Reading about Mawmaw’s dress length (fingertip) reminded me of arguing with my mom about dress lengths, back in the early 70s. I may have even scrunched up my shoulders to make a dress shorter…
This reminds me of my grandma and all of the quilts she made us out of old dresses and shirts. And I also remember the dress lengths measurement in the early 70s. Mom made my clothes back then which were dresses. I remember finally getting a pair of what I called dress jeans when I was a sophomore in college. Times sure have changed. I can't imagine living without jeans. I love to create fabric stories - small art quilts and fabric books - using repurposed laces and fabrics. Anyway, great post and looking forward to seeing the quilt you make.
This story reminds me of the little "scrap bag" my mother kept along with a can full of old buttons. Both are long gone now, and mom never made anything with them. I think I had the buttons for awhile, then passed them on to a quilter friend. Thank you for this essay, the photos, and the PDF. Quilting and other crafts were essential, not just hobbies that now create "stores" that sell all the materials your grandmothers saved. In fact, it also has fostered contempt for the idea of saving scraps and making such quilts. How sad.
What you say is so apt, Sue. I once went to a quilting workshop after collecting fabric from my fans on tour for a year. I traded each person who brought fabric to my shows a little cd especially made for this bartering idea. When I showed up at the week long workshop with all of this disparate fabric, many of my fellow attendees were horrified and thought my quilt would be a disaster. Most of them had bought matching fabrics to complete the 3000 piece quilt. But as my quilt grew, everyone’s perspective changed. And the teacher ended up including a story about my quilt in one of her later books. My ignorance about quilts made from hobby shop fabric and my grandmothers’ influence meant I just entered into the project blithely with scraps. And, in the end, that created an unexpected and beautiful outcome. We all learned something that week!
Harrumph! I can hear the cackling clear over here. Indeed, there is almost a snarkly snobbery regarding fabric, but I think with the tarriffs, we're going to be looking around for resources. Your article reminds us that they're already all around us. My daughter, in fact, is already collecting fabrics from thrift stores. I hope she's also looking in her own closets. Maybe some of her favorite kid's clothes could make a delightful memory quilt. Speaking of old clothes, her MIL actually saved a few outfits from my SIL's childhood that Val's using with her son now. There are still people who save old clothes to pass along.
I love a bunch of buttons so much. Sometimes I’ll buy a tin or jar or box of them at the flea market just to enjoy the colors and textures. Buttons are definitely little treasures.
It was like a box of jewels. I don't know whatever happened to the can, but it was the size and shape of a small, old coffee can. It had a more decorative artwork on it though.
I remember being horrified when my mother cut her beautiful, perfectly proportioned and oh-so-elegant below-knee-length dresses short. She even made me wear my tartan school uniform skirt short, not because she cut it but because my waist (then!) was small for my height and she didn’t want to alter the waist on a skirt that was regulation length. So my skirt was six inches shorter than those of all the other girls and regularly got me detention until the school realised my Ma’s will was stronger than their insistence on rules.
The cut off bits from her dresses (she only had four back then) went to my grandmother, who made them into a simple pieced blanket. I wish I knew where that was now.
Anyway what I really wanted to say was that there is a book in your stories and pictures of quilts , which should include all the others (Kantha, Boro, Alabama) too. Like you, I bought my kanthas (also I think known as ‘ralli’ ?) for the exquisite patterning that comes from the wearing of layers. Something impossible to replicate but utterly beautiful.
India, your memories are so evocative. I remember so many arguments with my parents about hemlines and short shorts. So much fury out of nothing. But it seemed so important at the time. Childhood.
I am so glad you mentioned another name for the kantha quilt. It’s very difficult to get to the bottom of these names for things in other cultures because even though I bought my quilts in India, it’s always tricky to know whether the word the shopkeeper is using is the actual word for the blanket or the word they’ve come to know outsiders want to hear and thus might result in a sale. So, I was a bit nervous using the overall term kantha because that also includes pictorial embroidered blankets. Anyhow, I hope I won’t run afoul of any textile scholars…!
I knew you of all people would value the layers of wear which simply can’t be manufactured, but must be made by time and use. You are such an inspiration to me and I’m looking forward to going back and reading what you’ve written while I was away.
Long dresses and skirts to mini's, cool enough. Transforming the "leftovers" to a quilt? Genius. Very interesting, touching, fun read as usual. Glad you are home safely. Now take another nap! cyber hugs...clp,et n p
What a wonderful story told about the quilters of your family. I especially loved the pictures that went along with it. I’m always looking at old photos to see if a quilt might also be in it.
I'm about to move all my sewing stuff into another space, and I have boxes of offcuts, as well as several lightweight poly quilts with bleach holes (from our time running a vacation rental) that I've been meaning to make covers for. I'll do it thinking of your kin, and all the other women around the world, making do and not making waste. Thank you for this lovely inspirational read this morning.
You are so kind, Charlotte. Thank you. Mawmaw is very missed and very present all at the same time. I am glad you can make new from the old with your quilts. They’ll be snuggly with their added layers of history. Many smiles to you.
Thank you for sharing the beautiful quilts and warm memories of your ancestors. I was especially moved by the way you honor their work as part of the global tradition of an artistry born out of necessity. Wonderful essay!
I have kantha quilts that do everything. One is on my bed, one is covering a chair, one is even currently protecting my porch plants because it’s snowing. The rest are in a stack till I need one.
I’m thinking of making my own, I’ll be excited to see your video.
I’m also thinking of rag rugs for the “uglier” scraps.
The first thing I’m going to do is get me a scrap and fix my favorite sheets which are starting to rip.
Everyone I know (including my husband but NOT my daughter) is so weird about this.
I love how the “uglier” scraps seem to find their moment to shine when they are incorporated into rag rugs! I’m glad we can have scrap solidarity here since I also have friends and family who also don’t get it. Scraps and mending club forever :-)
I have some especially thick kantha quilts that I use as rugs. They make the room so magical!
This was interesting to me. I knew that a lot of quilts were made from scraps, just never really thought of keeping a pile of scraps and making one once you had enough. Looking at it after, or while making it, she must have been able to think of what each scrap was from. How interesting. Today we buy a blanket from some store. Back then it was cloth from so many other creations. I have a much better appreciation for quilts after reading your words, Jeni. ❤️
Lovely stories, I was really moved by the words and images. I love quilts. They always seem like cloth stories to me. No one in my close family, that I know of, quilted. I’d love to have a quilt made by someone close to me. I love to make things by hand, and I’ve finally started trying to teach myself to quilt. I’ve always felt like it was too complicated, but seeing how beautiful even the simplest, tattered old quilts are I figured the best way to learn is just start practicing. I appreciate your quilting zine, as I’m always trying to learn more. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Cary, I’m so glad that you’ve found my letter useful. And I hope my zine will help you along in your quiltmaking path. I’ve filmed a real time tutorial of me making a nine-patch quilt (a doll-sized one). I just need to edit it, but have to heal up from looking after my grandmother in her last days. And my laptop went kaput just before I left to be with her. Everything happens at once. But I will catch up eventually and I’ll put the whole tutorial step by step on YouTube. So, I hope that will help people get started with quilting. I want quilting to seem less daunting to people and for them to feel freedom in their decisions like Narcie did. Thank you for your kind and thoughtful comment!
Reading about Mawmaw’s dress length (fingertip) reminded me of arguing with my mom about dress lengths, back in the early 70s. I may have even scrunched up my shoulders to make a dress shorter…
This reminds me of my grandma and all of the quilts she made us out of old dresses and shirts. And I also remember the dress lengths measurement in the early 70s. Mom made my clothes back then which were dresses. I remember finally getting a pair of what I called dress jeans when I was a sophomore in college. Times sure have changed. I can't imagine living without jeans. I love to create fabric stories - small art quilts and fabric books - using repurposed laces and fabrics. Anyway, great post and looking forward to seeing the quilt you make.
Thank you so much for sharing your clothes and quilt memories. I love that you create fabric stories ♥️♥️♥️
This story reminds me of the little "scrap bag" my mother kept along with a can full of old buttons. Both are long gone now, and mom never made anything with them. I think I had the buttons for awhile, then passed them on to a quilter friend. Thank you for this essay, the photos, and the PDF. Quilting and other crafts were essential, not just hobbies that now create "stores" that sell all the materials your grandmothers saved. In fact, it also has fostered contempt for the idea of saving scraps and making such quilts. How sad.
What you say is so apt, Sue. I once went to a quilting workshop after collecting fabric from my fans on tour for a year. I traded each person who brought fabric to my shows a little cd especially made for this bartering idea. When I showed up at the week long workshop with all of this disparate fabric, many of my fellow attendees were horrified and thought my quilt would be a disaster. Most of them had bought matching fabrics to complete the 3000 piece quilt. But as my quilt grew, everyone’s perspective changed. And the teacher ended up including a story about my quilt in one of her later books. My ignorance about quilts made from hobby shop fabric and my grandmothers’ influence meant I just entered into the project blithely with scraps. And, in the end, that created an unexpected and beautiful outcome. We all learned something that week!
Harrumph! I can hear the cackling clear over here. Indeed, there is almost a snarkly snobbery regarding fabric, but I think with the tarriffs, we're going to be looking around for resources. Your article reminds us that they're already all around us. My daughter, in fact, is already collecting fabrics from thrift stores. I hope she's also looking in her own closets. Maybe some of her favorite kid's clothes could make a delightful memory quilt. Speaking of old clothes, her MIL actually saved a few outfits from my SIL's childhood that Val's using with her son now. There are still people who save old clothes to pass along.
My mother had a box of buttons. I used to love to feel the different textures of them as a child. Also loved to look at all the different colors.
I love a bunch of buttons so much. Sometimes I’ll buy a tin or jar or box of them at the flea market just to enjoy the colors and textures. Buttons are definitely little treasures.
I still have one - an aged fruitcake tin with spare buttons.
It was like a box of jewels. I don't know whatever happened to the can, but it was the size and shape of a small, old coffee can. It had a more decorative artwork on it though.
I remember being horrified when my mother cut her beautiful, perfectly proportioned and oh-so-elegant below-knee-length dresses short. She even made me wear my tartan school uniform skirt short, not because she cut it but because my waist (then!) was small for my height and she didn’t want to alter the waist on a skirt that was regulation length. So my skirt was six inches shorter than those of all the other girls and regularly got me detention until the school realised my Ma’s will was stronger than their insistence on rules.
The cut off bits from her dresses (she only had four back then) went to my grandmother, who made them into a simple pieced blanket. I wish I knew where that was now.
Anyway what I really wanted to say was that there is a book in your stories and pictures of quilts , which should include all the others (Kantha, Boro, Alabama) too. Like you, I bought my kanthas (also I think known as ‘ralli’ ?) for the exquisite patterning that comes from the wearing of layers. Something impossible to replicate but utterly beautiful.
India, your memories are so evocative. I remember so many arguments with my parents about hemlines and short shorts. So much fury out of nothing. But it seemed so important at the time. Childhood.
I am so glad you mentioned another name for the kantha quilt. It’s very difficult to get to the bottom of these names for things in other cultures because even though I bought my quilts in India, it’s always tricky to know whether the word the shopkeeper is using is the actual word for the blanket or the word they’ve come to know outsiders want to hear and thus might result in a sale. So, I was a bit nervous using the overall term kantha because that also includes pictorial embroidered blankets. Anyhow, I hope I won’t run afoul of any textile scholars…!
I knew you of all people would value the layers of wear which simply can’t be manufactured, but must be made by time and use. You are such an inspiration to me and I’m looking forward to going back and reading what you’ve written while I was away.
Long dresses and skirts to mini's, cool enough. Transforming the "leftovers" to a quilt? Genius. Very interesting, touching, fun read as usual. Glad you are home safely. Now take another nap! cyber hugs...clp,et n p
Cyber hugs and paws fives from here. 🧸♥️
What a wonderful story told about the quilters of your family. I especially loved the pictures that went along with it. I’m always looking at old photos to see if a quilt might also be in it.
Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I’m just the same as far as looking for old quilts in photographs. I just love them.
This is beautiful. I hope you share your scarf quilt.
Thank you so much. I collected some aprons and a few other pieces from our family home, so I think I’m ready to bring them all together in that quilt.
Lovely memories of these resourceful women, which live on in their quilts.
What a fabulous idea to trade music for fabric for a quilt, how delightful!
Thank you for sharing these stories ❤️🧵🪡
Thank you, Debra ♥️
Oh my heart I'm so sorry for your loss.
I'm about to move all my sewing stuff into another space, and I have boxes of offcuts, as well as several lightweight poly quilts with bleach holes (from our time running a vacation rental) that I've been meaning to make covers for. I'll do it thinking of your kin, and all the other women around the world, making do and not making waste. Thank you for this lovely inspirational read this morning.
You are so kind, Charlotte. Thank you. Mawmaw is very missed and very present all at the same time. I am glad you can make new from the old with your quilts. They’ll be snuggly with their added layers of history. Many smiles to you.
my aunties stitched quilts too- growing up in Iowa, quilting was such a communal gathering, this story takes me back, ty!
Thank you for reading and commenting, Pam! To have been a fly on the wall in Iowa with your aunties!
Loved this Jeni thank you.
Thank you for reading and for letting me know. ♥️
Thank you for sharing the beautiful quilts and warm memories of your ancestors. I was especially moved by the way you honor their work as part of the global tradition of an artistry born out of necessity. Wonderful essay!
Thank you very much for your thoughtful and kind comment, Catherine.
Thank you so much for your very thoughtful comment. You’ve given me a beautiful start to my day.
I have kantha quilts that do everything. One is on my bed, one is covering a chair, one is even currently protecting my porch plants because it’s snowing. The rest are in a stack till I need one.
I’m thinking of making my own, I’ll be excited to see your video.
I’m also thinking of rag rugs for the “uglier” scraps.
The first thing I’m going to do is get me a scrap and fix my favorite sheets which are starting to rip.
Everyone I know (including my husband but NOT my daughter) is so weird about this.
I love how the “uglier” scraps seem to find their moment to shine when they are incorporated into rag rugs! I’m glad we can have scrap solidarity here since I also have friends and family who also don’t get it. Scraps and mending club forever :-)
I have some especially thick kantha quilts that I use as rugs. They make the room so magical!
This was interesting to me. I knew that a lot of quilts were made from scraps, just never really thought of keeping a pile of scraps and making one once you had enough. Looking at it after, or while making it, she must have been able to think of what each scrap was from. How interesting. Today we buy a blanket from some store. Back then it was cloth from so many other creations. I have a much better appreciation for quilts after reading your words, Jeni. ❤️
Your comment means so much to me, Pam, because it shows me that I’ve done what I hoped to do in writing this letter. Huge hugs to you, my friend.
Oh Jeni, this is just wonderful. What a tribute to MawMaw and Narcie. You are simply incredible. And thank you for the PDF. Sending so much love.
Thank you so much, Charlotte! And thank you for encouraging my writing about home.
Your home and your viewpoint on it--because you now live across the pond--is really special, Jeni. I love your memories of it all.
Lovely stories, I was really moved by the words and images. I love quilts. They always seem like cloth stories to me. No one in my close family, that I know of, quilted. I’d love to have a quilt made by someone close to me. I love to make things by hand, and I’ve finally started trying to teach myself to quilt. I’ve always felt like it was too complicated, but seeing how beautiful even the simplest, tattered old quilts are I figured the best way to learn is just start practicing. I appreciate your quilting zine, as I’m always trying to learn more. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Cary, I’m so glad that you’ve found my letter useful. And I hope my zine will help you along in your quiltmaking path. I’ve filmed a real time tutorial of me making a nine-patch quilt (a doll-sized one). I just need to edit it, but have to heal up from looking after my grandmother in her last days. And my laptop went kaput just before I left to be with her. Everything happens at once. But I will catch up eventually and I’ll put the whole tutorial step by step on YouTube. So, I hope that will help people get started with quilting. I want quilting to seem less daunting to people and for them to feel freedom in their decisions like Narcie did. Thank you for your kind and thoughtful comment!
I look forward to that, thank you so much. I’m very sorry about your grandmother ❤️