
After DH and I married in 1987, I found myself decorating a New York city apartment and I began to think about getting back into the patchwork quilting craft that had been pushed far to the background for too long. You can tell this was a hasty example as I choose fabric, cut strips and began piecing helter-skelter, and then without time to do the top stitching I called Aunt Gladys [lower left photo]. While the top was being quilted I completed the pillow shams and a throw (not shown) for myself.
Thinking I wanted the strips to look more like mosaics than blocks (this was my glass history phase), Aunt Gladys undertook to hand-stitch each patch around the perimeter, about one-quarter inch from the seam line. When I say Aunt Gladys who was then about 88's, I mean my aunt and the quilters of the First Christian Church of Rosendale, Missouri. The quilting group there had long been quilting weekly and would take on outside work (for which I made a donation). Naturally Gladys (my father's older sister), was the founder and leader - nothing organizes like a Bledsoe woman. To that fact the quilting frame that was used was a walnut, handcrafted, quilt frame made by Gladys' grandfather Bledsoe, for her wedding present (1930), that was until lately used by the church group.
Quite soon afterwards my sister Jan decided that she also wanted Aunt to quilt a top for her and thus we each have a quilt with our aunt's handwork. And just in time, for dear aunt died just before reaching age 95. At the time she was glad to take the work in order to raise cash for the church, but much too late I realized that had we waited much longer neither of us would have the quilts we treasure so much.
The center-lower photo is almost as much of a lucky find story, this one-patch pieced top was discovered in a bin in Durham's World Thrift shop several years back. My first mistake was to launder the work and ended up with a thread-ball of knots and tangles. Threads clipped and ironed out, I discovered that I really liked the fabrics and the scrappy look, so I added borders to fit a queen-sized bed and headed to Jan Struble's studio for the long-arm top-stitching to complete the quilt.
You may remember this quilt from the 2008 DOQ Quilt Show (un-judged), where there were many comments about the assorted vintage fabrics. I have no idea how old the top is, nor where the squares came from, some unknown-un-named maker had a great idea going that never got finished. I appliqued "Ragtime Dreams" for the title as DH was in his ragtime-jazz phase and I figured with a quilt like this on the bed we could only have sweet dreams.
The two holiday quilts belong to sister Jan (lower-right), and myself (center-right). The crowning glory of my quilting is the Juke Box Quilt, now hanging in DH's loft/music room. Sometime back I wanted a real juke box but DH thought six-thousand dollars much too much (his story, not mine), for such a frivolous trinket, so without $$$ I did the next best thing - I made one. You might think that seeing it every day he might relent and buy me a juke box - hasn't happened yet!
Other quilts made for various family members are missing, one not pictured was made for niece Meghan when she was an under gradate student with a horse print and patches. But that was photographed BEFORE we entered the digital age and while I have the icons, Photoshop will not recognize the program (bummer). Another quilt found on E-Bay was mended and given to Mother for her 85th birthday, a vintage quilt made plus/minus World War I. No Photo.
There will not be many more of these treasured quilts as I am downsizing the fabric stash, giving away lots of fabrics and will not be spending my life bent over a sewing machine in my old age. BUT I am glad that I have made, found, rescued, recycled and gifted every piece of patchwork found. My belief is that someday, someone will notice that textiles have multiple uses, can solve multiple problems and that the perceived, simple geometry that underscores each quilt is not nearly so simple as first glance might tell you.
Adding to the scrappy-family treasures, come June each of the girls in the family (ages 12-90), who attend Mother's 90th birthday reception will receive a BB-Original Sun Glass case for carrying those big summer sunglasses. The purpose was to use up many precious scraps, but somehow I seem to have just as many now after making 18 cases, as I had before. The phenomena of quilting is that scraps are forever endless.

Endless also is the art of downsizing; there is always too much and too little time.
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