Nashville Stitch N Bitch

quilt-y memories

I am 2 SQUARES AWAY from being able to sew my big ol' king quilt together. 2 squares! 2 squares. But really guys, between working on a king quilt and working on a knitted afghan, it's making for tough blog material around here. How much can you say about all of the square-ness a' goin' on here before you drive yourself and others crazy? I mean, I would love to tell you ALLLLL about Square 3 and what INCREDIBLE difference there is between that and Squares 1 and 2 but I think my husband would throw himself on my keyboard to stop me from subjecting you to what he has had to endure so I'll wait until there's something new and exciting to show you before blathering on about squares.

But they are cool.

Meanwhile (and quickly, by God I have to get those 2 last squared finished!) I'll tell you a little story about some quilts that we have. Spring is a special season around here because of so many things, but mostly because it's when both of my kids were born - Maeve in April and Truman in May (Truman and I share a birthday as well, I had him on my 35th birthday). When both of my chillen were born, a friend of the family did the most awesome thing. She made a quilt for each out of Jim's dad's old shirts. Jim's dad died in 1993. He owned an International Harvester dealership in Sherman, TX and so most of his shirts were of the workshirt variety. You wouldn't think workshirts anything special, but for some reason when you cut up workshirts and refigure them into squares (there's that word again) they take on a beauty their maker, I'm sure, never intended for them.

The one up there I think is my favorite. (I am completely blanking on the name of that block pattern up there, so if you know it off of the top of your head, just leave it in the comments). That one is Truman's and it hangs on a rack where his cowboy hat also hangs. It's very very flat (which I love), I love the colors of it all and the stripey patterns). I think it's machine quilted but the binding was hand sewn. It's small - smaller than a crib quilt. The back is also pieced in a stripe pattern and (she did this on both quilts) the maker added a pocket from one of the shirts that has Jim's dad's initials on it and she added to that the kids' names and birthdates. I love it so much.

Maeve's quilt is another pattern that I don't know the name of (if it has one). The batting on this one is a much higher loft and it's just quilted with some crossing diagonal lines. The back is a brown and white gingham and also has a pocket. It's bigger - crib size. Machine quilted with hand sewn binding again. My favorite part of this one is a coffee stain still left on the part of the shirt she used. I always wonder if she meant to leave it there? Was there not enough shirt fabric to avoid it? I love it, but I'm odd, so it's hard to say. If it was a mistake, I'm thrilled for the oversight.

In our next episode of Quilts About The House: an antique Sunbonnet Sue and feedsack quilts.

xo

P.S. - I am SO going to this. Is anyone else?

Posted by Angela at March 26, 2006 03:36 PM