more on the quilt

when working on 50+ year old fabric some repair is bound to be needed. actually the quilt top is in really good condition. I don’t know where my Great Grandmother got her fabric, if its old clothing that she cut into squares, or if it started out as yardage that she cut, or if she had scraps she turned into quilts. I just have no idea, or any way of finding out.
when I showed the project to my parents my mom asked my dad if he recognized any of the fabrics as clothing any of them wore. he said he couldn’t recall any of it, but he was pretty sure he had sat and watched her sew the squares together. what I do know is my Great Grandmother died in 1962, so all of this fabric predates then. yet it still has a very crisp feel to it. it feels as nice as my new fabrics, and better then a lot of the cheap fabrics you can buy. and the thread she used to sew with is amazing. its still very strong. I don’t think they make thread like that anymore. I mean I realize this top has been in storage for 50 years so its not been continually washed or anything, but still thread that lasts long is amazing.

what I did have to repair on the quilt though was moths holes. they were pretty much along the seam lines. and the weird thing is I’m pretty sure the moth holes are original to the top, because under all of the little holes are small scraps, almost as if they were meant to patch the holes. I didn’t want to have a bunch of tiny holes though so I figured out where they all were (at least I hope I got them all) and just went deeper on the seams to get rid of them. I didn’t cut away any of the deeper seam that way it kept all of what My great Grandmother had sewn, yet still removed the holes.


I still need to get batting and backing for this quilt. but I figure I have time to do that, as I still have a lot of work left to finish the top. I do think I have decided on how I am going to piece the rest of it. so far its turning out really fun, and helping to keep my from stressing out too much about life stuff.

Great grandmothers quilt top

I am trying to go through some of my abandoned projects and maybe finish them. no promises on that, but I have started one.
this one I wouldn’t say so much was abandoned as I wasn’t ready to work on it. its a quilt started by my Great Grandmother. I had to get to a point where it brought me happiness rather then sorrow. I never knew my great grandmother but I acquired this project when my grandmother died, so every time I would think I am going to work on the quilt it just upset me. I got it out today though and thought oh what a wonderful project to work on. so I think I am ready.

now for some back story. my great grandmother died when my father was a child, many years before I was born, or ever thought of. my dad adored her the way children adore their grandparents and she adored him as well.
my great Grandmother used to make quilts. it was her place of solace. she couldn’t speak any English and the grandchildren were banned from speaking in Russian. they were American so they must speak English. and so my great grandmother was basically stuck in an old farm house in the middle of nowhere with her son his wife and their five children. she was surrounded by people she could not converse with, in a country not her own. so she quilted. she made quilts for everybody, all her children (I think she had seven here and alive) and all her grandchildren. my dad would sit for hours watching her sew on her treadle machine (which was actually the first machine I ever used!) she would talk to him and he said he knew what she was saying, but has since forgotten any of her language. and he would sit quietly just watching her, or talking with her (she must have understood some English but not spoken any)
two years before she died they had to place her in a home, which you can tell when my dad talks about it really upset him, but she had gotten to a point where they could no longer care for her in the home.
the quilts though they stayed, and they were loved to the point they fell apart. my dad said he used his till it was nothing but shreds, my aunts had the same stories about their quilts. my grandmother though managed to save a few of the quilts. when my Grandmother died my aunts found a few quilts my Great Grandmother had made and they were the hottest item in the house I swear. but then in the trunk with the quilts was an unfinished quilt, My great grandmother’s last quilt top. but being unfinished and small, they saw no value in it. one of my aunts even wanted to throw it away! but my other aunt thought to ask me if I would like it since I sew, and suggested I go ahead and make a lap quilt out of it. I thought it was such a neat idea and held so much of my history in this small piece of quilt. something my great grandmother took time to make, something that gave her peace in a land that had told of so much promise, but delivered short. I think she really missed her country, her friends, her children that were left behind. but they had to get away because at the time their country was in turmoil. and so even though I never met her she left me this piece of history.


I knew I didn’t want to just make just a lap quilt out the top so I folded it up neatly to try to figure out what exactly I wanted to do. I decided to frame up what my Great Grandmother had made, choosing a blue cotton to frame it in since it seemed a nice and neutral color. I also have some small pieces that she pieced together, and I thought I would make that into a strip to go around blue, then add another smaller piece of blue (if I have enough) around that. then do two maybe three rows that I will piece from some of my scraps. now I am not a quilter, and never have been. I made one baby quilt one time and it was embarrassingly crooked. (fortunately the person I gave it too was not a quilter either so they thought it was beautiful) but I thought it would be fun to try this project. I am not expecting perfection as that would be impossible. this quilt was started by my Great Grandmother in her last days, she was not well when she started it, so its not in anyway squared, its not even, its a bit wavy in places, but I think I can make it work. It will probably have some puckers in it. but that’s going to be okay. this is going to be a purely sentimental piece. the fabric on this quilt is over fifty years old so I’m not even sure once I am done I should ever use it. since I don’t know that it should ever be washed. whether or not I use it though I think I will love it. how could I not?