One of the pleasures of summer vacation is having time to take on some of the projects that had to be put off during the school year. Yesterday I finished unpacking a some stray boxes that had been pushed to the back of the closet, and taking several armloads of stuff (flattened boxes, mostly) down to my storage area. I did some filing and drawer-cleaning and now I have two orderly closets and several tidy desk drawers. There’s still a huge pile of research material in desperate need of organization — which likely be the next project now that the smaller stuff is out of the way.
Another pleasure of early summer is switching from the down duvet to a sheet and a quilt. I love the duvet, but it’s way too hot for summer, and I only have two duvet covers, so by May I’m ready for a change. This weekend we’re supposed to have temps in the low 90s (plus humidity), so I’ve taken that as a sign that it’s time to pack up the duvet and break out the quilts.
Both of my grandmas have given me quilts over the years, and I love looking at the fabric and thinking about how one fabric or another might have come from a dress that my grandma or mom or aunt once wore. In Grandma H’s quilt oeuvre, there are a lot utilitarian quilts — a lot of basic block patterns — of cotton (like the one below) and also heavy, indestructable polyesters (thank you, 1970s). Some of the quilts are tied, some not.
Then there are the decorative quilts: she made a number with hand-embroidered panels, for example. For my mom and dad, she did a whole quilt of Model T and Model A cars; for herself and Grandpa she made one that featured different types of birds (state birds, maybe?). I only have one quilt made by my Grandma V — it’s yellow (below) and she hand-quilted it.
As for myself, I’ve only ever made one quilt — for 8th grade Home Ec. It was a lot of pink flowers. I would post a picture of it, but I believe it lives in Chicago these days (with jtw). I love the idea of making a quilt, but unless someone invents a way for me to do it with Photoshop, that’s a project that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon. Not even for summer vacation.
June 8th, 2008 at 9:38 am
lovely. There are several really nice quilts in my family, but most of them are, at this point, so fragile that they’ve been retired from bed use (like the one hanging in our bedroom).
I agree with you about the appeal of making a quilt … both that it sounds really nice and that is seems unlikely to happen …
June 16th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
It is, in fact, living in Chicago with me. I’m rather fond of it but I suppose I could return it to you :)
June 17th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
No, no need. As long as it has a good home :)
By the way, can I just say again how much I *love* my new camera? Thank you.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Let me know if you are ever interested in quilting. I do, and I think that it would be fun to have a virtual quilting bee of sorts with a bunch of academics! Alas, that is as close to the computer that you would need to be, except for ordering fabric maybe. The quilts are beautiful though!
June 28th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
sba: thanks for the offer. At the moment, I have no sewing machine. How about BYOP (bring your own project)? I have a chest of drawers to paint, for starters. I know there are a bunch of knitters out there, too.