10/1/09

Vintage Thingies Thursday and Blogtoberfest

Vintage Thingies Thursday is sponsored by my friend Suzanne at http://coloradolady.blogspot.com. You can go there to see Suzanne's collection of platters and creamers and check out all the linked posts about other collector's vintage items.

My post today is a very old quilt. It might not technically qualify as vintage because it was made for me when I was a teenager (I say, pretending I'm not old enough to be vintage). The quilt maker was my great grandmother. This is a picture I took of her about the time she made the quilt for me.
She was a very prolific quilter and sat in her living room at the machine making quilts to give away into her 90's. Later, diabetes took her ability to live alone and she moved out of state to live with one of my aunts and I didn't see her again until her funeral. But, I have many happy memories of going to her house with my grandparents to work in the family vegetable garden that my grandfather maintained there. My great grandmother, known to everyone as "Mom" would walk out in the fields to tie up her tomatoes, always in a mid calf length skirt and always with an apron tied around and in the pocket of that apron was always a ball of fabric strips and a pair of scissors that she used to tie up whatever needed tying, from tomatoes, to gates, to dogs.

Near the town where I grew up, there was a double knit mill...who of you remembers double knit??? It was totally polyester and hot as hades and heavy as iron. Not much for clothes, even though everyone wore it in the 70's, but it made quilts that are darn near indestructible. In studying quilt history, I've heard that there are a lot of these old double knit quilts out there that will hit the market over the next few years as the owners begin to pass on. If you live in a cold climate or have a drafty house, I recommend that you get one. You'll never sleep cold again.

By the time Mom made this quilt for me, she was too old to quilt it, so she sent it to the local church women's group and they quilted it for her for just a few dollars and then she gave it to me. I know there's a lot of pink in it, but Mom didn't make quilts the way we do now. Her quilts were made for utility, using whatever was handy. I love this old quilt, and while we can't sleep under it, I will always have it. The back is the softest T-shirt knit and a bright green with polka dots and it's folded over the edges to make a binding. I need to make a label for it so whatever happens, anyone will know what it represents to me. But, I haven't gotten to that (mostly because I just thought of it as I was writing this post).

I've decided to try this thing that I found over at http://tinniegirl.blogspot.com. The goal is to blog every day for the month of October...not that it will be hard for me, since I blog almost every day anyway. But, hopefully, it will get me in the habit of blogging on the weekends, too. I'm lax on those days and regularly get so busy that I forget to blog or to read up on blogs. So, I hope you'll follow me as I try to find things to blog about for 31 days. You'll have to let me know if I've kept it interesting.
Y'all take care and have a great Thursday. I'll see ya' round the net. Lane

8 comments:

Postcardy said...

It may not be art, but it has a lot of character.

Coloradolady said...

What a lovely quilt to have, and great that someone so special made that for you. I remember double knit very well, my grandma worked in a sewing factory, and double knit suits for ladies were very popular back then, and then it was gabardine fabric for dress pants....love that memory!

Get a label made for your quilt...save the history.

Have a great Weekend and a wonderful VTT!

viridian said...

Lane, stop what you are foing, and put a label on that quilt. It is special.
And:
I have mentioned your blog on mine (http://viridian61.blogspot.com/)

and I have joined Blogtoberfest becasue of you! Ha ha!

Kathi Fly said...

Ohhh, those are the best kinds, the ones made by family and with a story. Nice memories. It would be great to make a label with that info.

Becky said...

double knit, schmuble knit....it's still a quilt and a dang nice one too. Made especially for you! Any of the ones I got from my various grandmas were just quilts they made and they didn't know me from squat. I know you treasure it. Make that label, buddy!!!! :)

Vesuviusmama said...

Hey, I'll read you every day! Blog on! Love the quilt. I don't think I know what double knit is - does that date me?

Ulla said...

Your Mom's quilting was like it was here, too, before the quilting boom started slowly in the 90's. People used what material was available and the main purpose was to make a quilt that was warm, looks didn't always matter. The label is a good idea, do it.

Shirley said...

I'm glad you're going to blog every day. I always enjoy reading what you have to say. What a lovely quilt, especially the knowledge of the love that went into it. Yes, put a label on it. If it gets handed down to Sydney then she'll want to know the history... actually, that's a thought too. Maybe you could do a photo label, a big one, and write what you've written here about your gr grandmother. She sounds like a great lady.