Salvaging a wedding quilt
Before I say anything about the quilt, I have to show you this homework that Jack turned in this week:
That's right. For the letter "T" he made bloody hands that had been poked by tacks. LOL
I saw several quilts while garage saling on Saturday. 1970's versions of Sunbonnet Sue, cross stitched quilts, etc. But none of them really spoke to me. I found this one in the garage of nearly the last house we stopped at. There was no price on it and when I asked how much a long conversation followed with the ladies holding the sale (amongst themselves) about where it came from. Apparently the mother of the women had a quilt made for each of her girls when they got married, and this was one of their wedding quilts.
After a full 5 minutes of discussion she said I could have it for a dollar. (I know, who sells their wedding quilt for a dollar?) When I got it home I did finally find a price tag that said "OLD $1". Curious really.
It was pretty clearly assembled in the 1970's, but there is a wide age range of fabrics in the butterflies. It had been hand quilted and would have been in beautiful shape except that the white she used as the fields for the butterflies had TOTALLY disintegrated.
So I spent 2 hours in front of freaks and geeks while the boys were mudding the drywall in the basement taking off the butterflies.
And another hour in the sun in the yard yesterday while Jack played in the sandbox (which is AWESOME, btw, he FINALLY seems to be settling into the new house and will actually play in the yard!) doing some more trimming on them.
And now I am trying to decide what to do with nearly 30 butterflies.
I have a few ideas (all of which will require the dreaded task of actually ironing them!):
*Wedge a piece of flexible wire in between wool felt on the back of them and use some of them as a mobile in Miss Thing's room
*Hang them from the ceiling in the new basement playroom (they would need felt and wire for that too)
*Use a big canvas and make a piece of art for the playroom by mounting them to the canvas
*Attach them to new fabric and make curtains
*Incorporate a few into a mini quilt for Miss Thing's wall
Choices. Choices. Choices.
*I threw the rest of the quilt away. And I felt SO bad doing it. Even though I knew I saved the good parts. My husband said, "What do you care? It was her wedding quilt and she sold it for a dollar. Clearly it didn't matter to her."
Good point Dear.
Labels: vintage quilts
posted by Sarah and Jack at 7:52 AM
6 comments
links to this post
6 Comments:
That just makes me sick that she sold it for a $1. Really that she sold it at all. I’m glad that it went to someone who will appreciate it.
I like the mobile idea. I think it would be super cute!
Ooh! I think that putting them along the edge of curtains would be really cool ;-) You could use any extra for a doll quilt for the wall. A while back, I actually saw some cute kitchen type curtains at WallyWorld, that were scalloped along the bottom edge and had various colored yo-yo circles on that edge. They were pretty neat actually, and I still have the idea in the back of my mind to make similar ones for my "vintage" (ha!) kitchen. Anyhoo, I am glad you were able to salvage something from the quilt, and that it won't just be thrown away and lost forever. I am sure that you will put them to good use.
I know that this is long already, but I have been wanting to write. My mother has now been moved to a nursing facility where they can better care for her. I just could no longer do what she needed. Anyway, I am in the process of cleaning out her 10 x 25 storage unit and I found one of her old doll bed quilts in pink and green. It is simple, but I think you would like it, perhaps. Also, I have something special of my own that I would like "Miss Thing" to have if you like it. I will try to get some pics today since the weather is nice, and perhaps will actually try to post them to my blog that I have never gotten to work on due to caring for mom. Let me know if this sounds appealing at all. Hope you are having a great day! Take care, --Leslie
As for the butterflies- I vote for all of the above. Each idea is so good and judiciously used and maybe a few duplicated, I think you could do all of those ideas! (overkill- nah!) As for Jack- LOL!! I also love that he crossed out his first name and replaced it with a better version. I love determination and making mistakes without having to erase all the time.
Don't you just hate it when husbands are right?
omg, you're not going to believe this. I passed up a quilt top at the thrift last week that looked JUST LIKE THIS. The same butterflies. I remember, because it seemed odd to me that they were blanketstitched. If I'd thought of cutting them out, I would have kept it! Boo-hoo!
That is beautiful! What a find.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home