In the 1980s I attended a quilt class at ClothWorld, the local fabric store. Eleanor Burns or one of her representatives was teaching the class on Quilt in a Day. This concept intrigued me as my Mom had been working on several quilts her whole life.
I only remember Mom finishing one and starting many. It was made of fabrics that were used in my sister Nancy and my dresses, scraps of calico and fabrics she bought or traded with friends. The hand sewn quilt was two four inch pieces sewn together leaving a small opening where she stuffed at least one nylon stocking, maybe two. This was in the 1960’s when women wore nylons with garter belts instead of panty hose with both legs contained in the same garment. Mom worked on these square units in the evening to relax in front of the TV. She had stacks of these squares in baskets or piles sorted according to the steps in the process. Once she had a good number of them completed she placed them side by side so no similar fabric was next to each other. Kind of like a crazy quilt with some planning.
She hand-sewed the sides together piece by piece, Then attached a button on each side in the middle of the square. This quilt fit a double bed for sure and maybe was big enough for a queen. I slept under it a time or two while visiting my parents. With all the buttons and nylons this quilt was heavy and warm as can be. It probably would warm you outside in Alaska.
One year in the 1990’s after Mom had moved from Greeley to a retirement community in Lakewood, I entered this quilt in the display of quilts at Denver’s capital building. Two or three hundred quilts are displayed once a year in the capital. They are hung from the ornate molding. I added the strip of fabric so Mom’s quilt could be hung there. After several attempts to hang it up, they called back to say this quilt was too heavy and they were afraid that suspending it from the molding might be too much weight and damage the molding. So the quilt was accepted, but not displayed. Mom and I enjoyed visiting the capital and looking at all the other quilts. I went again this year in July to see the annual quilt treasurers that people had created. It is an amazing sight to see all the colors and patterns people have worked up from fabric.
Quilt-in-a-day was the way I wanted to approach quilts. To actually finish one in a short period of time really fit my personality and available spare time while raising two children. After the class, I bought an instruction book, tools for cutting strips and the amount of fabric needed to make a king sized l log cabin quilt. This was in the early 1980’s when country dusty blue was all the rage from the strong popular colors of oranges and lime greens as remnants of the 70’s. I think at the time we had just remodeled our kitchen with this same dusty blue-grey. I still have a counter top with that color. I like it well enough to keep it all these years.
At the time I started the first quilt project, the instructions were to wash the fabric to remove the sizing or keep the quilt from shrinking and then iron it so you could cut it up in 2 ½ inch strips. I have become lazier now as I seldom wash the fabric first. I just cut it up and use it. No one has complained. My quilting has become less perfect and more humble along the way, which relieves a lot of pressure to be perfect and increases the enjoyment.
By this time my kids were about 7 and 13 so they entertained themselves for hours at a time while I learned how to make this quilt. Eleanor Burns’ instruction booklets are amazing. She provides such straight forward directions and comes around the patterns from the back door to make finishing and assembling a breeze. She’s a very creative, process - genius to bring quality to what could be a disaster.
It was more like quilt in a week by the time the fabric was prepared, cut and assembly-line sewn the “flags” of blocks as they are called. It was such a kick to see the pattern develop with each step of adding on another strip to the pattern.
In the mid 1990’s I decided to make a goal of finishing a thousand quilts. Quite a challenge indeed! Every time I made a quilt I noticed my stash of fabric only dwindled by a small amount. It seemed I have collected and my Mom had left me enough fabric to make that many quilts. We’ll see. It seems I am always adding a few 3 yard units of fabric when I see an attractive print. My husband Stan likes to work with wood occasionally. He has little scraps and some larger pieces he saves for projects as he needs them. When he sees the fabric in a bag from the store he asks me if I picked some more “wood”.
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