Mom Mai's Attic

Mom Mai's Attic

Childhood memories inspired this Grandmother's Fan quilt. Colorful remnants of red, blue, yellow and aqua with natural muslin reproduce the vintage look of 1930's and 1940's quilts.

After stitching and assembling the blocks, I added a border of 2” x 3” rectangles sandwiched with 2” strips.

The center fan section is ruler quilted in a fishnet pattern, using natural thread. Borders feature straight line quilting with a walking foot. Mom Mai's Attic finished at 56” square.

I slept under a similar quilt at my grandmother's house. The family called her Mom Mai and she was a hard working farm wife. There were two big bedrooms on the second floor with multiple quilt covered beds, once shared by their six children. Her sewing room was tucked between them next to several cedar lined closets.

I often played with her spools of thread and buttons, sorting them into jelly jars. Lovely memories there of feed sack fabric, mayonnaise & crackers, cool well water, riding on the tractor, and the best homemade chocolate fudge I've ever eaten.

Dies used:

Accuquilt
55537 Grandmother's Fan 12” finished
55017 Strips 2½”

Blue Wren 6047 Rectangles 2” x 3” finished

Keepsakes

I've always been a collector of stuff. One of my favorite acquisitions is, of course, fabric. Vintage fabric, like feed sacks or 36” wide cotton, makes me happy.

Today's quilt has me grinning from ear to ear. The block, Grandmother's Pride, was published as a Laura Wheeler mail order pattern sometime in the 1930's, 40's, or 50's. It is also called Empress.

I sent a request to Norma Grimmer at Blue Wren to make a die for this block and I got it last month from Australia. 

I chose feed sacks that coordinate with tomato red cotton and natural muslin to recreate this quilt that looks like those our grannies made. One of the sacks actually came from Granny Rose, the others I bought at estate sales. I added two reproduction fabrics. 

The blocks sewed together beautifully. I rotary cut the setting triangles around the outside. A homespun navy and blue tiny floral makes great backing and binding. With medium beige thread, I used a scallop stitch 1½” apart diagonally across the quilt. It measures 50” x 55”.

Keepsakes seemed the right name for this one. I like that my feed sacks are useful again, and that I can enjoy the family tradition of quilting. I'm pretty sure the grannies would be proud. Thanks Norma and Edward for helping me reproduce vintage quilts! (I have the fan block in progress.)

Blue Wren dies used:
6983 Grandmother's Pride 12” block
6720 Magic Strips 1” - 9½”

Christmas Past

This quilt has a story, although I don't know much of it. I found a box of beautiful hand stitched quilt blocks at an estate sale earlier this year. The fabrics are soft and look old, probably feed sacks and repurposed clothing. Each 9” block contains four 4½” LeMoyne Stars around a center square.  I can't imagine hand stitching all those tiny points with such precision!

Interestingly, these lovely blocks had once been in a quilt, then taken apart. There is cotton batting fuzz on the backs and tiny holes around the edges from picked out stitching. I'm guessing that the red material bled onto the original sashing, since a few look slightly faded. I don't know happened to it, but someone took that quilt apart to salvage those blocks, and meant to finish it. I guess now that someone is me.

There were 37 blocks total. I chose sixteen that had some green coloring to make a Christmas wall hanging. I added narrow green sashing after doing a couple of repairs and squaring up blocks. Considering they were hand cut and hand stitched, most were nearly perfect.

Christmas Past vintage quilt rescue, 2021

To keep the vintage look, the backing is natural muslin and binding is a green mini check. I used a machine stitch that looks like handwork for quilting with cream thread. My hand stitches are not that pretty. Christmas Past finished out at 42” square.

I'm so pleased that I rescued vintage blocks that someone felt were important enough to carefully pick a whole quilt apart. Now they'll live on in at least two projects. And that's a happy ending in my book.

Merry Christmas to all,

and to all a good night!

Vintage Bows

Remember those sugar sack remnants from last week?

I couldn't wait to use them for this reproduction of one of my Granny Hill's quilts. The bow tie block is quick and easy in the 6” size. I added more feed sacks in yellow, red and green prints, including a scrap of Granny Rose's.    

Tan muslin squares alternated with the bow ties add to the traditional design. I framed it with two borders, a 2” navy and cream mini print and a 3” tan muslin on the outside. Vintage Bows finished at 53” square.

Vintage Bows

I quilted with cream thread using a straight stitch in a 3” grid. Backing and binding features the navy/cream print. Such a soft and cuddly Granny quilt! It looks and feels like an antique, even though I just finished it. Of course, most of the fabric IS vintage.

Accuquilt dies:
55000 6” Square
55772 6” Bow Tie
55818 Half Square Triangle (6” Bow Tie set)
55017 Strips 2½”
55032 Strip 3 ½”

Joy is

a day

spent

sewing

Camper Sewing and Fabric Bliss

Sorry to miss last week's blog post. We had poor internet connectivity at the campground. We were able to check email and a few favorite online sites, so we got by. It was actually a very nice, relaxing two weeks, including my birthday. We ate inside a restaurant for the first time in over a year!

We filled our time with leisurely walks, reading, movies, people watching, and enjoying each other's company. I was able to sort some of the hundreds of quilt design idea pics that I've saved on my laptop. I moved them into folders organized by the block name or die design.

Both quilt kits that I took along are nearly done, just a few finishing touches left. I set up Rockette on the dining table and stitched away on those cool rainy days. Here's a sneak peek at the tops. I'll post details later when they're quilted.

I saved the best news for last: This past weekend, I saw a yard sale listing that included a room full of fabric! Yep, it was only 40 miles away from the campsite, so my darling husband had keys in hand and was ready to drive me. A sweet lady was downsizing into a condo. Wonderful antique quilts, unfinished tops, books, notions, and hundreds of yards of fabric, sorted by color. Needless to say, I wanted it all but I practiced some restraint. I did buy a lot of it. I haven't measured yet, but I estimate over 160 yards of quilting cotton.

One of the coolest finds was her huge collection of vintage flour and sugar sacks, all sizes and such colorful and retro prints. Of course, I bought all 169 of those! I also got a set of gorgeous hand stitched blocks that I plan to finish into a quilt. Thanks Mrs. Mary, I absolutely love every single piece.

I'm an extremely lucky woman to have such a supportive husband who indulges and encourages my fabric addiction. He always says “Go for it” when I tell him about a fabric sale, new die or handy sewing gadget. Of course, I do the same when he finds electronic gear, radios, or tools.  I love that man to pieces!

Bits and Pieces

This colorful quilt uses some of the smallest pieces I've ever sewn into blocks. Talk about saving scraps...women of the 1930's would be proud.

When I got the spider web die for my birthday, I started cutting fabric remnants. Selecting different colors, I randomly stitched them together. Because of the tiny pieces and many seams, it took several days.

I used a natural muslin for contrast to showcase the web shapes. I chose a meandering stitch to quilt in free motion, with cream thread. Bits and Pieces is 36” x 48” in size.

I love the final product! The die is awesome for using up the smallest of remnants. It looks like an old fashioned quilt that my grandmothers would have made. I can't wait to make other versions with different background colors.

Bits and Pieces

It seemed like a perfect project to sew around Mother's Day. I thought about how women during the Depression years would have spent their time. They'd cut up old curtains, housedresses, shirts, and feed sacks to create a warm quilt for next to nothing, using faded blankets for batting.

Thankfully, I don't have to worry about saving every cent, although I do get a certain satisfaction out of using leftovers to make a bonus quilt or two. It must be my rural Southern thrifty dirt farmer roots showing.

Accuquilt die

55487 Spider Web 6"

Points of View

My remnant baskets are overflowing, again. To keep my sewing room neat and use up some fabric, I designed a scrap quilt in EQ8 software. It's similar to the Christmas tree quilt from last December.

Points of View

Using the Hattie's Choice die, I cut only the diamonds and triangles from a wide variety of colors. I sewed them together into large triangles, combining rows of similar and contrasting colors. Then I cut light gray fabric into half rectangle triangles, and added one on each side to form a 5½” x 6” triangle in a rectangle block.

The result is Points of View, a 38” x 48” lap quilt. The points turned out very precise because of the die cuts and my Janome 1/4” professional piecing foot. Backing is white and light gray chevron fabric. I quilted using white thread, diagonally along the diamond rows with a straight stitch.

The binding is made from scraps as well, multicolored 2 ½” strips of varying lengths sewn together.

It's a such a happy quilt with all those colors, don't you think?  It reminds me of vintage feed sack quilts from the 1930's.  At least I am happy because (for the time being) my fabric isn't tumbling out of the remnant baskets.

Accuquilt dies used:

55220 Hattie's Choice

55411 Half Rectangle Triangle

I am grateful for 

my fabric stash!

Lydia's Ladder

Lydia's Ladder

Today's quilt is my smaller version of one of Granny Rose's old quilts. It features 12" Jacob's Ladder blocks in a square 42" finished size. I used Accuquilt dies to cut the pastel prints, which went together quickly. 

This time I chose the backing/binding fabric first, then picked coordinating fabrics from my collection for the front blocks. I thought a lot about her while working, so I named this one Lydia's Ladder. I copied her quilting as well, using the Baptist Fan pattern. I did not hand stitch, but adapted the design for machine quilting on my Janome.

Baptist Fan machine quilting

Granny's original handmade bed quilt was being used as a furniture pad to wrap around things that needed protection. I rescued it from the basement of her daughter's house, even though it was stained, tattered and torn, probably past restoration. The fabric looks like feed or flour sack prints along with shirting and dress prints. I may use a few of the intact sections to frame or make pillow covers, so it will live on as another Useful Remnant.

Original Jacob's Ladder by Lydia Rose

Antique quilts have such a soft, worn quality to them from being well used. They were lovingly sewn by hand or on a treadle machine, washed hundreds of times, dried on a line in the sun, then folded into cedar chests to be passed on to relatives. They hold stories that we can only wonder about. For instance, I think this was one she made, but I can only guess. Her church quilting bee group shared fabric and made quilts together, so everyone may have stitched on it. Or it could have belonged to her mother since it was so worn. A labor of love anyway, passed down to my mother-in-law, then to me.

Will today's quilts will even last that long?  I hope they do, and that people continue to love them.  

“Quilts reward study. They can look great from 20 feet across the room, and then you get closer and there are little dramas. It doesn’t have to be intricate. It can be simple. It just has to be authentic.”  

Ken Burns, film maker and quilt collector

Lydia's Cross Revealed

Lydia's Cross by KSD, 2014

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I recreated a quilt block from a quilt made by my husband's grandmother, Lydia Fort Rose. Her design variation of Grandmother's Cross and Nine Patch Star was probably made in the early 1950's. Her full size quilt featured eleven inch blocks set with two inch sashing, and was hand pieced and hand quilted from whatever fabric she had around the house. 

 

My lap quilt version of Lydia's Cross blocks contains a piece or two of her old feed sack fabric, other clothing fabric from my late in-laws (her daughter and son-in-law), scraps of mine, and a few new batik blenders. I wanted a more modern look so I didn't exactly copy her work, but I did use eleven inch blocks.  The back is 5” square blocks in the same color scheme. Mine is machine pieced and machine quilted with a simple scallop stitch using my trusty Singer XL 1000, and I love the final result! It's on the back of my couch right now. 

 

I measured and sketched out the basic block first, then drew the design in Electric Quilt 7 for final layout, pattern pieces, and color design. As I worked, I thought about how long it took her to cut out and sew together these pieces by hand. She must have had a lot more patience than I do for handwork. I am grateful that she sewed and gave her cherished quilts to her daughter.  I dedicate my inspiring useful remnant to Lydia and to her grandson...Happy Birthday, Jerold!  Here's her original quilt.  Her sense of color and blending resulted in a beautiful quilt with character and depth. 

Lydia's Cross, circa 1950's by Lydia Fort Rose

"Everything you need will come to you at the perfect time.  You just have to be patient and wait for it."  Author Unknown

Vintage Fabric and Quilt Blocks

Oh my, what an awesome find! I've been sorting through a box of fabric and quilt blocks from my late mother-in-law's spare bedroom. Most of the fabric pieces are vintage flour and sugar sacks from the 1930's and 1940's that belonged to her mother, Lydia Fort Rose. They have been laundered, but probably only once. The holes on the edge from the bag stitching are still clearly evident and the colors are bright and true on sixty-plus year old fabric. A two yard cut piece has a paper tag attached with a tiny safety pin bearing the handwritten price of 59 cents per yard.  These are some of the same prints used in her quilts I wrote about several weeks ago.

The gorgeous completed quilt blocks are of varying sizes and designs. They may have been leftovers from a quilt or sampler blocks that she was trying out. Most of them are machine pieced, some hand stitched.  Paper pattern templates, pinned together with straight pins, are cut out of newspaper and paper bags. A pattern with instructions is printed on what appears to be a paper sack from a dry goods store. Two very tattered old quilts found in the basement are probably beyond repair. They do have portions which could be rescued and used for something once I air them out.

How cool is this? I am so excited that I can't even decide what to do with them. I have everything spread all over my sewing tables and design boards so I can take it all in. I want to preserve a few of the prettiest feed sack pieces. Then I could create a new quilt and make aprons, pillows, tote bags, or framed art out of the rest.

 

Some people want to inherit lots of money or real estate. While I won't turn down cash, give me vintage fabric, old quilts, pretty pottery, glassware, or antique oak furniture to cherish and I'll be a happy woman! 

Link to read more about feed sack fabric and Granny Rose's Quilts.   

Sweet As Sugar Vintage Apron & Feed Sack History

Grain, flour and sugar sacks have been put to use for years by thrifty women. They've been incorporated into quilts, used for embroidery samplers, and made into dishcloths, aprons, laundry bags, curtains, tablecloths, diapers, or dresses. I bought an antique sugar sack about a year ago with the intention of making an apron or a tote bag. While cleaning my sewing room this weekend, I was suddenly inspired to sew something. I may have been trying to avoid further cleaning. Anyway, I enjoyed a nice relaxing hour stitching up this vintage apron.

Feed sacks were originally made of heavy canvas for flour, sugar, meal, grain, salt and feed from the mill. They were reusable, with the farmer bringing an empty sack stamped with his mark or brand to the mill to be filled. How's that for recycling? This changed when mills began weaving inexpensive cotton fabric in the late 1800's. The bags were initially printed on plain white cloth and the brand name of the product was printed on the side of the bag. Sacks for flour, sugar and salt were a finer weave.

Granny Rose's feed sack quilt

Manufacturers soon recognized the appeal to women, so they began to use colors and pretty prints. It was a great marketing idea to sell more product, because it took three identical flour sacks to make a woman's dress. There were themes and collections of coordinating fabrics...kitchen, animals, Mickey Mouse, Gone With The Wind, Buck Rogers, nursery rhymes and more. Magazines published patterns for dresses, quilts, pajamas, dolls, and even crochet instructions for the strings that held the bags together.

In 1942, it is estimated that three million women and children were wearing print feed sack garments. Not long after WWII, the change to paper and plastic bags began, since they were less expensive than fabric.  After years of being frugal, women wanted store-bought clothing instead of homemade.  However, well into the 1950's farm women continued to use old feed sack scraps for quilts.   

Useful Notion:  Browse yard sales and thrift stores for discarded vintage quilts.  Watch online for old feed sacks or even reproductions to make home decor and kitchen accessories.  

"The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary."  ~Mary Kurtz

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