11 years ago
I’ve always said when people know you are a Scrap Quilter they will fill a box and ship it UPS with NO return address on it!
Case in point ---I arrived home from Texas to find a stack of mail, including this mysterious box.
MAIN, California? But no name?
I saved this box for last – you know, just to enjoy the suspense!
But after all the bills and SURVEYS and book orders and other things had been sorted and opened and “round filed” and put in their places,
I very carefully slit the tape, cautious of anything that might be underneath ---
One at a time I lifted the box flaps to reveal….
Ooohhh!!! Lovely!
The note simply says “Hi Bonnie – Thought you could use these more than me – I have enjoyed your blog for many years –“ NO SIGNATURE!!!
Thank you so much for thinking of me, Mystery Mailer! Let’s see what we’ve got here, shall we?
OH MY!
Don’t you love the fabrics? These are 1930s-1940s prints and solids!
She chose her fabrics carefully – do you think these could be scraps from the maker’s summer dresses?
Any guesses why these never became a quilt?
My guess is ---volcano-itis!
Check out the back side ---
Oh, I’m trying not to be critical of a quilter’s work – but at the same time I think we can learn a LOT here.
This kind of issue usually happens when the seam allowance is too narrow. Can you see the hand piecing on the back side? If the seams were just a “BIT” wider ---there would be enough of a “cross over” of pieces on the front of the block that the star points would float more and we wouldn't lose them in the next seam, which is what I’m afraid is going to happen with these…the points go right to the edge of the block and will be lost in the seam allowance. And if seams are too narrow in the star center, it won’t lay flat ---
This kind of issue usually happens when the seam allowance is too narrow. Can you see the hand piecing on the back side? If the seams were just a “BIT” wider ---there would be enough of a “cross over” of pieces on the front of the block that the star points would float more and we wouldn't lose them in the next seam, which is what I’m afraid is going to happen with these…the points go right to the edge of the block and will be lost in the seam allowance. And if seams are too narrow in the star center, it won’t lay flat ---
And she put so much work into these! All that cutting and hand sewing!
There is also some machine work, with even less of a seam allowance.
I love them, and I want to do something with them! If these were yours, what would you do? I really don’t want to take them all apart ---
Also in the box – some string blocks! Great fabric!
And some star blocks! Oh, I wish I had this gal’s scrap bag from back in the day!
Seams on these blocks are very narrow too, and that means points are right to the edge of the block so….what to do? My thought is to leave them “as is” and just add a sashing of something around each, and then square them up to “something” similar.
Such fun variety!
Only one block is all solids --
Who’s dresses and aprons were these fabrics?
Most of the flying geese triangles have bias on the outside, so things have stretched over time. What would you do with these blocks?
skinny seams….points to the edge of the block.
Someone painstakingly cut out these pieces, by hand. With scissors. Threaded a needle and took hours and hours to sew these together. Was it an evening activity at the end of the day to relax? Was it something she did while babies napped in the afternoon? Don’t you wish you knew more?
The rest of the box is chock-a-block full of vintage scraps!
Dear Mystery Mailer,
Thank you for your gift of these vintage blocks and pieces parts! I’ll do what I can to turn these into the quilts they were meant to be ---
Thank you for the Quilty Love!
And there will be More Quilty Love tonight ---QUILT-CAM at 9pm Eastern! Be here! Bring a project! I’m ready for some more machine time!
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