A Grandmother's "Scrap" Quilt

Good  early chilly morning. For some reason I have not yet adapted to Eastern Standard Time and tend to rise long before any bird or critter stirs. So with coffee in hand I have been scanning through some photo's for a Thursday share. I have NO studio time since the Holidays and am getting itchy fingers.   New computer with Windows 8 is a bugger. So I popped down to the studio to  fire up old faithful and scan the photo files.

I may have reached my level of technical tolerance here people. Old Point and shoot camera that I use for all this stuff is acting up, Husband picked up a new little ditty yesterday for me. Yowsers, teck overload for the the Mistress of Sewtopia! And she has a dentist appointment later this morning. I am going to scream not fair!

OK done, sorry for the mini-I-am-so-frstrated-rant on a Thursday.   

The subject today is the utility quilt. See this beauty? Unearthed by Cousin in her collection this is one of many, many scrap quilts made in the 60's, 70's, and 80's by Husband and Cousin's Maternal Grandmother and Aunt. They used every scrap of fabric they saved or was given to them. I see dress fabric in there and I see shirts worn by male family members as well as fabric purchased at the local 5 and dime, when there were such things and when they carried fabric. Looking closely, I see some former kitchen curtains as well. An example of waste not want not, these ladies are products of the Great Depression where frugality was the way of life. Later in life Grandmother married a wealthy man and could have purchased the finest fabrics available for what, by then, was a hobby, not a necessity. However, as you can see by this example, she did not. This one was made sometime in the late 70's and a polyester batting was used. Very modern for them, they normally used cotton flannel sheets, stacked and basted for filling.

 A simple outline-the-square hand quilting was a hallmark of their style. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good photo of the binding. They almost always cut a large backing and wrapped it around to the front for binding.  This style of quilting was my earliest exposure to the craft. My Fraternal Grandmother was a dressmaker, not a quilt maker. I don't ever remember seeing a quilt in her home. To this day, scrappy quilts are my favorite, even if the 'scraps' are intentional!

Hopefully, I will have something productive to share soon. Carving out studio time is a little tricky these days, but I still keep trying! That is the key to life, me thinks, don't give up!!!
Originally published January 2014