Saturday, January 15, 2022

It's About Time

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's red month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I have a top finished.  I've been working on it for 54 years!  Well, sort of.  It's a long story.  You might want to grab a beverage.

In 1967, my family would soon be moving to a neat old house.  My mom bought this kit, to make an embroidered quilt for my bed.  That fall, the women and girls in our household (my mother, my grandmother, my sister Steph, and I) started embroidering the blocks in the evenings.  This was the first time Steph and I had done embroidery, and it was kind of fun.  Each red stitch was supposed to cover an x printed on the cotton fabric.  When we got those done, we could do the lazy daisy stitches in green.

 After we moved, we were busy with new schools (Steph and brother Bryan to elementary, me to Junior High) and Mom and Dad were working full time as well as painting and scraping wall paper, etc.  The quilt project got set aside.

When I was in college many years later, I started doing needlework kits from Woolworths.  Mom and I got to talking about the quilt kit, and she gladly gave it to me.  Some pieces were missing, but I figured I could think of a way to fix it.

 From then on, the quilt was on my radar, but it kept getting set aside.  I got married, and had three children.  I got interested in pieced quilts (okay, obsessed) and loved making them by machine.  I often brought the old embroidery blocks with me on vacations (because everyone needs handwork on vacation!) and both my daughters learned to embroider the same way my sister and I had.  On one trip, Steph's step-daughter also put her first embroidery stitches in a block.

Eventually, the blocks I had were finished.  But there were not enough of them to even make a twin bed quilt.  I couldn't figure out how to set them that would use them all, and I refused to leave any blocks out.  Then one day, while looking for something else, I found the same kit offered on Ebay.  It was for a double bed, and had never been opened.  I was over the moon when I had the winning bid.

 Now I had everything I needed.  When the white blocks were done, I started on the red ones, which only have a few lazy daisy stitches.  Then I came to the borders.  I had two of the original borders, which I believe were done by my grandmother.  The borders from the "new" kit were longer of course, since they were for a double bed, so I had to cut them to make them fit.  I used four of the extra red blocks in the corners.  Just last week, I did the last of the embroidery and sewed on the last border.  It's not the same as the original layout, but I think it will do.

 I'm sure you can see the imperfections.  There is a large rust stain from a metal embroidery hoop, and a few other stains and marks that may or may not wash out.  Some of the blocks are done without separating the floss properly, which makes them appear darker.  There are lots of crooked stitches, made by little girls just learning to work a needle.  I love all of it.

After more than 50 years, this kit is finally a quilt top.  What's next?  Hand quilting, of course.  I can't wait.  It's about time.

Here's a reward for reading this long story.

My daughter sent this picture of my little buddies playing dress up.  They make me laugh every day.

I hope you can have a good laugh today about something silly.  Stay safe, and have a wonderful week.

Cheers for reading this,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy 

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 


26 comments:

  1. OH MY GOODNESS, Sylvia!!!!!!!!! Fifty-four years in the making, combining the efforts of so many family members over so many decades?! Finding another kit on eBay to fill in the missing pieces?! This is such an amazing story, and the finished quilt top is beautiful!! Please, PLEASE make a label for this quilt listing the names of everyone involved in the making. Also, in addition to loving the story behind your quilt, you are inspiring me as I'm trying to figure out how to set my nine appliqued Whig Rose blocks. I really like those dark red alternate blocks set off the cross stitched blocks in your quilt without upstaging them as pieced alternate blocks might have done. Now I'm off to EQ8 to see how that might work for my blocks. Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS on this spectacular and truly epic UFO finish!

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    1. Thanks, Rebecca! I've been planning the label for a long time. I'm going to include everybody's maiden and married names, birth dates, etc. It will be extra large! Good luck with your Whig Rose project.

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  2. A wonderful story of this quilt. It's beautiful - with all it's memories tied together. I really don't see any imperfections.

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  3. what a wonderful heirloom full of love and memories. Congrats on getting it done. It doesn't matter how long

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    1. Thanks, maggie! I'm glad to finally get it together, and I'm not going to set it aside anymore. On to the quilting!

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  4. That's a beautiful quilt, Sylvia, and what a great story it has! So many special hands put stitches into it, and now you'll get to finish it. That's so much fun! And your buddies dressing up definitely puts a smile on my face!

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    1. Thanks, Diann! I'm looking forward to the quilting. And to seeing my buddies this week!

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  5. OWO Sylvia it is a precious quilt, full of sweet memories. Congrats on a beautiful finish. Your buddies sure put a smile on my face. Have a great weekend.

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  6. Great story! And make sure it goes with the quilt somehow so the story of the quilt gets passed on. :)

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    1. Thanks, Sue! You're right, the story needs to be preserved. Right now I'm planning a label for the back.

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  7. I loved reading the story behind this quilt. Goodness me, those cross stitched blocks would have taken an age to stitch. I'm so pleased you found another kit to finish this up. Such an zcheivent and this quilt will always hold so many family memories.

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    1. Thanks, Jenny! It almost seemed like a miracle when I found that kit on Ebay.

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  8. Talk about an epic journey with a quilt! The memories in the making of this quilt is something money cannot buy and it is priceless. It is a fantastic achievement!

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  9. What a fabulous story, Sylvia. Congratulations on completing that quilt top! We will be looking forward to seeing the quilting stitches go in.

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    1. Me too, Joyful! I've wanted to quilt these blocks since we started them.

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  10. Every quilt has a story but this one really wins it all. Wow! 54 years and still waiting for completion. Awesome! Glad that you are getting it together because it is a very beautiful quilt in all its imperfections. Love the picture of the boys, one with an alligator sock! Too funny! Thanks for sharing. ;^)

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  11. Hi Sylvia, this post was like a walk down memory lane for me. My mother and I also worked on those pre printed blocks for quilts; I can remember embroidering flowers for one. Thanks for sharing your story and I think the quilt is wonderful...full of wonderful memories too.

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  12. Oh, so good, Sylvia!!! How wonderful that you had the winning bid and could expand and complete your quilt top! And all those good memories and happy stitches! Heartwarming!!!

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  13. I LOVE THIS STORY!!! Oh my gosh - what history that quilt has!! you need to print this story out and keep it with your quilt!! I love that so many of your family's members have a hand in it!! what amazing history!!!

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  14. Ok, this my kind of quilt story!! I was with you every touching, thrilling and tense moment (Can I finish it? How will I make it big enough?? Where to get more blocks???). When you get it all quilted (and I know you will!), please make sure it has a label that at minimum names all of the family members that took part in the making of this or even better relates the whole origin story (or maybe even record your story for the Quilt Alliance documentation project). These are the projects that quilting in our modern age is all about!!

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  15. Great story. Glad you are finishing this one. It has a great history. Hum, maybe a shortened version should be included on your label.

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  16. Sylvia, that's an amazing quilt with a beautiful story. Loved reading every word!

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  17. What a great story. Is there some way to include all that on a label as well?

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Thanks for reading! Post a comment--I want to know what you think!