Monday, November 23, 2009

Quilt Fever


Journaling says:

With all the talk of quilting recently I now have quilting fever. If not quilting, at least sewing.

Had to take my sewing machine in for repairs today because it was making a clacking noise. Hubby used it a while back to sew some heavy canvas and it hasn't been right since then. Grrrr....

(Below the quilt)
This is Grandma Icy's quilt pattern. Every quilt she made was just like this with royal blue connector strips and yellow corners.

She cut the pieces using patterns made from the thick paper of an old First Baptist church bulletin.

I would thread the needle of her old treadle sewing machine for her because she only had one eye and it had a cataract.



Grandma Icy was actually my great-grandmother. I would stay with her on snow days and the rare days I was home sick from school. She was about a hunnert years old and I was between seven and twelve or so.

We would sit together quietly, not a word spoken, for most of the day. She would sew and I would watch. I asked if I could cut out the quilt pieces but she wouldn't let me use her big shears.

She died the year before I got married.

I still miss her.



I TOLD Hubby not to use my sewing machine for the canvas because it's not designed to handle that kind of material. He said, "Oh, it will be alright. Don't get your panties in a wad."

Sure enough, it started making the clacking noise as he was finishing.

I could have wrung his stupid little chicken neck.

Dang.



Process notes:

Broke out the Prismacolor colored pencils to add details to the quilt. Ohhhhh, it felt so good to use them again. I had forgotten how much I like using them.

2 comments:

john.p said...

You mentioned two things seen in our house, too. I have experience the wife's wrath for 1) using her sewing machine without supervision, and 2) using her nice shears to cut paper. What's the deal? If the tool work, use it! Actually, I didn't cut paper, but I know it sets her off when I threaten to.

Speck said...

1) Sewing machines are rather delicate. Abuse them just a little bit and the timing and gears get all wonky. The repairs are costly IF you can find someone qualified to repair one.

2) The wood fibers in paper dull sewing shears in a nasty way. They won't cut fabric after that. They're still great for cutting paper but crap in the sewing room. Getting an expensive pair of sewing shears sharpened properly is also a major ordeal.

Analogy: Using a good wood chisel to chip out the concrete around a drain pipe. (Which my dear hubby did also. He didn't see the probably there either. Arrggh!)