And Every Now and Then, I'm My Own Customer

 

I made this quilt, actually a tied comforter, back around 1980.  I had been quilting just a few years.  I stepped out of the initial "pillows and place mats" stage, and made my first bed quilt.

Past blogs detail both the story of the quilt and the stories of the fabrics I used.   

The fabrics in the quilt are all mementos of past sewing projects, sewn both by my mom and childhood self.  And my husband and I have slept with it, as did our kids when young and in our family bed.  So, by 2020, it was showing signs of wear.  I think that was actually a good long time!

As I started repairing, I learned how satisfying it is to have an old friend with cozy memories get fixed up again, once again smooth and safe and protecting those memories.  I was sort of surprised at how wonderful it felt!

And now, 6 years on from that, more tears are popping open.  I didn't realize it until I wrote this blog, but all of this year's mends were of fabrics that I mended the first time around,  It's true that some fabrics are weaker than others, and once a fabric starts to go, it will likely keep going.  

One of the red/white polka dot pieces tore right along the seam line. 

 

All the pieces of this fabric had broken in another block and had been repaired in the first batch of repairs.  I didn't, and still don't, have a perfect match for it, but I figure at this rate, it's likely that the rest of that fabric will go sooner than later, and soon they all will look the same again.

 

 

This solid blue also had some earlier repairs, you can see them on the left in the photo above.  I do have a really good new fabric to use, and patched the one needed here, 

This pale yellow fabric had torn along the seam line.  It's a special fabric to me.  My mom made clothes for us, and often with my party dresses, she patterned (!) and made a matching dress for my baby doll.  I had no idea at the time what an amazing feat that was!  

Again, this is a fabric that was mended 6 years ago, too.  The original fabric has a color-on-color design, woven in with a shiny thread.  I have no more of it, unfortunately, so have been patching it with a solid pale yellow.

This block has a weak brown on white print.  It's the one on the top and right sides of the block.  You can see that I have some of it still, but because of fading and yellowing of the fabric on the quilt, the new original fabric would not look great.  Six years ago, I patched the two pieces in the lower left corner.  This time, I couldn't find that fabric, even though I was sure I had it.  So I went with the stripe that's sitting on the left of the photo.

 

 

Finally, I mended more of this great navy print.  It was a shirt I had and adored in the 1980s.  

 

 The problem was that this was all the fabric I had left!

So, I resorted to a decades old, tried and true technique - sewing together enough tiny bits to have a full patchwork piece. 

And here's the finished mend.

 

 

 And now, she's back on the bed, finishing out yet another winter!