daughter; and
a Dresden Plate that was made even earlier by my Aunt -- perhaps
with her mother.  Both are hand quilted.

Just this past week, I made it back into the sewdio.  I'm travelling home to Quebec later this month and wanted to make a 'thank you' for my cousins, with whom I'll be staying part of the time.  Their eldest daughter, Sarah is -- like my daughter -- a talented photographer.  She and her husband Ian own an organic market veggie farm -- Les Jardins de Glenelm -- and she took this photo in March, when it had snowed -- yet again!

I fell in love with it and asked permission to recreate it in textiles, which was granted.  So...this week, I did:

It's  a tiny piece -- just 6" square -- which I've wrapped around a stretched canvas and on Friday, took to my framer's for a floater.  I'll pick it up by week's end.  Alas, the lighting doesn't show it, but the background is a piece of recycled, thin, poly-cotton sheeting that I hand-dyed a pale blue.  Once I applied the fabric for the barn, I drew in the trees as guidelines, but there's much more stitching that's been done to finish it off.  I promise a photo of the finished piece before I take it to it's new home!

And so I leave you for the moment...and will link this up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday before I go.  This week she shares "9 Tips to Unleash Your Creativity".  I seem to have been living Tip #4 -- after a fashion -- this past month...and very soon, I'll be following Tip #9.  Let's see where that leads, shall we?

Thanks for stopping by...I hope to 'see' you again soon!