It Happened Again

You will remember that I recently rehabbed a vintage quilt by sewing the blocks into an entirely new setting. Well.

Not long after, I received a message on Ravelry from someone who happened to see my post (she was visiting the quilting group) and linked me to a post where someone was offering two old tops. Sure enough, someone was offering two tops that were found in an attic they were cleaning out. (First time in 85 years, apparently!) The first they thought was from the 30s and the second from the 70s.

We ended up connecting and he agreed to send me the tops. I had half a thought that I might get into trouble if old quilts keep finding me! (But I quickly quashed it.)

Then the owners wrote me and said that someone in the family wanted the checkerboard top for a baby quilt; he was very sorry. But I didn't mind because I was only taking the second one because I liked the first one! So, perfect all around.

A couple weeks after that, my package arrived!

What did I have?

Twenty-five blocks sewn in a 5x5 grid; 4 blocks sewn in a row; and 4 single blocks. I can't imagine what layout they were thinking of with that number of blocks, or maybe they were planning to make a few more.

Some of the blue pieces have evidence of stitching and I'm wondering if it's from the same reinforcing stitching that I saw in the last set of blocks. But in this case, they took the time to remove the reinforcing strip. The blocks looked to be in good shape. It was all hand sewn.

First order of business was to separate the blocks. I knew I couldn't use them in the existing arrangement.

And here they are!

I gave them a good soak and light swishing and then an extra long soak because I forgot about them overnight. A quick spin in the washer and they were ready to hang to dry.

The water came out very brown which was icky. But I wonder if it was some of the brown dye bleeding. A few of the blue stars have brown spots and I don't know if they were already there or if it was transfer from the dye.

Once washed, they all needed a good pressing. Each block went from this:

to this:

Back

Front

So satisfying!!

Although the blocks are not a uniform size and some of the seam allowances are a lot smaller than a 1/4 inch, the only one that could pose a big problem is this one:

Can you see how "not flat" that is?!! I don't think I'm going to re-sew it. I can just push it down and flatten it which makes the blue fabric pleat over itself but doesn't affect the outside shape. Or I can choose a layout that doesn't need that block.

This morning I laid out the blocks for the first time. I'm thinking of setting them on-point with alternating blocks.

There are a lot of ways you can fill in the blank squares. Solid fabric squares is one option, or quarter square triangles (hour glass blocks) can be a striking arrangement too.

I trimmed the last set of blocks so that they were all the same size. I think I may add sashing to these blocks so I can cut them the same size without cutting off parts of the stars.

I was thinking these small blocks (only about 7") wouldn't be enough for a big quilt, but setting on point and alternating with other blocks makes them almost fill this double bed. Add a few borders that hang over the side and I'd have a bed quilt!

That would also mean making a couple more blocks because there aren't quite enough for this 5x7 arrangement. I used to have a blue that I think would have match pretty well, but I'm not sure I have it any more. Matching the brown would be a lot harder.

But on the other hand, they don't have to blend in completely. Having different blocks would just highlight the fact that this is a "mother/daughter" quilt--that's what they call it when one person makes the blocks or starts a quilt and another (from a younger generation) finishes it. An endearing name, isn't it?

Linking up with Quilting Patchwork and Applique

Cutting the Gordian Knot

Here's a project you haven't seen in a while:
The last time I wrote about it was October, 2015!

A summary of its history:

• The quilt top was purchased by my sister's mother-in-law in the 60s from the side of the road in Kentucky when they were on a trip.
• It lived in her attic until my sister was helping her clean out the house for a move in the late 1990s. There were three quilt tops; my sister liked two of them and offered this one to me. I took it gladly.
• I added the hexagons around the outside to get it to size. I made it into a duvet cover (because I was sleeping under duvets at the time; not quilts) and used buttons to hold the layers together.
• It was too warm as a duvet cover and the buttons were uncomfortable (mostly when sitting on the bed, not sleeping) and would scratch you. I disassembled the duvet cover which left me a quilt with raw edges.
• I decided to remove the buttons and hand quilt it, echoing all of the seams.
• My plan was to fill in all the spaces on the sides to get straight edges. I really disliked those points hitting me in the face especially. I even had extra triangles in the bigger blue polka dot fabric to use.

And that is how the quilt has been for almost five years now.

During this self-isolating time at home, I have had a need to finish projects that are stuck at some step. (I've also had a need to start new projects. I know I'm not the only one.) The problem with this one is that I really didn't want to inset triangles in all those spaces. They would need to be layered-- front, batting, and backing--and then sewn into position. Not an attractive project.

And then I had the thought, "I could cut the edges so they were straight." Just lop them off like Alexander and the Gordian knot. Boom.

I may have considered this before and rejected it as a hack and because I wanted the quilt to be big enough for our bed. Well I no longer worry about every quilt fitting my bed (smaller quilts have their place too) and it sounded like a good hack to me at this point. (No, it sounded like a great hack to me at this point.) So that is what I did.

No pictures of cutting the edges. More of a "don't stop me now" moment although it felt a little like a "here, hold my camera and watch this" moment. I wanted to take a full hexagon off of the sides so that only original material was left. I did first attempt to unpick the seam, but a lot of it had the seam allowance pressed toward the quilt and it was sewn down. That would give me nothing to sew onto. So I just cut it with the rotary cutter, about 1/2" from the seam line.

I wanted a little more length compared to the width, so I cut the top and bottom about 4" from the highest point of the white hexagons.

All I needed to do to finish it now was the binding. I was lucky to have one long straight piece of the big blue polka dot fabric that was long enough for almost all of the two shorter sides. I had some leftover hexagons in the same fabric and briefly thought about cutting them up and sewing them end to end, but that was crazy, right? My binding would be made up of pieces 4"-8" long.

But then I saw that I also had a chain of hexagons already sewn in a strip. Well, if someone else was going to have them sewn together for me, who was I to turn it down? So I got just about enough from that for the rest. I think I only had to add one more hexagon.

I only had enough because I decided to do a two-colour binding. In this case, I paired the polka dots with a white solid. The polka dot fabric was pretty thin. (You can see some of the blue from the seam underneath showing through here on the back:)

Doing it this way meant that there was solid white under the polka dots on the front and I could sew it down on the back into a sturdier fabric. And it also meant that I could use a thinner strip of the polka dots and that is why I could squeeze out enough from the little that I had.

It took a few days, but I did get the binding sewn down. It is a hot mess under there with the double seam allowances, but the binding looks great so no one can tell. There is not a single judge anywhere who could say that my binding was not filled enough. :) (Yes, they judge you on that.)

So I was done right? Well, while I was sewing the binding, I decided there was too much unquilted space in the top and bottom border. The batting is cotton and it really needs to be sewn in place or it will come apart and bunch up.

So I decided a simple diamond shape would work. I marked them with a ruler,

(ceramic pencil on the blue fabric; blue water soluble marker on the plaid)

and hand quilted it.

(This is the back, in case that is not obvious.)

Like the rest of the quilt, my stitches are not great. But that's what you get for using dense sheets instead of muslin. I matched my thread to the different fabrics on top and bottom so it doesn't stand out on the front but you get the texture.

Seven diamonds on the top, seven diamonds on the bottom and I'd be done.

It went faster than I expected and I had them all quilted. So I was done, right? Well, while I was sewing the diamonds I noticed there was quite a lot of unquilted space on each end of the borders. When I finished the diamonds I admitted to myself that I would have to quilt a triangle in each of the four corners. That went even quicker--half the stitching of a diamond.

So I as done, right? Well, while I was sewing that I found a hexagon where I missed some quilting! Can you see it?

It's all around the outside of the star.

So I threaded up the needle again and finished the star. And while I was sewing that...I found nothing more. So I was done!

You can't even tell that some of the binding is on grain,
some is off-grain and there are seams every 8" or so, right?

Crinkly texture!

(This is why you don't sew light fabrics with dark thread.)

A view of the back

It's laying on my queen size bed and just covers the top.

Project summary
Started: 2009 (this incarnation)
Finished: May 17, 2020
Size: 61"x76"
Top: originally made in Kentucky in the 1960s. I repaired damaged blocks and had to replace fabric in four of the flowers.
Cotton batting.
Hand quilted.
All blog posts about this quilt: link

Vintage Quilt Remake

Once or twice a year, Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework hosts a quilt adoption event. Click here if you would like to read more details about this spring's event and you can see all of the adoptions that were linked. The basic idea is that you can offer any unfinished project, set of supplies, or anything quilting related to any takers for free. You can decide if it goes to the first taker or if you'll have a random draw or if you'll make a decision based on some other criteria.

I love looking through all of these items and unfinished projects each time. I mean, it's basically second hand shopping for quilters! I work to be very cautious about how much I ask for. One of the main points of this event is to get these project finished/items used--it's not just to have these items sitting on someone else's shelf!

Having more time these days and experiencing a resurgence in my sew-jo led to me asking/offering on two items. The first was an old quilt top:

You can read the original offering and story here at Life's Little Adventures (item #4). I can't say exactly what drew me to it, but I liked the blocks, the basic colour scheme, and of course that it was old. My original thought was to "rescue" the blocks from that "horrible" fabric that was sewn between them.

When I got the quilt top, I realized the strips between the blocks were not a big collection of random ugly fabrics but was mostly just two ugly fabrics:

and the more I saw them, the more I liked them!!

I was still resolved to disassemble the quilt. The blocks themselves were sewn by hand:

with skillful stitches, at least by my estimation. They did not handle the seam intersections in the best manner so I wonder if they were a garment sewer by training and new to quilting. Or maybe she just didn't worry about which way to sew down seam allowances.

The blocks were sewn together and the strips sewn on by machine. By my limited knowledge, the fabrics in the strips were much newer (a decade or two?). Those two things make me think that it was a later sewer who did this part--the block maker's daughter or granddaughter perhaps. I also don't think they were as experienced as sewers.

For one thing, the machine stitches were far too small. My guess is someone didn't know what a conventional stitch length was so they went for what they thought was as strong as possible.

In fact, the close tiny stitches actually put the fabric more at risk as the many needle punches can weaken the fabric, and also put it at risk of tearing since the seam is stronger than the fabric.

Or maybe they just had no idea you could even change that setting and used the machine with whatever settings the machine was already set to.

Also, uneven seam allowances

show a sewer who didn't know how to control the fabric as they sewed or that it would affect how flat and straight the final product would turn out.

I proceeded with trying to take out all of those tight tiny impossible stitches. The first go was with a regular seam ripper, which worked but was pretty tedious. Someone on Instagram suggested a tool that was basically small electric hair clippers. The method was to pull apart the two fabric pieces and snip the thread with the clippers. The tension on the fabric would then pull out the next few stitches, you'd snip again and just zip your way up the seam.

So I tried it with our hair clippers with mediocre success. Our clippers were not quite as sharp perhaps. (Although don't say that to my husband who takes great pride in keeping everything very sharp around here!) But the main issue was that the stitches were so small, there was no "pulling out the next few stitches" with the tension on the fabric because the stitches were too close together.

Then I switched to using a razor blade instead. I'd put tension on the fabric, pulling the two pieces apart, press the blade against the stitches to cut them, and go down the seam that way. It was quicker than the seam ripper, although at higher risk of cutting the fabric instead of the stitches.

I only had one damaged part:

although I can't remember if that was done with the clipper or the blade. Probably the clippers.

But finally I had all of the blocks separated from the strips of fabric and from each other.

I have never worked with fabric this old. I was mystified by the strips of twill tape that were sewn into the fabric in random places, completely unnecessary to the piecing of the blocks:

Google searching has failed me. I came to the conclusion that this was reinforcement sewn in from when these were used as seed, sugar, or flour sacks. I think some of the fabrics go back to 1930s or 1940s sackcloth. Some of them are a very odd texture, like they've been coated. I assume this was to treat the fabric so it would not allow flour or sugar to leak through.

The other interesting thing was how precious this fabric was (fabric in general, I'm sure). If the piece was a tiny bit small, they would sew a piece on, no matter how close to the seam. Check out this small square:

 Can you see all the seams?

Holy cow!! Just to get a little 3" square--a piece many quilters now would consider waste. (Of course, not if it's the last little bit of a fabric you need to complete a pattern!)

Sometimes they matched the pattern

 other times they didn't bother:

Or more likely not that they didn't bother, but because it wasn't possible with the fabric they had available.

A lot of the blocks are dirty and faded:

but what can you expect? Some of them may be nearing 100 years old! (I can't decide if this fabric was originally blue or red. Or maybe they really did throw in one random purple block.)

I did wash the fabric and blocks once it was disassembled. The water came out pretty grungy so that certainly affirmed the decision. No damage was done as far as I could tell, so I was grateful for that.

Once I had the blocks apart, what now?

I tried a layout of just the blocks:

But I didn't like that. Too cluttered. But it did help determine where I wanted the blocks and demonstrated that I could use all 25 blocks in an "on point" setting. If I added some sashing between the blocks I thought I could have something!

But before I could do any sewing, I had to get the blocks to the same size. I measured each one and got measurements from 10.5" to 11.5"...that's a big range!

Not much choice but to cut them all down to 10.5". The blocks were uneven and did not lay flat. I tried to centre the centre square as best I could and just laid the square ruler on top to make it as flat as possible while I cut.

You might be asking how I could just cut the edges of the blocks off since they were hand sewn. Wouldn't the stitching come out? I asked myself the same thing. At first I thought I would just mark the new boundary of the block and try to match it with the sashing.

But then I thought I could cut the edge everywhere but the seam, like this:

So I have the edge I can match to the sashing, but haven't cut through the seams. Pretty clever, right? They remind me of the little notches that you leave when you're cutting out fabric for sewing patterns.

With that done and some careful sewing*, I got the sashing onto two sides of each block.

(*Remember that when you have to sew two pieces together that aren't quite the same length, always sew with a "baggy bottom". I.e. put the longer piece on the bottom where the feed dogs will ease it into the seam.)

And here is the top with the edge triangles and the rest of the sashing:

I really had to get creative to cut all the edge triangles from the fabric that was originally sewn between the blocks.

Then I realized that I read the chart I was using incorrectly and the corner triangles are too small. That elicited a big sigh from me, I can tell you. But since I first realized, I've been mulling it around and I think I have a solution I like.

In one place I saw this block called Puss in the Corner, but since then I haven't been able to confirm it. When I search for Puss in the Corner blocks, they are shown with half-square triangle pieces. If you have a name you use for this block, please leave it in the comments below. I'd like to know how to refer to it. Thanks!