SIXTY-TWO YEARS LATER . . .

When I was five years old, my mother copied some simple kitten designs onto lightweight white fabric and taught me the rudiments of hand embroidery. In Mother’s mind these were probably just practice pieces, but then as now, I needed to feel I was actually making something. So I asked what I was making.

 “Oh, we could make a quilt,” she said, probably not giving it much thought.

So I finished the five designs and that was that. Nothing happened for some months. “What about the quilt I was making,” I asked.

So Mother found a pretty piece of fabric in her stash – pink with rosebuds – which she cut into squares the size of the embroidered pieces. We laid them out and I sewed them together by hand. Mother then began to prepare the backing from the rest of the rosebud fabric. And somehow that was that.

Several years later, I asked, “What about that little quilt I was making?”

“I don’t know what to do with it,” she said. Obviously, for whatever reason, she had lost interest. And that was that for about 60 years. But I loved the idea of the little quilt, so I kept it.

A couple of months ago I ran across the little quilt top again. “Well, I know what to do with it,” I muttered to myself. I can tell you everything that’s wrong with it, none of which seemed to affect the basic charm of the piece.

First, I unpinned the quilt top from the backing fabric and gently hand washed and pressed it. Next, I squared up the little piece as best I could. Then I cut a piece of batting – nothing special for this project. Somewhere along the line I decided not to use the rosebuds for the backing, thinking that such a nice vintage piece should really be used for doll clothes. Instead, I used a piece of light-weight white fabric.

 

Due to the age of the fabric, I had already decided to tie rather than quilt it. I stretched it into my portable quilting frame and tied the layers together with red and green embroidery floss.

I was going to cut strips of pink fabric for the binding, but it occurred to me I could just as well use store-bought for all the difference it would make.

And here it is – one doll quilt, 62 years in the making. It's not perfect, but it's rather charming anyway, I think. KW

FROM START TO FINISH IN ONE DAY

“I’m going to make a curtain for the bathroom today,” I said on Saturday, “and I hope it doesn’t become another unfinished object.”

That said, I went off to Jo-Ann’s, and poking around there, I found a pair of curtain holdbacks on clearance. Just what I needed and at a great price! It was a sign.

Back home, I planned, cut, and began sewing. Mike said it was time to take the dogs for an outing and I feared I wouldn’t finish the curtain, but when we got home, I headed straight for the sewing room and got it done before supper.

The next day, Mike installed the holdback for me. The window is frosted, but sometimes in the summer we open it. And now, when it's open, I can unhook the curtain for privacy.

 

Yeah – it’s not long enough and perhaps it could be fuller. But it’s a start. And it’s better than what was up there for the last eleven years. KW

ANOTHER FINISH!!!

108 identical blocks with edging

On Monday (May 2), I finished Hallie’s wedding afghan. Yay!!

I started this afghan – actually a small coverlet – probably in 2009 when Hallie and Nick got married. I couldn’t find the yarn (Red Heart Soft) in the local market, so when we visited Denver, family there helped me find it. (That was before I learned to shop online.)

When I started it, I thought I'd have this coverlet finished in no time. I like “granny square” projects because they’re so easy to carry, and I did take it with me on various trips and crochet the squares as Mike drove. However, a “buffalo” developed in the form of my varying gauge. So, when I resolved to finish this coverlet, I first measured the squares and re-did the “looser” ones. Actually I cheated. I just re-did the outer rows.

 

I actually like to crochet loosely. I like the softer feel of the yarn. However, I came to see that an afghan will stretch under its own weight unless the gauge is tighter.

Well, once I had finished the coverlet, I washed and dried it. Even though I don't expect my work to fall apart, I'm always gratified when I take it out of the dryer in one piece.

Anyway, it's on to other things. I try not to crochet more than one project at a time, again because of gauge issues. KW

FINISHED!

The other day I finished Gigi, one of my oldest unfinished projects. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, though. I have “cutter’s remorse.”

Gigi is a panel doll. I purchased her through an ad from “The Chocolate Soup,” a shop in New York City. The envelope was postmarked August 5, 1971. I had visited France that summer, and I guess this French maid struck my fancy. However, when she came, I looked her over, carefully refolded her, and put her back in the envelope, a practice I would repeat from time to time over the next 45 years.

You see, back in the day, I cherished expectations that one day I would be a good seamstress. With time I would gain experience, I thought, and so I put things away toward that day when I could do a really good job. (Dream on!)

And now, from this perspective, things look different. It occurred to me that it might be better to leave the panel uncut. At the bottom it says, “Made and hand-screened in Ireland,” and “Designed by Alice Wadowski-Bak 1967.” A little gold sticker on the fabric reads, “Warranted Genuine Irish Linen – Made in the Republic of Ireland.” It would be interesting to see if it would sell online, but I don’t do that. I also thought of framing the panel as is.

 

At any rate, Gigi was mine – and the decision was also mine. I had always intended to make the doll, so I went for it.

And now it’s done. I cut the doll from the fabric and sewed her. Then I stuffed, restuffed, and restuffed again. (A stuffer I am not.) Then I stitched her opening by hand – “et voila!” – here she is.

Here’s the translation of the instructions on the fabric:

GIGI

Pretty Country Woman (or Farmer’s Wife)

Good day my friends . . . . Cut sweet little

Gigi out by following the dots. Join the

two right sides of the pattern. Sew following

the lines around the dress. Don’t

forget to leave the hem of the skirt open

for stuffing. Turn inside out and press with

a hot iron. Then stuff Gigi from head to

toe with old rags. Fold the hem inside.

Then sew in very small stitches on the

black line. Goodbye.

Si jeunnesse savait; si vieillesse pouvait!

(If youth only knew; and age only could!)

SO TRUE! -- KW