Jayne's Quilting Room: Repairs and Handwork

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Repairs and Handwork

I have mentioned several times here in recent weeks (months?!) that we are remodeling our master bedroom. Funny how redoing one room ends up affecting three other rooms plus a bathroom, but suffice it to say, our entire upstairs has been rather a chaotic mess for awhile now.

Here are a few pics taken throughout the process which depict the upheaval.

Top of the stair; look to the left.

Top of the stairs; look to the right.

Top of the stairs; immediate right.

So, while digging for space in my sewing room, (moving old shelves out - see pic above; better shelves from bedroom in) I came across two quilts given to me for repairs. One I have had for probably 20 years; the other for perhaps 6-8 years. Yeah, I'd sorta' forgotten about them. It made sense for me to just stop rearranging things for awhile and fix these quilts so I could GET THEM OUT OF MY SPACE! I will free up valuable space if I just fix these and pass them back to the owners.

First, I worked on the larger item - a scrap quilt that was so very well-loved. It was worn and threadbare in many places. Longtime family friend Shirley had asked me to do what I could with it and gave me an old flannel shirt to use for patching. The binding was so threadbare that I cut the original binding off and adding a new one from my binding scraps. Then I began cutting squares and rectangles out of that flannel shirt and hand-stitched patches over places that were most worn. These two bits below are examples of what I patched.

I have returned this to Shirley who reminded me of the history of this quilt. Her mother had made it from scraps and it was a particular favorite of her son Tim (Timmy to me, as I babysat him when he was little). Making this even more special is the fact that several months ago, Timmy was killed in a freak accident at age 47. Far too young. Returning this to his mother all these years late, might have been a comforting salve for Shirley. She did seem thrilled to have it back.

The second repair quilt was much smaller and given to me maybe 20 years ago to repair. As I worked, I realized that my daughter Erin made it when she was about 12 for her little cousin Will. Back then, all the cousins were into those I-Spy and Where's Waldo books that came out in the 90s. We shared books and studied those pictures for hours! Will was especially taken with them, so Erin made this I-Spy quilt for him using squares of novelty fabric. I'd totally forgotten that Erin made it; seeing this block jogged my memory. (A reminder of why we should label our quilts, ladies!!!)

Some of the seams had come undone, and my sister had handed it over to me for fixing. I just popped it into a storage tub and forgot about it. A mere, brief stitching session while watching the Tour de France and it is ready now for delivery back to Sandy and Will ... and Will's 2 little ones, who will be the next generation to enjoy "I Spy."