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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Two posts in two days?

Okay, yeah, the peanut butter cup thing was kind of obscure. But I had a joke in mind since I was writing about all the squares I've been cutting and it involved the term "square pegs," which naturally led me to the song by the Waitresses that was the theme song to the show of the same name. Are you still with me here?

This is the song:



Now, if you could hear the whole song, which I don't think you ever could on the show, you would eventually get to a line that goes, "Now what would I do with 200 peanut butter cups?" That was my temporary title for the post and I was too lazy to change it once I realized it wasn't going to work.

RIVETING TALE, YES?

Now, back to the baggie I found in my scrap box AND NO IT DID NOT HAVE POT IN IT. What it did have were some quilt blocks, most in the Attic Windows pattern:


There are about fifteen of the individual blocks and five larger blocks where four smaller ones had been sewn together.

All of these were pieced by hand:


including this random one:


It took me a while to realize that there was something even more interesting about the larger blocks:






And I know almost all those names. When I was in college, and possibly even before that, my mother had a little sewing group, and if my memory serves, she was actually teaching them all to quilt. These must have been made for a block swap or something similar.

So, how amazing is that? To be digging through some old scraps and come up with something so precious. I would love to put them all together to make something, a wall hanging perhaps, in order to preserve them, but the odd numbers make it hard to come up with a configuration that works well. The larger blocks could be used alone, maybe. It would also be a reason to finally start learning hand quilting, since it would seem wrong to quilt these by machine.

Which reminds me that this quilt

From The Bitchy Stitcher

that my mother made for me and quilted by hand is falling apart. Part of the issue, I am sure, is that I never knew, until I started quilting myself, how to store a quilt, and I had it in a very bad place for a long time thinking it would help keep it from getting worse. She appliqued over a small hole many years ago, but there is probably too much damage now to applique over and it won't stop the rest from continuing to deteriorate.

I'm not sure what to do in either case, but I know how much things like these mean to me.

8 comments:

  1. Oh my! It's like you entered my life!

    When I was packing my mother's things to move her into a nursing home environment, I found a bunch of baggies with 'quilt bits' - mostly just pieces that hadn't been pieced together. Took me a WHILE to figure out what the pattern was supposed to be. She had enough for 10 full pieced Sunbonnet Sues with a few extras.

    I knew I wanted to finish this project for her. I supplemented what was missing to create 12 squares, and finished this quilt. I gave it to her this past Christmas and found out that she had cut the pieces back when I was in college (I have 9-year-old twin boys of my own now).

    It's a special experience.

    Here is the finished quilt, viewed from above:

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=10161841&l=e52b54b1ec&id=656340300

    and here is her opening it:

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=10502356&l=3bf19bb445&id=656340300

    Such a great thing. I hope you can figure out a way to honor your mother and her friend's work.

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  2. Could you stitch those unmatched blocks to larger square of a solid that would let you put them all together in rows?

    Try laying them all out on a plain sheet to get the idea, and see if they look somewhat like a sampler would look.

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  3. Deborah says:

    Love the Square Pegs bit. Amazing that Sarah Jessica Parker started out as dorky as the rest of us!

    I like the sampler idea. Although it will probably be tricky to find other fabrics now that will match the older ones.

    The quilt your mother made for you looks great. Was there supposed to be something wrong with the section you showed? (It's probably obvious to a more experienced quilter.....which is not me!)

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  4. No, you can't actually see the damage in that picture. I used an old shot because I was too lazy to take and upload new ones that showed the deterioration.

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  5. I'm blaming you for the fact that I went to the grocery store yesterday JUST to buy peanut butter cups.

    "I don't wanna wear my glasses but I hafta wear my glasses"... am I remembering that right?

    How wonderful that you found those treasures! For the longest time, I thought I was the first quilter in my family, until my grandmother showed me a quilt that HER grandmother made. (That would be my great-great-grandmother.) I had it appraised while I was in Paducah. To the appraiser it wasn't worth much, but it's priceless to me.

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  6. p.s. Ok now that I actually watched the clip, I realize I WAS remembering that line correctly. :)

    And in my opinion, Sarah is STILL dorky, lol!

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  7. What a lovely treasure. I hope you can come up with a way to display the special blocks. What about a memory frame with other of her sewing items and maybe add a picture of her too.

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  8. isn't there a conservation technique where you cover the worn out places with fine silk tulle? Can't remember. Nice to have a quilt from your mom!

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