An Historical Undertaking (cont'd from August 13, 2014)

Thanks for taking this journey with me. I could have just quietly worked on this project and included a short paragraph at month end with a picture of the finished quilt. I ask you…What fun would that be? Instead I’m including you every step of the way. You will know the challenges I face, the thought process I go through, and the sometimes faulty conclusions I draw. I intend to bare all!

I have to admit, I’m beginning to feel some attachment to this quilt. It’s drawing me in quite against my will. I have never had much of an interest in antiques or old things in general (people being an exception). When I opened the box earlier this week and first handled the squares, I understood why my mother was going to toss them. She’d carried them from Michigan in 1947 to her new home in Tucson, Arizona (I was conceived in Michigan, born in Tucson in March, 1948) and I’m sure she considered them clutter, long overdue for the trash.  After all, she felt no real connection to her mother-in-law and there were so many new and improved fabrics on the market…like polyester (my mother was totally into polyester). And, she was not a quilter and would have seen no real purpose in a stack of pieced squares.

Back to my journey…I started to feel some connection to the quilt as I was ironing each square yesterday afternoon and trying to imagine the quilter whose work I am about to finish. Leanne has spent years researching our family genealogy and put together a fairly complete history of my mother’s side, the Moore’s. Before she researched my father’s family, she spent a couple of years attending community college. Between studying and raising a young child, she had no time to return to the genealogy work and has asked that Judy and I continue her work and research and prepare the history of the Wier family. Yikes! This is not something I would ever choose to do and, until receiving these quilt blocks, had no interest in genealogy. But now, that’s all changed. I need to know more about Grandma Wier. At a minimum, I want a framed picture of my kindred spirit hanging in my Studio!

I left off yesterday with an unsolved mystery…the blanket stitch on the blocks. I’ve made a discovery and, frankly, I’m feeling very embarrassed about having to admit to you that I was so, so wrong! If you weren’t accompanying me on this journey, you never would have known, So many “if’s”… I’ll just blurt it right out and then give you my excuses: I was wrong, both the piecing and the blanket-stitching are done by hand, not machine!

How did I miss it? My only excuse is that the lighting was not adequate and my glasses were dirty (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). Actually, the first part of that excuse is accurate. I have great lighting in the cabin, but it creates so much heat in the summer that I sometimes work in the near-dark, as I was when I examined the blocks. Well, this morning Verne drove me to town to run some errands and stop by to buy fabric needed to finish the quilt. While he ran into the post office, I was sitting in the car with the sun beating through the window and I looked down at the quilt blocks in my lap and saw that the blanket stitch was actually two part: a machine stitching line within 1/8” of the turned edge and a much thicker pearl cotton thread used to create the decorative edge. I couldn’t believe I’d missed that! Having made one mistake, I decided that I might also be mistaken on the technique used to construct the blocks. I pulled at the seams and yes; they were also hand stitched in the tiniest possible stitches, mimicking machine stitches. The only machine stitching on each block is to secure the design to the backing…the visible stitching that fooled me on the blanket stitch. All I could say was, “Grandma Wier, I’m sorry for suggesting you would cut corners and use a machine to blanket stitch your work. You must have been rolling over in your grave when you heard me say that. By the way, you certainly did beautiful handwork. I can’t wait to see some of your other quilts.”

With Mystery #2 solved, this probably isn’t necessary, but Verne spent time researching the blanket stitch question I raised yesterday, so I’m going to include the information for your edification.

“This stitch has long been both an application by hand and as a machine sewn stitch. When done by hand, it is sometimes considered a crochet stitch, used to join pieces together to make a blanket or other larger item.

When done by machine, it may be called a whip stitch or, sometimes, a Merrow Crochet Stitch, after the first sewing machine that was used to sew a blanket stitch. This machine was produced and patented by the Merrow Machine Company in 1877. The defining characteristic of the crochet machine is its ability to sew with yarn and stitch thick goods with a consistent overlock edge. From 1877-1925 the machine evolved dramatically, and consequently so did the capacity of manufacturers to produce goods with the whip stitch.” Source: Wikipedia

I now find myself at a crossroad…I’d decided to finish the top with a 1” sashing and cornerstones to add a little color as well as provide a quilting line around the blocks. I took the stack of blocks to the Sewing Cottage in Jackson and to my surprise soon found myself surrounded by quilters interested in the old piece. Our hometown-quilting expert, Anelie Belden, immediately identified the block as a Dresden Plate, a classic design that has been around for centuries. In fact, she’s written a book on the subject of Dresden Plates and said that she’d research my particular version of the Dresden Plate and that she might be able to determine when it was designed and first published. Yeah! I’ve never had one iota of interest in classic designs, but I’m beginning to feel a stirring way down deep. I think Grandma Wier wants me to make a Dresden Plate quilt in her honor. I thought I was just imagining her presence with me yesterday in the Studio, but I’m beginning to believe she’s with us on this journey. Who would have thought?

I digress…the crossroad is this: Anelie said that the sashing and cornerstone approach would have been typical in that era, but she wants me to consider omitting the extra fabric (which I’d just bought) and simply sew the squares together. By doing so, a secondary design is created by the 3-piece fans at each corner. I know, this is hard to imagine. Bottom line is this: I’m not sure which road to take. Time is of the essence, but I think I’ll just give it a day or two and hope that Grandma Wier makes herself heard giving me a clear idea of what she had planned.

To be continued…