My Grandmother’s quilts are among my treasured possessions. I remember her sitting by the window and piecing them by hand. I remember the quilt frame hanging from the ceiling in the “front room”. My sister and I played under it while she quilted.
Sunbonnet Sue quilt by my Grandmother, Mary Lee Ownbey Kimsey
And then there are the unfinished bits and pieces I inherited. Granny had a series of little strokes and gradually lost the ability to sit still and concentrate on her quilts. I have some pieced sections that I’ve been carrying around for years. My Mother wasn’t a quilter, so she carried them around for years before leaving them to me.
They’re old. And they’re lonely, because somewhere along the way somebody threw out the uncut fabric that must have gone with them.
Some of the pieces I inherited
What should I do with these? I’ve come up with a variety of ideas for making them into a finished quilt, but I haven’t quite found one I like. Because there are several pieced strips that appear to be done for diagonal set, I wonder if she was doing something similar to this:
Another of Granny’s quilts
This piece may have been intended as one side of a square set on point?
And then there’s the question of the seams! She pieced all this by hand with seams that are barely 1/16″!!! Will that hold up? Or should I re-work it all???
I’ve about decided the solution to the seams is to press as best I can (Granny finger-pressed!) and the back the pieces I have with batiste. From there I can add strips of muslin, which she always used for “background”, and see what I can come up with.
Any other ideas? Anybody dealt with a similar situation? All suggestions welcome!
Zippy Quilts 