Monday, June 25, 2018

Monday Meanderings 6 - 25 - 2018

Today I'm sharing an antique quilt I've been working on for a customer.  Thank you Marlene for allowing me to share this one and to work on it. 
This was made by Laura Catherine Boozer Walke who lived from 1857 to 1946 in Marengo County Alabama. She is Marlene's great grandmother. It is beautifully hand pieced.  Surprisingly enough it doesn't have a lot of holes or tears.  I only saw one little hole.  It has seen a lot of staining and spotting.  It's been soaked twice and many of the really bad spots have come out.  I'm going to recommend that once it is finished she soak it again. 

Most of the fabric is from the 30's.  I've worked with these types of fabrics both original and reproductions.  Darn, I still like them.  (Said the gal with a shoebox full of 30's reproduction fabrics from the 1990s. Must make something with them.) Marlene chose Ginger Heart as the quilting design combined with a beige thread.  It shows off the design on the backing quite nicely but is subtle on the front.  
I am going to have a challenge putting the binding on.  I'm assuming that I can't just trim off the excess fabric in a straight line before I put on the binding. I'm sure that would jeopardize the hand piecing.  My best suggestion is to cut beyond the quilt, put the binding on the front and try to roll up the excess into the binding.  Sharon and I had a discussion about that yesterday.  What do you think?  Anyone have any better ideas?  
It's hard to see but quite a few of the fabrics were pieced so they could be used.  Within the oval are two seamed fabrics on both sides of the bottom point.  I also saw one within the colored fabrics but I couldn't find it when I was taking the pictures. All I need to do is make the label and bind it.  It's being bound in the same bright blue as the backing that you can see in the top picture. (You can click on most of the pictures to get a bigger view.)  

Getting this top quilted was part of my weekly goal from last week. So, yep checked that off the list!  (Hum, because I import my goals list it has changed the font size. It looks the same as I type (and paste) the copy but looking at the preview it is smaller.  Sorry folks! I like Verdana type as it is clean looking and reasonable size for me to read.) 
June 18, 2018
Finish 3 more pillowcases
Finish Civil War Quilt binding
Begin design process for secret project 
Start putting Beachside Bungalow together Oops!  Ran out of fabric so I'm waiting for more of the background fabric so I can cut the triangles.
Start quilting another quilt and finished the quilting

And this week I've got a full plate of what I want to get done ... time will tell if I get any of it done! 
June 25, 2018
Bind customer quilt
Add inner border to Jamestown Landing
Begin making string border for Jamestown Landing
Work on red, white and blue heart quilt
Sash and sew together stripe blocks
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Start sewing Beachside Bungalow (Celebrate) together

I've got my week full of sewing projects.  The one I really want to finish is the binding on the antique quilt.  And, yep, I'm hand stitching it to the back.  Eek! 

I'm linking up with my regular parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Moving It Forward and Design Wall Monday.  Join me in cruisin' through the quilting blogs on the internet. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie




9 comments:

  1. It is a beautiful top and after you are done with it it will make a gorgeous heirloom quilt. I am so looking forward to the finished beauty.

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  2. That quilt is fabulous! Such great fabrics. How fun to mix modern quilting with hand piecing.

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  3. I love this design and it's so pretty in the 30's fabrics. How nice that you have quilted it and will bind it, giving Marlene a beautiful treasure.

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  4. It is always fun seeing these old quilts. I am glad it is getting finished so it can be better enjoyed. Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

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  5. Your quilting will definitely help preserve this treasure. I thinking your binding idea will work well.

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  6. What a delightful treasure, Bonnie! I love these vintage hand-pieced blocks with inset seams. You don't see quilts like this being made anymore. I think it's wonderful that you're able to finish this family heirloom so the family can enjoy it! As for the binding dilemma, I like your solution but instead of trying to cram the excess batting into a 1/4" binding, I think I'd deliberately do a wider binding, maybe 3/8" or 1/2" depending on how much extra batting you need to incorporate to avoid cutting through any of the hand pieced seams. Alternatively, and this is an idea that I'm getting from a couple of the vintage quilts that I own, is that you could do the kind of binding where excess backing fabric is wrapped around to the front of the quilt to form the binding. I've never tried that before and I'm not sure how it would work to do it by machine... Maybe this is another one of my Bright Ideas Best Abandoned... ;-)

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  7. Its a beautiful pattern for using those fabrics.

    Binding--I would use a 2.5" bias binding, sew it on and then sew again close but not quite on top the 1st stitching. Leave as much as possible inside the binding. Should be quite sturdy then.

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  8. What a treasure! And, yes, the 30's repros from the 90's are approaching vintage status.

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  9. What a gorgeous family heirloom. The quilting looks great. Hopefully you figured out the binding process.

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