Thursday, May 6, 2010
Meta's unfinished work
My friend Carol is moving and she gave me a box of scraps from her attic. Inside was this partially completed piece.
It's not large, 36" x about 30". But what a wonderful fragment. You can see how the maker worked. She pieced scraps together, then attached them to the muslin foundation.
Sometimes a piece is appliqued onto the top to cover edges. The fabrics are quite a hodgepodge - everyday fabrics mostly: ginghams, stripes and plaids, clarets. Carol knew who made it: her grandmother Meta Themer who lived in Kingfisher, Oklahoma with her husband Will. Meta was born ~1898 and died in the early 1980s.
Carol is delighted to have it out of her attic and I'm delighted to have it to show you.
I am aching in jealousy...I adore tops like this more than anything... b e a u t i f u l
ReplyDeleteI love the colours, the crazy style and the history that goes with it- delightful!
ReplyDeleteI'm studying this one carefully. I've got a pile of odd-shaped scraps, and trying to decide whether to piece them with or without a foundation. Any advice? Looks like Meta did both.
ReplyDeleteOh! What a fun gift! It looks like those scraps of Meta's are quite old...not something she worked on later in life. I bet you will have fun with this piece (she says enviously!!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with us, I love seeing that not old quilters from previous generations did their quilting "by the book." It frees me to know, hey, I can be that way too!!
You are right: Meta did both. I note little sections of scraps pieced together before they were stitched to the foundation.
ReplyDeleteRemember: they didn't HAVE quilting books. they made their own rules, how freeing is THAT!