Labeling Grandma's Hand Quilted Quilt

After Grandma (my dad’s mom) passed in 2006, my mom brought home one of her quilts. It’s been sitting in her linen closet ever since, though she did take it out a couple of times because I wanted to see it, touch it, and give it a little love. When Mom passed in 2017, the quilt stayed tucked away, only coming out once until now...and that time was because of me again.

I treasure this quilt and want it to last and remain in the family. So, I brought it home for a little spa treatment and to add a label. The spa treatment is simply letting it lay flat for a while in the spare bedroom and spending a day in the sun. The sunshine helps nature air it out and gives it a gentle UV bath.

While the quilt is at the spa, let’s chat about how I make my quilt labels. I currently print them at home with an Eco Tank inkjet printer. The process is simple but takes a bit of time.

First, cut a 9 x WOF piece of white fabric, hand wash it, and let it air dry. Then treat it with Bubble Jet Set 2000 and allow it to air dry again. You can print on your own fabric without this product, but the print might wash out, especially if you’re using colors other than black ink.

Once the fabric is dry, I iron it and cut a 9 x 12 piece. The rest goes into my label-making kit box, aka a Ziploc bag. The 9 x 12 piece is then ironed onto a sheet of freezer paper and trimmed to match the paper’s size. I bought the C. Jenkins brand on Amazon a few years back, but it’s no longer made but other brands of printable freezer paper are available. A roll of kitchen freezer paper works too. Years ago I used it by cutting it to standard paper size, 8.5 x 11.

This week I had two quilts that needed labels, and to avoid wasting fabric, I decided to add one to an older quilt that didn’t have a label yet. After printing and letting them dry overnight, I handwashed them in Bubble Jet Rinse and let them air dry.  

I design my labels using a free program called Inkscape, which is similar to Adobe Illustrator but free to download and use. I learned to use it while creating quilt patterns to sell. Google Docs is another great free option for making labels, though it can only be used online.

After cutting the labels apart, I use templates made from freezer paper or heat resistant quilter’s template plastic to press the edges under with a little starch and a quick press. I keep these templates stored in my quilt label kit.

I use washable Elmer’s School Glue to secure them to the back of the quilt while stitching. For my newer quilts, I place the labels in the center of the quilt backing before quilting so they can’t be removed without taking out the quilting.  

Now that the label is in place, let’s take a closer look at Grandma’s quilt.

My grandma had only a 3rd grade education and was nearly illiterate, with handwriting and spelling that were hard to read. Still, she was a talented seamstress who made many of her family’s clothes. After her kids moved out, she got her first real job at a cabinet making factory, where she worked until retiring at 65. She began quilting in the 80s, without using a rotary cutter or patterns. In the late 90s, my dad gave her a couple of quilt books and a quilting hoop. I’m not sure if she could read the books, as some of the strict rules of quilting didn’t seem to appear in her work...more on that later.

This quilt is not perfect but it's gorgeous in my eyes.  The hand quilting blows me away because I can't hand quilt, well I can but it's not pretty.

The feathered wreath above was likely drawn using a template, or at least that’s my guess. As I examined the quilt, I noticed pencil marks she had cleverly tried to hide with the quilting.

The stitches aren’t the best, but they’re not the worst I’ve seen either. The hand quilting is better than mine, so to me, it’s gorgeous!

Nearly all the points are lost in this quilt, which makes me wonder if she knew about the 1/4" seam allowance in quilting. Since she was first a seamstress and then a quilter, I’d bet she used either a 3/8" or 5/8" seam allowance.

The binding is machine stitched to the back and then hand stitched to the front, which is the reverse of the usual method. As shown in the picture above, it’s too wide, and there are no mitered corners on either side. This suggests she cut and attached the binding one side at a time.

The back has a few clues and quirks. One of the first things I noticed was a small spot that might be blood. The only way to know for sure would be to put a little peroxide on it, but I’d rather not. I prefer to think it’s just something she left behind on the quilt while working. The arrows point to thread knots, which she apparently didn’t know to tuck into the fabric. There are two different kinds, the green arrow shows what looks like a hand tied knot, probably how she finished off the thread after quilting, while the red arrow points to the kind of knot you make by threading a needle, wrapping the thread around a finger, and rolling it between your fingers to form a knot.

The backing is made of two pieces of muslin and a narrow strip of pieced poly cotton at the very edge of the quilt. It seems she miscalculated and ended up short on backing. We’ve all been in that situation once or twice...well, I know I have.

Along the middle seam, there’s a strange red thread running the entire length. At first, I thought it might be a stray thread, but how could one go from the top of the quilt to the bottom? Maybe it’s part of the selvage? It feels thick, and I’m stumped. I could take apart a bit of the seam to find out, but it’s not worth the effort. Instead, I used a small crochet hook to pierce the fabric and try to grab the red thread. It’s attached, so I couldn’t pull it out, but I was able to reach the batting...it’s polyester. 

I enjoyed spending some quality time with Grandma's quilt. She'll be going back to Dad this week for safe keeping, but maybe one day she'll come home with me for good.

Quilt #2, the one Mom and I made together, needs a new label. The original is starting to fade since I didn’t use the Bubble Jet Set 2000.

More about this quilt can be found here.

Quilt #3 was my Pocketful of Starlight.

More about this quilt can be found here.

Iris Finished ~ Another UFO Started

Every once in a while, we get to work on something truly special. This will be one of my most memorable projects because I had the chance to work out of my comfort zone and honor the unknown creator of the hand embroidered blocks and showcase her incredible craftsmanship.

Working with purple isn't easy for me.  When it comes to purple, I avoid it most of the time. The color purple only appears in my scrap quilts because I don’t really like it. In scrap quilts, purple is just another part of the rainbow, blending in nicely without stealing the spotlight. As you can imagine, there’s very little purple in my fabric stash. So, to make these gorgeous blocks shine, I had to buy some fabrics...and it was worth every penny.

While working on the quilt top, I considered giving hand quilting another try, thinking the unknown maker of the blocks might have preferred it. But after some thought, I realized the best way to honor her and make it the best it could be in my care was to stick with what I know and do well...machine quilting.

She put so much time and love into every stitch. I can’t help but feel a little sad knowing her family will never get to snuggle up with this quilt. All I can do now is make sure it’s cherished the way it truly deserves.

Even though I don't know her name I did my best to give her credit on the label.  I also gave it the name "Purple Passion".  Purple because of the color.  Passion, because it took her passion for handwork and my passion for quilting to get it to a finished quilt.

The last thing I did to honor the maker was to hand stitch the binding to the back.  Normally on quilts I plan to give away I 100% machine bind. 

A big thank you to Melissa, a new local quilting friend, who gave me the embroidered blocks.   For those of you who missed the original post about this quilt, below is how it looked.  

Melissa's mom gave it to her.  Her mom passed last year.  Her mom got them from a neighbor who has also passed, hence the Unknown Indianapolis Woman on the label.

The finish is bittersweet because I would love to keep it my quilt collection just because of all the handwork, but I know it's going to someone who will appreciate the handwork, the colors and the story behind its journey.

Now it's back to working on my own UFO's.  They too have gone unloved for far too long and they don't have any purple in them!

Next up on the frame...this one was started in 2013.  It's a small quilt so let's hope for a quick finish.

Fabric Friday

 Not a single stitch or snip happened this week in Podunk, unless you count trimming the weeds. On the bright side, my fabric order from LouLousfabricshop.com arrived.   She offers great prices, and her daily deals are even more tempting. Honestly, I don’t visit her site often because it’s hard to resist. But right now, I’m on the hunt for low volume prints for a fall quilt I designed a few years back. I’m giving myself the green light to shop online for this project since the two local stores didn’t have enough of what I needed.

For now, they’re tucked away in a project box alongside the other new low volume fabrics, the pattern, and the dream of making the quilt. There’s no plan to start anytime soon, but you never know when the mood might strike.

Today’s rain means it’s prime time for some hand sewing—yippee! But if the downpour keeps up the weeds will be easy to pull so, I’ll be out in the flowerbeds for some quick and easy muddy weed pulling. The quilt will just have to wait its turn.

Butteryfly Heart Flutter

It doesn’t happen as often as it used to, but every now and then someone tags me on social media with a project made from one of my patterns or tutorials. The latest was from Maggie Beard of pearlinthepinesco on Instagram.  A darling little wall hanging featuring my Flutterby quilt block.

 

The funny thing was the day before she tagged me, I was thinking about starting a new quilt with simple patchwork and a few of these butterfly blocks.  Springtime always puts me in the mood for posies and butterfly quilts.  Well anyway...Maggie isn't just a maker of cute handmade items she also sells her handmade items on Etsy.  You can find her Etsy shop by clicking here.

Thank you Maggie for sharing your creation with me.❤️  It made my little ole heart flutter.  There's nothing more rewarding than knowing others find my creations worth making.

I've used my Flutterby block in several quilts over the years.  You can find the tutorial for this block and the quilt Podunk Posy that you see below by clicking here.

If you make one of my patterns, I'd love to see them.  Send me an email at podunkpretties@gmail.com.  Of course, let me know if it's okay to share them.  If you would prefer they not be shared here on the blog, that's okay too.  I'd still love to see them.

Racing The Clock

So much to do and so little time, that’s the story of my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m rarely bored.  This week will be non-stop action.  At the top of my want-to-do list is getting the Iris Quilt off the frame and bound, with hopes of sharing a Friday finish blog post.

As you can see it's close to being finished.  

  But I'm not holding my breath on a finish this week because there's much to do on the need-to-do list. Last week I finally started working on the flowerbeds and veggie garden.  Last year I decided to take the year off from the veg garden, you know, let the soil rest. The garden became a jungle.  So last week while Mr. Podunk was tending to the beehives I decided to burn off the garden mess.  As you can see the fire tried to creep out into the yard.  Oh, but what's life without a little excitement.  It kept me on my toes!

Over the weekend, Mr. Podunk tilled the garden.  The planting will begin this week. With our late start this year we can’t grow cold crop veggies, but we’re still going to try for a small batch of snow peas. If I plant them on the garden’s south side, where there’s more shade, they should do fine. Over the next two or three weeks, I should be able to get the whole garden planted.  Well, that's the plan, we'll see how it goes.

Early Morning Playtime

 Every morning is the same routine...I get up, grab a glass of water, and sip it while watching the local weather on mute. Then it’s a quick scroll through emails and social media. By the time that’s done, my husband has left for work and it’s time to start chores. But yesterday, before I even finished my online check in or he headed out, I had an epiphany. Remember those Wheel/Dresden blocks from Monday’s blog post? The reason I’ve struggled to work them into a quilt is that they have too much color for my taste...it’s the background fabric! So, I cut them off!

At first, I thought the white fabric with black dots would be the perfect match for the wheels...and it is! But as a proud fabric hoarder, I know my stash is basically a treasure chest of possibilities. Time to unleash some of those options and see what magic happens.

This Lakehouse Drygoods print just about sent my little ole heart into a tap dance. I think it plays well with these blocks, but I’m not sure these wheels are worthy of such a treasure, so it’s time to rummage through the stash and see if I can find a not so treasured fabric.

A large pale yellow dot by Poppy Cotton also brought a smile to my face but it doesn’t have the same pizzazz as the previous print. Maybe I could use this and add some patchwork or solid colors in the sashing and borders to make up for what it’s lacking.

Sitting on the cold tile floor for about an hour, I dug through the scrap bins searching for the perfect fabrics to match the wheels. In the process, I came across some squares I had cut years ago when I planned start a scrap saver system. That plan was abandoned after about three days of nonstop cutting. And now, guess what? At the start of this year, I again started cutting all my newly produced scraps into usable sizes for a scrap saver system. I’ll share my progress another time.

It didn’t take long to realize the sashing plan was a dud and that patchwork sashing might look better or the Lakehouse Drygoods print.  Sigh… I was officially done playing with these blocks. There’s a quilt on the frame begging for attention and other UFOs that don’t demand this much attention. Plus, my poor tooshie was freezing from sitting on the tile floor, and all I really wanted was my morning cup of decaf.

Things didn’t turn out the way I had planned in my mind, but I made a little progress after many years of it being a UFO, and that makes me happy. So, back in the box it goes until another great idea comes along. As I sit here looking at this picture, I realized I didn’t add the big yellow dot to the box. I think I’ll keep the black dots in there too, just in case I change my mind again. 

Later this afternoon, the squares I found will be sorted by size and color and stored in my new scrap saver system and then it's back to quilting the Iris quilt.  

With my morning cup of decaf, I decided to have some fun with ChatGPT. I’ve seen quilters using it to whip up pictures and ads, so I figured, why not?  I sent it pictures of me, my dog and an applique quilt block.  I mentioned my sewing room’s white furniture and bright colors, then requested denim overalls and a red gingham shirt.  And I even gave it a link to my blog so it could see my style.

It worked its magic in about one minute.

I must say, I adore the gorgeous thick hair and eyebrows it gave me, plus I look about 15 years younger and considerably slimmer. However, I'm baffled by the random signs everywhere, the jar of salsa on the windowsill, and apparently, every quilter’s must have quilting notions are a mound of soil and filthy garden gloves on the desk! HAHA!  

And when I zoomed in to look at the detail, I noticed something strange about my finger.  What in the world is that?!  EWW!   Obviously, AI still has a lot to learn.  It was fun but I think I'll stick to real photos.