Good news

I got an email from my doctor this morning. Good news - the arm isn't broken. I'm to stay in the sling until my follow-up app't next Monday afternoon and cannot go to work. I'm going to take as much advantage of this unexpected "vacation" as I can considering I'm doing everything one handed. At least I'm getting caught up on everyones blogs - I'm starting the "Q" list right now, which as you can imagine is the largest list. I still don't have the OK to type two handed so comments will be at a minimum. It is so great to finally be catching up with everyone!

My doctor's nurse said I could try moving the arm a little bit now and then - while keeping it in the sling - so the joint doesn't freeze completely. That's great - that tells me that I should be able to start shoving pairs of 2" postage stamp pieces through my featherweight. I need to use my right fingertips only long enough to get each pair aligned. I can do that without moving the shoulder at all. Hooray! my fingers are just aching to touch fabric again!

This does mean that someone else will need to sew the sleeves on the remaining antique quilts. That makes me sad - I was so looking forward to doing that. Rick did bring four more home yesterday so I could give them any information I could by looking at the fabrics. I got to touch them a little, and Rebecca took lots of pictures of them for me. So I will be able to share a few more with you as soon as I can type better.

Since a post doesn't feel complete without pictures, I'm showing you a quilts I made years ago that I've not shared before. All three of these are class samples I made in the early 90's when teaching quilting at Daisy Kingdom. All three were sold when I was participating in the Quilters Market organization.

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Gratitudes:

1. Good news about the x-ray

2. Great books to read while I am housebound

3. Pull-top lids on soup cans - I can't work the can opener one handed

4. Get well messages from so many Internet friends

5. Lots of accumulated sick leave hours

More information on the antique quilts

I emailed the curator of the Oregon City museum collection with questions about the quilts and other textiles. I got a response today about some of them, including the red and black woven coverlet. I thought you'd be interested in what I learned. I've copied her email below.

Here is the information for the red/black coverlet:

“This coverlet was made by Grandmother Melissa Mayfield LaCray, wife of George LaCray. Their Donation Land Claim was near Viola, OR. They sheared the sheep, she washed the wool, carded and spun the yarn, made the hanks and dyed it then hand wove it on the loom that Grandpa George LaCray made. Made in a special room outside because the loom was so large. Faded by the sun out under the cherry tree”. It does answer the question as to what type of loom the coverlet was made on.

The information on the blanket reads as follows:

“This was among the first virgin wool blankets manufactured by the Oregon City Woolen Mill. It was the property of John Bonnet who was superintendent of the OC Woolen Mill for 14 years, from 1868 to 1882. Thereafter, he gave this blanket to his son, Robert Bonnet, who was born in Oregon City in 1876. Before his death in 1954, Mr. Bonnet expressed a desire that it be preserved as one of the oldest pure woolen blankets ever manufactured in the West”.

The quilt with the love apple appliqué and the name CJS Green has the following info:

“This coverlet was mother’s when she went to housekeeping in 1832. She gave it to me in 1864 when I was married. I wish it given to Cornelia Jessie Spencer (CJS Green) July 15, 1906”. Unfortunately the donor’s name is not listed.

FYI- these were part of a donation of quilts, blankets and quilt blocks from the Clackamas County Pomona Grange #1 in 1994.

Woven Coverlet

Both Jeanne and Finn have suggested that the red and black woven coverlet may have been woven on a narrow loom and then seamed together to make a larger bed covering. That is certainly possible - I'd not thought of that. Home looms were much narrower than commercial looms. I have no idea how much home weaving may have been done in this area in the past. I do know that the Oregon Woolen Mills were established in Oregon City in 1864, and that either the woven coverlet or the fuzzy blanket was woven by a commercial mill in Oregon City. At first I thought it was the blanket, but now I'm thinking it was more likely to be this woven coverlet. I'm looking forward to finding out the answer - I'll ask Rick to ask the collection curator when he goes to work next week.

A quiet Sunday

Just what I wanted. Except for the fact that the Mariners look like they are on their way to losing their 9th game in a row.

I'm stitching the sleeve on the last of the antique quilts. This is a log cabin in browns, creams and oranges. Rick said it's from the 1850's. It's a summer coverlet - no batting. Nevertheless it's "quilted" heavily in the ditch throughout. This one is in great shape - even the binding - except for a few logs in one part of the quilt. The repairs in this area are beautifully done but with fabric that was new at the time of the repair. I'm guessing that was the late 70's or early 80's because the fabrics are multicolored calicoes from that time. The repairs were done before the Center obtained the quilt; repair with these fabrics would never have been done by someone skilled restoring antique quilts.

I'm also moving full steam ahead on the string blocks. I've now completed 68, with 20 more to go. I'm hoping I can get the top together today - or at least finish all the blocks. I'm getting a bit tired of ripping off paper so I'm eager to try something else with the strings. Speaking of strings - I'm sure mine have been having reproductive orgies in the dark of the drawer - I know when I started that there weren't nearly this many. They won't even behave and stay in the drawers - they insist on spreading themselves all over my floor!

Gratitudes:
1. The gentle breeze blowing this morning
2. Chunky peanut butter on toast
3. Sleeping in
4. No end to quilty possibilities
5. Antique quilts

This and that

I've been looking forward to this holiday weekend for days now. I have at least three times as much planned as I'll have time to do I'm sure LOL! This is the first weekend I've had to sew since I completed the sewing room and the never ending stack of mile-a-minute blocks. I've sewn sleeves on two more quilts and have only two more to do. There are at least two others that are currently on display and won't come down until the middle of the month so will have to wait for them.

I had a surprise waiting for me when I unwrapped the third and fourth "quilts". They weren't quilts at all! I have no idea how to date either one of them, but since they belong to the Interpretive Center I'm guessing they are both from sometime in the 1800's.

The first "quilt" is a black and red plaid woven coverlet made of wool. The interesting thing about this textile is the fact that at some time it was sliced down the middle and then sewn back together. It also has a wide black binding made of heavy cotton. I'm guessing the binding was added later for some reason - I've never seen pictures of this type of woven coverlet with a binding. The edges along the one seam allowance look like they might have been the edges of the piece before it was sliced in half, so I'm guessing that the binding was put on after the pieces were seamed together because the outside edges were the cut edges and likely to fray. The top and bottom binding feels like the edge of the coverlet is inside, whereas there is no ridge to feel inside the side bindings. I'd love to know the story as to why it was cut in half and then later sewn back together.

The second "quilt" is a fuzzy wool blanket that was woven in the textile mill that was in Oregon City on the banks of the Willamette River. It is reversible in that one side is red with black and cream stripes while the other is cream with black and red stripes. It has obviously seen some hard use. I'm sure it was beautiful when it was new.

This morning I'll stitch the sleeve on the fifth quilt. It's an appliqué quilt that I'm guessing is from the 1840's or 50's. It was a red and green with touches of gold when it was new, which is very typical of that period. The applique is beautifully done, as is the quilting. The red fabric in the love apple appliqués is deteriorating rapidly. The fabric of the rest of the appliqué is in fine shape, but the color has all but gone. When I started to unroll it I thought it was a whole cloth quilt because of the lack of color. The green and gold can still be seen in places - very faded now. The very narrow binding is so thin it's almost worn away. "C.J.S. Green ?" is written on a back corner in black ink. The ink is dark and clear - it looks like it was written much later than the quilt was made - maybe by an owner who was guessing as to who made the quilt.

As far as my own projects go I have several things planned. I've brought out my string blocks again as I want to get this second quilt top finished. Right now I have 42 finished blocks. I'm going to need almost twice that many for another Hotel Hope top. Once I finish this one I want to try some other things with my strings. I want to do the String X quilt on Bonnie's website, as well as a Chinese Coins quilt. There are also several quilts in Gwen Marsden's Liberated Strings book that I want to do. Good thing, as somehow my strings now fill two drawers. And here I thought I had only a partial drawer left!

I also want to get upstairs and quilt a few of my own tops. I'm supposed to have 3 UFO's finished by guild on Thursday for our UFO challenge, and so far all I have is the one table runner. My stash won't miss the fabric if I have to pay two fat quarter penalties - it's just that I hate to admit that I couldn't get more than one UFO done over the entire summer. Maybe I should take my Mile-a-Minute blocks for show and tell LOL!

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Gratitudes:

1. Fall weather is here!

2. Pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks

3. A new haircut

4. Time to quilt my own flimsies

5. A bacon and scrambled egg breakfast

Second antique quilt

This evening I sewed a sleeve onto the second of the antique quilts. This is a silk crazy quilt from the 1890's - at least I think that's what Rick said. This quilt has very thin batting. The backing was placed right sides together with the top, sewn all around to encase the batting, turned right side out, and then machine stitched very close to the edge. As is typical of crazy quilts it is not quilted. Many crazy quilts were tacked together invisibly in various places to keep the backing in place - this one was not. The backing, which is a loosely woven, almost gauzy type print has actually turned to the front along at least one edge. What's interesting is that at some time - I'm guessing later than the quilt was made - someone sewed a row of machine stitching from just inside the edge to almost half way down into the quilt. The stitching goes all the way through, so the lining is sewn down to the top along his line. The stitching simply stops for no apparent reason part of the way down the quilt. I wish the quilt could talk - I'd love to know who sewed that row of stitching and why. It certainly wasn't to prevent the back from turning to the front because it was no where near an edge. It also starts about 1-2" from an edge, and whoever stitched it didn't smooth out the back before they started - the back is bunched in wrinkles between the start of the stitching and the edge of the quilt. The fabric is disintegrating in places as is also typical of crazy quilts - the metals used to weight the silk were corrosive, causing the fabric to disintegrate. All the seams are covered with simple embroidery stitches in many different colors of thread - feather stitching, herringbone, and cross stitch. It is very nicely done - obviously by an accomplished needlewoman.

I'm looking forward to seeing these quilts on display so I can read any information they have about each one. The accession tags are tied to the wrappings on each quilt but no information about any of the quilts came along to me with them.

I feel so honored to be able to touch these quilts and preform this service for the Interpretive Center. It makes me feel such a close kinship with our foremothers who plied their needle as much out of necessity as for pleasure.

1016 Blocks!

Yep - you read that correctly. One thousand sixteen Crumb Chaos blocks. I never in a million years imagined I was making that many. I just kept going until I was sick and tired of sewing crumbs to strips for the first step. Obviously this will make several quilts - but for now the blocks will be set aside at least until I finish sewing sleeves on all the antique quilts. The saddest, craziest thing is this - look at how many crumbs are remaining in my crumb drawer!

Part of the problem is caused by making the blocks themselves. I've come to the conclusion that making Crumb Chaos blocks from crumbs is a never ending, cyclic, crumb producing endeavor. Why, you ask? Because as soon as the blocks reach a certain size, there is a crumb size piece left at the end of each strip. I know that's why my drawer isn't emptier.

I'm going to deal with this in a way that was shown by someone posting about heartstrings blocks months ago. I sure wish I knew her name so I could give her credit. Here is her solution - she sews strips from the crumbs and rolls them up into large rolls, then uses these strips in string quilts. I kept a couple pictures from her post for inspiration - it seems like maybe she has her own blog. I'm hoping she'll recognize herself in my description and leave a comment with a link to her post so she can be given proper credit. I've sewn a bunch of mine together already and wound them around toilet paper tubes, and have tossed a bunch more for sewing into the now empty bin that used to hold 1 1/4" strips. I'm going to do this with all my crumbs until I get sick and tired of making strings of crumbs. By then I'm hoping the drawer is MUCH more empty. Then I'll start making string blocks again in an effort to empty that drawer also. Or at least get a good start on emptying it. Right now it's stuffed to the gills!

I have the first antique quilt laying out on the dining room table waiting for it's sleeve. I'll sew the muslin sleeve when I get home from work tomorrow, and then start stitching it on at Tangled Threads. This is very much a utility quilt - nevertheless the quiltmaker made an effort to create interest by the way she stitched the dark and light fabrics together. It is tied with wool yarn and backed with mattress ticking. It was sewn on three sides and the turned inside out, at the same time putting the filling inside. One edge is folded over to the back and stitched down. It is in good shape for a utility quilt - there is only one warn spot that I can see where the fabric has broken down and the filling shows. I believe Rick said this one was from the 1880's. Right now it's the least interesting of the four that I have. The other three are all rolled around acid-free paper tubes, but this one is in a large acid-free box. I decided to start with it so I could get the bulky box out of the living room as quickly as possible.

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Gratitudes:

1. A fun work day today - volunteering to assist at the Parks Foundation Golf Tournament

2. Unexpected dinner with the kids

3. Fresh pineapple from a sweet neighbor

4. Finished CC blocks!

5. Continuing beautiful weather

Mission accomplished - another finished UFO

I did it - I finished the Christmas table runner - label and all. I took the last stitch in the binding during the 8th inning Mariner loss to the Texas Rangers. I really like how this turned out. I did a freehand holly leaf and berry chain all around the outside border, and freehand holly leaves and berries in the white setting triangles. I figured holly leaves were simple enough that I couldn't mess them up. It feels so good to cross another flimsy off my sidebar, as well as avoiding becoming queen of the UFO's.

Now I must put my own projects aside for quite awhile. I've promised to sew muslin sleeves on all the antique quilts in the collection belonging to The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. My son-in-law is lead historian and interpreter for the Center and he asked whether I'd be willing to do this. I jumped at the chance, as it will allow me to check out these antique gems in minute detail. I will take pictures of them as I work on them. I've forgotten how many there are - at least 12 I think. I have 4 on the dining room table right now, including a log cabin from the 1850's. They are hanging them all for a display at the beginning of October so the sleeves must be completed by then. Lots of hand stitching - good thing I really enjoy that!