Doing my best...

After fussing for five hours with the small amount of fabric I found that went with this quilt, I gave up on making new squares and went with what was finsihed.  All the blocks are my MIL's handiwork.  I added what remained of her fabric in between the blocks.

I found a nice calico in my stash, and will add it as borders to make the quilt larger.  It will be slightly larger than a lap quilt, smaller than a twin size quilt.

 

My mother-in-law's UFO...

Back in 1992 or so, we returned to the States from overseas, and although I'd taken 2 quilt classes, I really didn't know a lot.  So I joined a quilters group in Pennsylvania.  My mother-in-law, Alma, who lived with us, decided to try her hand at quilting, too.  She joined the group and then took classes.  I didn't take those classes with her, as I had another obligation on the evenings of the class.  The class was to teach a variety of techniques - there are triangles, borders, and applique in some of the blocks.

Alma lost interest in quilting, and never finished the quilt she began. She loved crochet, knitting, and needlepoint much more and created some beautiful pieces, which many of us still have.  She passed away in 2010.

This is what remains of the unfinished quilt.  I'm not sure what the circles were for, but the cream muslin in the upper left corner of the photo has a diamond star and hearts drawn on it, plus the 8 hearts cut out that fit on it.  The block may be part machine pieced (the star) and part appliqued (the hearts).  I'll finish the block that way. 

From the look of the quilt and measurements, it appears that there was to be one row of 3 smaller blocks, one row with the large block and probably large sashings, and then another row of 3 smaller blocks.  This quilt also used incorporated the quilt-as-you-go technique, which I have tried, and do not really do well.  I will remove the blocks from the batting, and create a whole quilt, then finish it that way. Using what's left of the pile of fabric, I will create a couple blocks to finish the quilt. 

 

Finished!

19 new patches and numerous new seams later (including some binding repair on the back), Katie's baby quilt is repaired.

 

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?  She will be very happy to get it back - it's her favorite snugglie, even now. 

A new follower! and more...

I have a follower - Grandma Rockton!  Thank you for visiting my blog.

I have put Grandma Mary's quilt aside for a little bit.  I showed the damage to another quilter, and discovered that more of the fabric is shattered than I first believed.  Only a few blocks are intact, and the fabric in them is iffy, too.  I wanted to talk to my Mom (who was on vacation) before I did anything radical. 

Radical would be to take the remaining intact blocks (there are three) out of the shattered remains, and make a new quilt, surrounding the three blocks that are left.

In the meantime, I seem to be in the quilt repair business.  Niece Katie recently got married, and while visiting with my sister last month, Katie and her husband came up to see me.  Katie brought along the sewing machine I gave her (to relearn how to thread it!) and her childhood quilt, made by her paternal Great-Grandma MeeMee.  Katie received it as a baby, and is now 22 years old.  The quilt has had some hard use, and a few squares need some tender, loving care and new patches. 

I brought the quilt home, with promises to repair it quickly.  Hope to finish it today, and then post photos.  Despite what it looks like in the photo, the damage is more extensive than it looks. Several of the light triangles are torn/mostly gone. I was able to hand sew some seams back together, too.  So far, I've put 16 patches over torn fabric.  There's still more to go.

More Repairs - Grandma Mary's Quilt

Grandma Mary, my Pa's mother, gave this quilt to Pa and Mom when they got married back in 1966.  It has been well-used and well-loved.  The blocks were hand-pieced, but the quilt was backed by machine, with no batting between.

I have assessed the damage in this vintage quilt and it is extensive. The back will have to be removed, it is stained, torn and damaged beyond use - the fabric **shatters** in places, so is not strong enough to anchor the quilt.  Some of the fabrics in the blocks are also shattered, which means I need to put fabric over it, to hold the rest of the block together. 

My goal is to save as much of the front of the quilt as possible. I will cover the torn fabric, either with full reproduction blocks, or only in places needed, like I did with my other Grandmother's quilt.  The red fabric is alternately strong in places, but in other places it is shattering, too - not sure why, but I'll do my best to fix it. 

 

 

The whole quilt. It is larger than lap robe, but smaller than twin.  I suspect it was made for a child, or one of those little homemade beds, before bed sizes existed. Although, with no batting, it might have been a pieced tablecloth, although my Mom never used is as such.

Whole pieces of the blocks are missing as you can see in this closeup - these will be replaced with fabric as close to the original colors as I can get. You can see the large tear in the red block.  I will not sew it together, but will cover it. If I sewed it back together, the seam would warp the block next to it, resulting in uneven sides.

It is interesting to me that the blocks in the middle are the most damaged. 

** shattered fabric - fabric that tears when touched or tugged.  It most often happens with silks and finer fabrics, but can happen to cottons and other blends when they are old, heavily used and/or washed repeatedly.

My parents are in Montana right now visiting their new great-grandson (my grand-nephew, whom I made the baby quilt for in a previous post), and Pa's birthday is on July 29th.  I hope to have this done so when they get back, I can give it back to him.

In other news, I hurt my back so Richard helped me with the canning, most of which gets given away at Christmas, and when people drop by, or when I need a quick gift:

23 pints of peach jam (already gave some away)
36 quarts of tomatoes
22 quarts of spaghetti sauce
(it would've been 23, but it smelled so good, it's supper tonight)

 

Visiting and Repairs...

I went to visit my sister to help her with canning the produce from her garden.  I also brought along her birthday present, a pressure canner from Mom and me.

I brought my sewing machine and she asked me to repair and/or alter several articles of clothing.  I repaired/hemmed 4 pairs of denims, fixed 7 shirts, and 1 skirt.  Two shirts had sleeves that needed to be shortened.  I saw a bracelet made from a cuff, online, and decided to make her granddaughter one.  I cut the fabric right at the seam line on the cuff.  The cuff has snaps on it, so I simply sewed the cuff to fit her wrist, then cut the excess off and turned it right side out. 

 

While she was playing with the sleeve scraps, she held up a portion and asked if I could make her a purse out of it.  So I did.  I simply turned the sleeve inside out, sewed the bottom closed, and put a denim hem scrap on it as a handle.  I put the handles on the sides of the sleeve, so she can open the snaps to make the purse wider, if she chooses. 

She loved it - a special purse made for her, with a cuff bracelet to match.   

 

Canning:

10 pints of peaches

4 quarts of peach pie filling

9 quarts of beef soup

4 pints of pickles

6 quarts of blackberry pie filling

3 pints of blackberry jam

4 pints of blackberry jelly

6 pints of plum jelly

4 pints of sand plum jelly

2 pints of applesauce

1 quart of apple pie filling

In addition, my sister dehydrated and/or froze a bunch of squash, corn, bell peppers, jalapenos, celery, carrots, green beans, peas, and carrots for soups and stews. 

 

Anni's Little Apron

I am going to visit my sister next week.  We are going to can her garden produce, tomatoes, jellies, jams and other stuff.  Her granddaughter is also coming to visit, so I made her an apron so she can help us.  

The butterfly fabric, the yellow fabric and the polka dots were leftovers from different quilting projects.  The green is double fold blanket binding.  

I sewed everything so that there are no unfinished edges except where the ruffle joins the skirt.