Wedding Quilt

Hi Everyone,

I know I am late I promised to Post every Thursday and today is Friday.  Sorry, I had car trouble on Wednesday and my car was in the shop.  Should have been a good time to write, however I worried all day about what was wrong and what it was going to cost.  I really needed to have my car because we are going to a wedding this weekend and it is 150 miles away.  Then Thursday I spent the day shopping for a dress to wear.  I had planned to do that Wednesday but no car.  So, I guess better late than never.  I will try to do better.

Because we are going to the wedding tomorrow, I decided to talk about the quilt I made for Doug and Erin ( Doug is my nephew and of course Erin is his beautiful bride).  I started the quilt about a year ago.  It is a Dresden Plate design.  It is based on the style of the the 1930's Dresden Plate.  If you would like to know more about the history of the Dresden Plate this web site might be a good place to start.  http://www.patternsfromhistory.com/colonial_revival/dresden-plate.htm 

I am not a quilter, when it comes to sewing I am primarily a Dress maker/ Tailor having made everything from underwear to gowns and tuxedos.  However, as a child I admired my grandmothers quilts.  Both of my grandmothers quilted and out of necessity they used what they had on hand.  They used scraps from clothing they had made and pieces cut for worn out clothes what they thought still had useable sections.  They lived through some pretty hard times, the  Great depression, World Wars, both were single moms.  As hard as it is to be a single mom now, I think it was even harder then.

I used to lay on my grandmother's bed and admire and more importantly remember and dress, apron, shirt that some member of the family had worn.  This is one of them;

I know that you probably can't see the beautiful and perfect hand stitching.  If you don't quilt you may not realize the hours of work to make this quilt.  But like me you might feel a little sad about the worn pieces in this beautiful quilt.  The reason I tell you all this is I believe in and "admire the waste not want not" motto of my grandmother's generation.  I recycle at least 90% and even pick up things from others to recycle ( ie. I every week pick up a bag of paper, cardboard and plastic from my mother's house to recycle) So, when it comes to quilting I use the scraps from the clothes that I have made and even usually include some of my hand woven scraps.  However I do not include pieces cut from old clothing. When it comes to my quilting, I try to honor my grandmothers. I never go buy new fabric for the piecing.  I do however make some exceptions.  I never cut scraps from worn clothing.  I always buy the batting backing and sashing.  I few years ago I made a double wedding ring quilt that represented four generations of sewers in my family and seven seamstresses.  This is a picture of it;

In the case of the quilt I just made for the wedding on Saturday, I cut the petals from scraps.  Then I set the petals on the table and when my grandchildren visited I ask them to arrange the petals.  They had great fun designing the flowers as I sewed them together.  They too remembered outfits from the scraps.

Finally, here it is;

 

I also made a label.  On their save the date card, they were holding pumpkins with the date on them.  I thought that was very cute so I included  a pumpkin on the label.

Ok, hope you enjoyed this post even if it was a day late.  If you have a questions be sure to ask.  Take care and I will post on Thursday next time.

Pam

I am an Artist

Hello,

I started this blog several years ago, and then never really did any thing with it.  Sadly this is not even my first blog there is another one out there that died and I can't access it any more. :-(  That is why I started this one but then neglected it.  What is the old saying, "if at first you don't succeed try try again".  Well this is me trying again.  I am planning to post every Thursday. I hope that deadline will keep me focused on remembering to write a post.  Wish me luck. 

I think it might be a good idea re-introduce myself.  I am an Artist. 

My mother and both grandmothers were accomplished needle artist.  At their knee's I learned to; sew, tailoring, mending, altering and fit for garments (one grandmother made her living sewing). I also learned to tat, crochet, knit, and embroidery.  My mother took me to dance lessons, piano, and guitar.

Early in my life my parents taught me to appreciate the arts, but encourage me to pursue an identity that would give me financial security, and because people dismissed me if I identified myself as an artist,  I have called myself by many other titles;  waitress, student, caterer, grade school teacher, pre-school teacher, Residential Assistant, Patient Services Assistant, I have even worked as an account and sometime programmer.  While I made a pretty good wage, none of these gave me satisfaction, or even financial security.

In-spite of all the demands on my time under all the other titles, many times going without sleep. I have spent every spare minute working, learning, perfecting my skills and even selling my art.    I have always been an artist and I am finally going to call myself  that and Celebrate the freedom to identify myself with what my heart and soul tells me I am.


I am an Artist

 Pamela J. Arquette