It is amazing to me just how many yards of fabric scraps one person can accumulate. I discovered I not only had plenty of scrap fabric for the window quilts, there is more than enough for at least one full sized quilt. As long as I was making a mess with little snippets of cloth, I decided to cut out enough pieces for the quilt along with the window quilt pieces.
Years past it would have been a quick and easy job of cutting quilt pieces for patchwork, using a heavy plastic ruler and a rotary cutter. However, as with many of my vintage, arthritis in the hands is causing problems. I have tried every trick in the book, but I am unable to keep the cutter straight and the ruler as firmly in place to be able to cut precise pieces. So I have reverted to the method I used many years ago before the newer cutting methods were available. I made a template of plastic and draw around it for each patchwork piece, cutting them out with a scissors, giving each piece about a quarter inch seam allowance, using the pencil line as my sewing guide. Time consuming - yes. But I was wasting too much fabric when the ruler would slip or when my fingers couldn't control the direction of the rotary cutter. Using a template is an old time method, but it works.
I am spending today cutting fabric. A friend mentioned the British TV series, 'Wartime Kitchen and Garden. I found it on YouTube and am watching that today as I work. It is about how cooks and gardeners coped with the food rationing in England during WWII. So far I am finding lots of useful information that may be needed right here at home, if things continue to slide downhill.
I hope to start sewing by the weekend. Until then, back at it. Only about 500 more pieces to go. Sigh.
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Vicki, I really admire resourceful people and you are to be commended. Putting materials you already had to good use and being flexible in your method of cutting is great practice for what we are going to be faced with in the future. Thinking 'outside the box' will be a necessary skill when we can't go buy what we need. I'm also impressed with the idea of using the additional fabric for a quilt. Winters get mighty chilly up there in the north country. I have begun watching the same series you referenced...very useful information. I wish I could be in your living room helping you cut fabric. We would have much to discuss. Take care, be aware, and continue to prepare...CW
ReplyDeleteThanks, CW...My mother was my inspiration. Her hands were extremely crippled from arthritis and yet she found a way to hold a needle and do the embroidery work she loved to do. One reason we need to learn how things were done 'way back then' is that I have very little doubt we will be doing things that way again. I have noticed that nearly all the videos about making quilts show the most recent methods and don't teach the old ways. Just another art form and practical skill that is about to be lost when we can't go buy all the latest gadgets, but have to figure out how to make do. When I was a very small child, my mother took apart an old teal blue wool coat of hers, turned the fabric inside out and made a warm, winter coat and hat for me. I have to wonder how many in the younger generations would even think to do the same in a pinch. (soapbox back to the corner)
DeleteWith winter just around the corner, my focus now is completing my current project. But I also have several utility quilt tops that need batting and backing. CA has power outages at the moment. We could have them too due to our winter storms. Or if an EMP attack comes. The quilt tops do me little good unless I finish them. We may need everything we can lay hands on to keep from freezing to death.
Yes, my friend. There is much we could discuss. :)
I remember both grandmothers and a great aunt doing it the same way. Mom never got into it; she was more into sewing clothes.
ReplyDeleteGorges...Like your mother, mine was more into sewing clothes. None of my relatives made quilts, so I learned from library books. My quilts are not fancy and would win no prizes, but they aren't meant to. The idea is to stay warm when the wind is blowing the snow into huge drifts. They work well enough then. :)
DeleteMy mother had to be into sewing clothing gwith three girls. She would use sheets or thin blankets to cover her mother's old threadbare quits. Then, she tied knots to hold it all together.
ReplyDeleteLinda... Using sheets and blankets to cover old quilts makes sense to me. They don't need to be beautiful to be warm. I use yarn to tie the layers of my quilts together. I haven't the patience to hand quilt and I haven't been able to master machine quilting. Tied quilts work best for me.
DeleteStatic shock warning..please rub yourself with the dryer sheets located out side my apartment
ReplyDeleteRob...Sometimes I just don't understand you at all.
ReplyDeleteI have a dry humor..I was thinking static shock from the fabric. Folks use dryer sheets to cut down static in the dryer. I will be a good kid, go stand in the corner and forgo my deserts
DeleteRob...Not your fault I am a little slow on the uptake. I'm old. Sometimes I just don't get it. :)
DeleteYour not old, just highly qualified, with life experiences....After all you are Chairwomen of the Family
DeleteGood luck and God bless. ♥
ReplyDeleteThanks, LindaG… I'm probably gonna need a little luck with this project! And God bless you and yours, too.
DeleteThe few quilts I have made in my life have all been made from scraps. Most of the scraps came from dresses I made to wear to work. I like to call them memory quilts. I can look at them and think of the dress this piece or that came from. They were pieced and quilted by hand in a way I made up when I was in high school. Then a few years back I watched a quilting group work on a quilt and realized the way I did the quilting was quite different than the standard way, but it worked.
ReplyDeleteUsing up scraps of fabric, food, building supplies or anything else has always been the way Frank and I have lived our lives. Thanks for setting yet another example for us, Vicki. And by the way, I'd love to sit and have a cup of coffee and get in on that visit between you and CW. What a glorious time that would be!
Happy sewing! Fern
Fern...I wish I had the scraps from all the clothes I have sewn over the years. :) The methods we use to do things or make things aren't necessarily done according to the 'rules.' We find ways to do them that works for us, and that is actually a good thing. I have found that many of the quilt making tutorials online are more about selling a particular fabric line or a certain kind of ruler or some other gadget. I would rather figure out a way to do something than to rush out and buy the newest gadget. I firmly believe the time will come when we had better know how to do stuff - from scratch.
DeleteI grew up with parents who were the king and queen of 'making do.' I have watched my Dad glue the soles of his boots back on in order to get a few more months wear from them. I have known my mother to take apart an old coat and use the fabric and buttons to make a warm child's coat. My wardrobe for my Freshman year of High School was actually fashioned mostly from feed and flour sacks. We, too, used what was at hand. Today's kids will have a hard time when designer jeans are no longer availavle.
I would love nothing better to be able to sit at my kitchen table with some of you who visit this silly little blog. Lots of coffee, perhaps a slice of cake and good conversation. Wouldn't that be fun!!!