Great quilty weekend?....well Grandma Bosh would be proud! You see, my grandma sewed. She was a seamstress and also made most of her own clothes. She would have just died if she saw the price of fabric today. She used to tell me that if I could sew, I wouldn't need to buy the expensive clothes on the racks. Hah! She got me interested in sewing. When I was pregnant with DD#1, I decided to make baby buntings. I chose a pattern that was way out of my league. You see Grandma Bosh always told me, if fact it was one of her mantras, "If you are going to sew you have to rip sometimes." This was a never ending source of frustration to me. I hated to rip and it drove me crazy. I would take her things in pieces, she would calmly rip it apart, give me her mantra and put it together correctly. Well, the baby bunting, notice the single tense, I made, was flannel. I can still see the pattern on the flannel and is DD#1 is almost 23yo. I ripped the "V" where the buttons and collar go ( I can't for the life of me think of the name of that piece) so many times that after the first washing it was in shreds. I quite calmly took all the others already cut out to her, and as usual she assembled them. (she also made my girls millions of adorable sundresses and fitted flannel diapers to name a few items) This is the way it went for a long time. I began a piece of clothing for the girls, took it to her in tears, and she finished it. Well, this weekend she would have been proud. I began quilting a quilt. I got a medium sized section finished and decided I really didn't like the thread. (yes I pre-tested it all just didn't realize I wouldn't like the color on the actual quilt!) I knew it would need ripped but decided to come back to it. I switched my thread color, quilted the same size section again and liked it. I then quilted a l-a-r-g-e section - across the entire lap quilt. After I finished I looked at the back to admire my work and HORROR. It was awful. Not full of pulls and nests but bad enough that I knew it wouldn't hold up. This was the equivilent to 1/3 of the quilt. So Gram, I ripped. I ripped and ripped and ripped. It's still not done, but almost. The only saving grace was that the stitches were so hideous that the pulled out fairly easy. I have now requilted about 1/2 of the quilt. I talk to my GB when I quilt. Mostly when I'm ripping as can be expected. So my picture of something finished won't happen tonight.....
What am I thankful for?
1. Grandma Bosh and her voice in my head
2. Black light activated hand stamps...mind didn't wash off and I was able to get back in the
Peddler Show for free. Had to buy another jalapeno cooker.
3. Jalapeno cooker.....they were great!
4. Pumpkin bread in the freezer and cream cheese in the fridge...well, should I say our bellies
5. DD#2 hearing our mantra all these years. I never knew she was listening
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4 comments:
Loved the story of your grandma. Also all the things you're thankful for. I have just finised my second quilt top. And am beginning, as I heal from hip surgery, on the next. I am addicted...oh, I'm a retired teacher in Texas.
Aren't grandmas amazing? We learn so much from our grandparents and don't even know we're learning until later in our lives.
Ripping out stitches isn't fun but sometimes it just has to be done. I'm usually pretty good about picking out thread colors but sometimes I also pick out the wrong one.
Too bad it takes longer to pick out the stitches than it does to make them in the first place.
My Mom used to make us rip and re-do over and over and over until sometimes she'd just about have Susan in tears! But now when Susan makes anything and it doesn't come out quite right she always asks herself, "would Mama make me rip it?" And is always happiest when she listens to that little voice saying "YES!" and re-does it.
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