What Is Happening Here....

Washing and ironing fabrics.

It has taken me since June to get my health under enough control to have cataract surgery. I had my second eye done a week ago. Hooray! It will be the end of October before I can get new eyeglasses. Sigh. So, even though my vision is greatly improved already, I can not see with my old glasses and can't see without them. It is making me crazy. I use readers for up close, but they really don't work well. So, to occupy myself, I am washing and ironing 1930's fabrics that have been stashed away.

Above are some nice size pieces that I have found. Usually the pieces I find are not so nice, size-wise.

These are pretty nice, but smaller. Sometimes I take quilt tops apart. Above are some nice setting triangles and (my favorite) plain alternate blocks.

This is part of a pile that came from some unknown lady's stash. Each piece was tightly rolled up and tied. It is amazing to me that they survived since the 1930's. I bought a bunch of ziplocks full of the little bundles in an antique store. It was extremely time consuming to untie each bundle, hand wash them, soak them if necessary, starch and iron them.

Of course sometimes I come up with quilt pieces. This is another pain in the neck to get to a usable state.

Once in awhile you get lucky. I found these at an antique shop in Paducah when we were there for the quilt show. Some of these are cut from yardage. They were priced by the piece and not by the yard. I just cut off a piece of each one and didn't wash the entire yardage. It would be a good guess that a quilter from the 1930's had quite a stash of fabrics.

This answers one of the questions that people ask me the most - where do you get your fabrics?

Till next time.......

Sheila