Rescuing the Unlovable

Yesterday I went to Berkley, Michigan to visit Guildcrafters Quilt Shop and the Oddfellows Antique Mall.

At the mall I found a sweet appliqued coverlet for $28. It featured a center medallion and a border.

 

 It had two stains which I decided I would be able to remove. I was told that people had passed it up many times because of the stains. The price had been reduced over time.

 

The applique in pink on a white ground has remarkable small stitches.

 

 

 

 

Over the years I have brought home numerous unlovable quilts. Last month I found the Double Wedding Ring on a blue ground that I am repairing by appliqueing vintage fabrics over the fabrics that have decayed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many years ago I was given a quilt which needed a new binding, and I used vintage fabric for the binding and to repair decayed fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found a quilt made of matching fabrics in three color ways, repaired with a house dress so the button holes show. It was badly stained, as if it had been used as a mattress pan. Three washings and the stains were out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finished a quilt top circa 1900 by repairing the decayed fabrics and layering and quilting it.

This wonderful one patch quilt also needed a few squares replaced. I used reproduction fabric, appliqued over the original square. The fabrics seem to date to the early 1900s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know that today finding beauty in decay is quite mainstream. Upcycling, repurposeing, and Shabby Chic in decorating is very prevalent. At The Rust Belt in Ferndale, Michigan you can find industrial repurposing in furnishings and décor, such as Hudson Industrial's reclaimed wood and metal furnishings. I wrote a few months ago about a book on Detroit's abandoned buildings. Urban decay is another contemporary fascination.

 

One of my brother's creations; his cabin chandelier

I think in my case it is genetic. I cried when I saw good things in the trash when I walked to elementary school.

 

My brother hauls things from the canal behind his house and turns them into décor. He has repurposed for years before it had a name.

 

Our grandmother worked at the Goodwill store, and I think she wanted first crack at the good stuff coming in! She once found and gave me a winking eyeball ring! She had a sense of humor!

Best of all, rescuing unwanted animals is now mainstream! Our Suki was in a puppy mill for seven years, and so unsocialized that even after a year in foster care her first 'forever' family returned her! It took several years, but she is a Real Dog now. It just took a lot of loving.

And I am really glad there are many of us ready to take on the unlovable.

Love Entwined Center Completed

 

I finished the last corner floral vase on the Love Entwined applique quilt. Esther Aliu's Yahoo group has hundreds of people from across the world making this 1790 reproduction. The variety of interpretations is mind boggling!

 

The next pattern will not be released until the 15th, so I have time to work on my "Green Heroes" quilt, which has been languishing for months waiting me to finish the hand quilting. I am quilting motifs relevant to each "hero". Adolph Leopold, author of Sand County Almanac, has images from his book cover with a heron. Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek has a forest and, hopefully a recognizable creek.

 

 

Leopold founded a new way of looking at the wilderness, and forged an new ethic:
"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land."

 

Dillard's 1974 book won the Pulitzer Prize. Her observations of nature and thoughts about life and God were very inspiring to me when I read her book when it came out. 

 

Meantime we in Michigan have undergone a terrific snow storm just a week after 50,000 people got their power back after an ice storm. We had a mere foot of snow here.

 

Today we finally have some sunshine, but a wind chill that is Arctic. Sounds like good weather for hand quilting on a hoop, because that quilt will keep me warm!

 

 

 

 

 

Pride and Prejudice story book quilt

My first semester at Temple University I took a course on literary criticism. The professor told the class we should be sure to take three courses. Each was an honors course: John Milton, James Joyce's Ulysses, and a year-long, two semester course on Jane Austen. I took them all before my graduation in 1978. 

Joyce was not my favorite course. I was the only female in the class. The guys all liked to puzzle out Joyce. The professor was a Freudian. Still, I managed to get an A based on my 50 page paper on Bloom in Nighttown, with a Jungian interpretation. 

I came to really enjoy John Milton. I think I bored many a person with my yammering on about him. 

But Jane Austen I loved. I have read all of her books, complete or not, many times since then. And it is great that she has become so well known thanks to the many movies and television mini-series on her books.


                                                          Little Women quilt

After I made Marian Cheever Newton Whiteside's 1952 Storybook pattern of Little Women I was inspired to try my own Storybook quilt. I chose Pride and Prejudice. I researched images for inspiration: art, fashion plates, dance instruction books, and 19th c book illustrations. I turned the images into line drawings to base my patterns on. 

Each block shows an important scene from the novel. The sisters Jane and Lizzie; Darcy telling Bingly that 'she's tolerable enough' as Lizzie overhears; Rev Collins brashly introducing himself to Darcy; Lizzie visiting Charlotte Collins; Darcy's cousin telling Lizzie how Darcy saved Bingly from an unhappy marriage; Darcy rushing off to intervene between Willoughby and Lydia; Darcy handing Lizzie his letter of explanation that reveals how Willoughby seduced his sister Gerogiana; Lizzie realizing she loved Darcy and would never see him again; a triumphant married Lydia returns home; Darcy's aunt confronting Lizzie about being engaged to Darcy; and Darcy proposing to Lizzie.

I was uncertain if I liked the pink background and blue border on this quilt. So I did another version, all in Redwork!

Here is Lydia with Willoughby and another soldier.

And here is Darcy flanked by Bingly and Bingly's sister.

Some day I hope to make another Storybook quilt. I have Pinocchio and two other Whiteside patterns. Or I may make my own favorite book again!

Update: Patterns for the Pride and Prejudice quilts are now available at my etsy store Rosemont Needle Arts found here.

A Year in Review

I have not added to this blog for over a year. But I did accomplish a lot during this time. I moved. I adopted a dog. Our son graduated from college. And we are preparing for another move this summer!
I also took up decorative painting and joined a book club.
Catch up on quilts: I designed a quilt for a wedding, based on their invitation graphics. It has a floral vine in applique and embroidery and is beaded.I designed and appliqued and am quilting a Princess Feather quilt. I used bright colors as requested. I made a kitten baby quilt. I learned to make purses and did about 12.I completed a quilt hop quilt. I also started several quilts that are sitting around as tops or blocks, waiting completion.