Monday, May 2, 2016
One of our Tuesday quilters has a 75th birthday in May so I decided to make her something with a panel I picked up from either a stash sale or a quilter’s estate sale. When I cut it down to eliminate repeats I ended up with something in the shape of a placemat. So I added fabric here and there and this was the result. Each of the quilters at the bee will sign their name to it. I think I’ll make a couple of sets of placemats (one in the male version and one in the female version) and offer them for sale at the quilt show next Spring. It was relatively quick and easy to make, in spite of the trouble I had with the binding on this one.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was repairing a quilt for a Facebook friend; I finished it up today. There was a lot of wear on one side of the quilt and there didn’t seem to be any easy way to fix it other than replace the back (or the front in the original quilt). I had agreed on a very reasonable price to do the job but when I sent Sarah a photo to show her my work-in-progress she said she wouldn’t be able to pay me until at least July so not to hurry with it. Since the job was almost done I wasn’t going to keep in hanging around my house until then, and I certainly wasn’t going to track her down when July came around. Since her birthday is this weekend I’ve decided to gift the quilt back to her.
I knew that Sarah was concerned about losing too much length and width so I squared it off as large as possible. There is still a bit of the original fabric showing around the binding but I hope she will look at it as a reminder of the quilt her Grandma made for her.
An odd thing about old fabric. I have enjoyed working with Mum’s fabric for my Farmer’s Wife blocks and often spend more time pressing than is absolutely necessary. The smell of the heat and steam on the fabric feels familiar and I breathe it in. On someone else’s quilt though when I press it I notice the smell but I don’t find it in any way pleasant – just old. I guess we really do have a “smell” memory.