I believe it is just fine to cut them. What good do they do anyone sitting in a drawer? They’re like flowers which gain in beauty when planted in groups rather than one by one. What a feast for the eyes to see this quilt spread out on a bed or couch! It is magnificent!
Glorious! What a great new life for these items that women imbued with so much of themselves. I see dozens of these lonely items in antiques shops as I travel. And your comment about the quilt being especially enjoyable by a bedbound person, with so much to discover. Far better for it to see the light of day than moulder in a drawer. Things are meant to be used. Well done you.
This is my 50th year quilting and I'm always pleased to learn new things!
What a gorgeous quilt this will be! While at first I might quail a bit at the thought of cutting up hand-embroidered cloth, I do think it’s better for it to be used and loved than sitting in a box. and making a quilt top is such a good way to do that. I always come away from this newsletter full of ideas.
I absolutely love these quilts you're making from the old embroidered tablecloths, and am looking forward to seeing more of your quilts now on your blog.
As an artist and crafts person, what you are doing is like making a collage—creating something new with found materials. Your quilt of found embroidered pieces is beautiful, and you have repurposed cloths that were stained or damaged and otherwise unusable. Sometimes rules are meant to be broken. Brava!
That tablecloths were non-negotiable is attested by the number of these embroidered table and traycloths that I inherited from my mother. They were among her wedding presents and I suppose thought essential to establishing married life in the mid 1950s. Perhaps they were preferable to what my husband and I were lumbered with as the apparent essentials of the mid 1980s - 13 fluted ceramic quiche dishes in various tones of sludge. As I'm incapable of sewing I think the linens are destined to remain in a drawer. The embroidered flowers for me are redolent of Woman and Home magazine before it had its vibrant makeover. From my mother's copies in the 1960s I remember an annual feature of flower arrangements featuring Forsythia in spring, and autumn features of knitted cardigans and pom-pom dahlias.
Just to say that I would pay for a Substack subscription.
Eek! cutting them up. It didn't traumatise me but it does take some thought. Like you i have a collection of these beautiful cloths - carefully collected for quality of stitching and base fabric in the 1990s and 2000s. I found them in Northumberland and never paid more than a pound for them. I am not along friends who are better with a sewing machine are beginning to turn theirs into rather beautiful tops and blouses. I am eyeing up an Irish linen tablecloth with lace inserts from the 1940s and thinking what a beautiful long top it would make. Courage is needed!
Oh Jane...I remember all the hoo-ha about you cutting up the embroidered tablecloths. I am SO glad you did because when I was gifted boxes of embroidered table linens that a friend's mother had stored away I knew just what to do with them! I made a Sunbonnet Sue quilt that I now use on the bed in the guest bedroom. The backing is a very bright yellow that perfectly compliments the embroidery. That quilt always make me smile. And I have you to thank for it. Thank you, Jane!
And those dahlias! I did not know about dahlias until 2008 when we were looking for flowers for my October wedding. Because of the time of year, we were not coming up with anything colorful or festive. A friend of a friend heard about my plight and offered his garden of dahlias, free to cut a few or all. They were the most bizarre, colorful flowers I'd ever seen and were the EXACT flowers for the job. How wonderful for you to have fields of dahlias to choose from!
I would be happy to join in on a Substack subscription.
I believe it is just fine to cut them. What good do they do anyone sitting in a drawer? They’re like flowers which gain in beauty when planted in groups rather than one by one. What a feast for the eyes to see this quilt spread out on a bed or couch! It is magnificent!
Glorious! What a great new life for these items that women imbued with so much of themselves. I see dozens of these lonely items in antiques shops as I travel. And your comment about the quilt being especially enjoyable by a bedbound person, with so much to discover. Far better for it to see the light of day than moulder in a drawer. Things are meant to be used. Well done you.
This is my 50th year quilting and I'm always pleased to learn new things!
What a gorgeous quilt this will be! While at first I might quail a bit at the thought of cutting up hand-embroidered cloth, I do think it’s better for it to be used and loved than sitting in a box. and making a quilt top is such a good way to do that. I always come away from this newsletter full of ideas.
I absolutely love these quilts you're making from the old embroidered tablecloths, and am looking forward to seeing more of your quilts now on your blog.
As an artist and crafts person, what you are doing is like making a collage—creating something new with found materials. Your quilt of found embroidered pieces is beautiful, and you have repurposed cloths that were stained or damaged and otherwise unusable. Sometimes rules are meant to be broken. Brava!
That tablecloths were non-negotiable is attested by the number of these embroidered table and traycloths that I inherited from my mother. They were among her wedding presents and I suppose thought essential to establishing married life in the mid 1950s. Perhaps they were preferable to what my husband and I were lumbered with as the apparent essentials of the mid 1980s - 13 fluted ceramic quiche dishes in various tones of sludge. As I'm incapable of sewing I think the linens are destined to remain in a drawer. The embroidered flowers for me are redolent of Woman and Home magazine before it had its vibrant makeover. From my mother's copies in the 1960s I remember an annual feature of flower arrangements featuring Forsythia in spring, and autumn features of knitted cardigans and pom-pom dahlias.
Just to say that I would pay for a Substack subscription.
Gorgeous quilt and oh-so-clever!!! I like the idea of picking my posies from my quilt!! ❤️❤️
Eek! cutting them up. It didn't traumatise me but it does take some thought. Like you i have a collection of these beautiful cloths - carefully collected for quality of stitching and base fabric in the 1990s and 2000s. I found them in Northumberland and never paid more than a pound for them. I am not along friends who are better with a sewing machine are beginning to turn theirs into rather beautiful tops and blouses. I am eyeing up an Irish linen tablecloth with lace inserts from the 1940s and thinking what a beautiful long top it would make. Courage is needed!
Love the Yeats poem - I also find the following very moving:
The Embankment
BY T. E. HULME
(The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night.)
Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,
In the flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.
Now see I
That warmth’s the very stuff of poesy.
Oh, God, make small
The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,
That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.
Wow Jane, You are so polite about being an aesthetic rebel! Fabulous transformations honouring beautiful work...
xDaphne
Oh Jane...I remember all the hoo-ha about you cutting up the embroidered tablecloths. I am SO glad you did because when I was gifted boxes of embroidered table linens that a friend's mother had stored away I knew just what to do with them! I made a Sunbonnet Sue quilt that I now use on the bed in the guest bedroom. The backing is a very bright yellow that perfectly compliments the embroidery. That quilt always make me smile. And I have you to thank for it. Thank you, Jane!
And those dahlias! I did not know about dahlias until 2008 when we were looking for flowers for my October wedding. Because of the time of year, we were not coming up with anything colorful or festive. A friend of a friend heard about my plight and offered his garden of dahlias, free to cut a few or all. They were the most bizarre, colorful flowers I'd ever seen and were the EXACT flowers for the job. How wonderful for you to have fields of dahlias to choose from!
I would be happy to join in on a Substack subscription.