Why Restore and Conserve Old Quilts?

read the story of this quilt

Why do I like repairing quilts?  My academic background is in anthropology, which taught me about how much meaning the objects we make and use every day can hold.  And all quilts have their story.

"Storytelling is the place where social and personal history meet."

This is a line from a lovely book I recently received, How to Write Your Personal or Family History, by Katie Funk Wiebe.  The book was written by the mother of a dear friend of mine.  She wrote many books, many of them about family and history.

One thing she stresses is how small memories and facts can build a valuable memoir.  I feel the same is true of quilts - it's not only the flashy and museum quality quilts that are worth gentle handling and care.

Courthouse Steps

Lately, I have been reaping the benefit of getting to the age of downsizing.  And the benefit has been adopting quilts from many directions.

Not that I really have room or reason to have them myself either, except for being able to write about them here and share them when I teach.  That's good enough, I figure.  But really, the main reason I say yes and bring them in is that I love them and want to give them a home.

I am reminded of my brother- and sister-in-law who kept the garage door open a crack and a bowl of cat food inside until they had a population of 3 dogs and 9 cats.  The 9th cat in the series was named E. Nuff Already.  Yup.

Anyway, a friend offered me this lovely silk Courthouse Steps.  She'd had it hanging on her wall for many years, and now the silks are doing that late 19th century silk "thing" of shattering and crumbling.  So before I show you the detail photos, take a moment to appreciate it from a distance, in all its glory.......

A Blast from the Past

The other day, I met up with a quilt I'd made over 30 years ago and forgotten!

I got a text from one of the people who grew up a few houses away from me.  She's been doing lots of sorting and clearing out over these last couple of months.  In amongst her son's childhood items, she found this quilt, and asked if I had made it.  At first, I didn't remember having made a baby quilt for her.  But when I scrolled down further to see the photos, I recognized it immediately.

Wow.  Hee, hee.

I made it in 1986, about 7 years after I learned to quilt.  It was a pretty popular pattern at the time.  A Google search came up with Garden Trellis, Garden Twist, and Around the Twist.  Around the Twist sounds very familiar, so I think that was the name as I learned (and forgot) it. 

And yes, at that time, I signed all my quilts and crafty items with those little name tapes.  The name was suggested by one of my friends, a pun if you will.  "Handmade" becomes "Ann Made" - see?  I ran out of "Ann Made" business cards a long, long time ago, but I still have some of that tape tucked away in a drawer, and I still have scraps of some of those fabrics in my stash. 

It's this kind of color play and geometry play that are a big part of what intrigued me about quiltmaking - and has kept me going all these years.   I still love green and I still love little spriggy prints the best, like the background white print.   So, it was a very pleasant walk down Memory Lane.  And I'm posting about a crib quilt just under the wire, as it's still just barely Mother's Day here.