This is the story of a quilt. It's the oldest UFO (unfinished object) that I have personally made.
We're going all the way back to the spring of 1988, when I accidentally joined a Friendship quilt group at a large quilt guild. I say accidentally, because I signed up for a machine piecing group that met in the evening, but due to low turnout it changed to a hand piecing group that met during the day.
If you were quilting back then, you probably remember the raging debate about hand vs. machine piecing and quilting. (If you weren't, you might think that was insane, and you'd be right!) Machine quilting was in its infancy, and machine quilted quilts were often not even allowed in quilt shows. Completely ridiculous, of course, but a very stuffy crowd was in charge in those days.
My first quilt teacher was Nedra Whittington, whose name appears on the block above. In her class, we pieced and quilted by hand, so I had the skills needed for the Friendship group.
We met once a month (I think). The organizer drew our names out of a hat, and assigned us a month when the others would make blocks for us. When it was our turn, we brought already cut out pieces for our blocks (with the seam lines marked for hand piecing), and handed them out, two sets per person. The finished blocks were due at the next meeting.
I was just starting to get into quilt history then, and this was my favorite book: Remember Me: Women and Their Friendship Quilts, by Linda Otto Lipsett. Ms. Lipsett collected friendship quilts and researched their makers.
This was my favorite quilt in the book. It's in the chapter entitled A Piece of Ellen's Quilt. There are no patterns, but it was easy enough to draft. The block is called Snowflake in the Ladies Art Company catalogs of the 1890s to the 1920s. It has lots of other names, too.
I wanted to make a bed sized quilt, and I knew I wouldn't have enough blocks with just the ones from the Friendship exchange. So I started making more blocks.
Friends not in the group made blocks for me, too! This one was made by Elaine, a dear friend who shared my love of antique quilts. Take a look at the print.
Above is a photo of the quilt in the book. Elaine found a reproduction print of this fabric, and made her block with it! The colors are different, but the print is the same.
My friend Nancy signed her block with the exact date, and a heart!
I had lots of extra blocks that needed signatures, so I carried them around with me and got other quilters to sign them. The second red block above was signed by Maxine Young, owner of my favorite quilt shop, the Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio. (It's still going strong, and has a great online store,
fabricshack.com.)
My grandmother signed this block. It is especially precious to me now that she has passed away.
I love this one, too! My oldest daughter had been doing some hand piecing and wanted to sign the quilt. She picked out the colors, and did some of the stitching. You might be able to see that she included our zip code with her signature. She was 9 years old then.
So how did I let this become a UFO? When the blocks were all finished, I hastily sewed them into a top. It was very badly done, and I knew it, even at the time. Diagonal sets are not my favorites, and I had used a striped sashing, which emphasized all the flaws. I said a thing to myself that one should never say--"Oh, it'll quilt out." No. No, it won't. After a few years I admitted to myself that the striped sashing would have to go.
A few months ago, I finally ripped the top apart, and this week I got it back together with different sashing and added a border.
This is more what I wanted when I started this project all those years ago.
It's not a huge quilt, but it fits nicely on a twin-sized bed.
I'm so happy to have this much done! All day I've been thinking of a line from Bookends, a Simon and Garfunkel song.
"Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you."
Little Buddy and I are yelling for joy around here!
I'm wishing you joy this week, in whatever you do.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
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