Early cot quilts 1980s

I cannot really remember when I started quilting because all textile work was so much part of our childhood.  But we did patchwork and did not quilt items.  And in those days you made things very traditionally over papers.  I can remember making tray cloths for relatives, for example.  I can also remember doing little bits of quilting from childhood but none of them survive.  I studied embroidery as a timetable filler in my last year at school and the art teacher who taught me made me work through some of the City and Guilds syllabus so I knew quite a bit about different embroidery techniques and used to enjoy visiting the Victoria and Albert museum and looking at the textile collections.   I do remember getting enthusiastic about blackwork and making traycloths in this pattern.  I always like counted thread work and did a lot, some of which still survives.

I suppose I really started  quilting in the nineteen eighties which is when the quilting revival began.  My younger sister made several cot quilts from Laura Ashley pre-cut squares and I caught the bug.  Here is a very early one - possibly the first one I ever did.

It was made for one of my nephews.  My sister and family were living in Cairo at the time so it did not need to be quilted with wadding.  As you will see, it is Laura Ashley squares and I satin-stitched around them on the machine.  This quilt has now gone to the second generation.  When this nephew had his first child three years ago, my sister found it and added wadding.  I made several like this for friends' babies.  This next one had a bit of a history.

It was made for the youngest child of one of my oldest friends in New Zealand which meant it had to be posted and I seem to remember parcels went by sea in those days.  So I made it and posted it before the baby was born.  That was the last time I ever did that as the baby had major medical problems when he was born and then the mother got very ill.  So I vowed never to send a quilt until after the baby was born!

But it was a while before I became more adventurous.  I made this one for another friend in New Zealand and took it with me in a suitcase as that seemed much safer.

By now I was capable of hand quilting patterns along the stripes.  Even the back looked better!

And I made them big enough to fit on a bed rather than crib size although when I did City and Guilds I made a wholecloth pram quilt.  The photo is not good enough to reproduce, however.

Ready-made dresses

I have already said that in New Zealand in the 1950s most clothes were home-made.  I can really only remember having three 'bought' dresses before I was about twelve, although I will say that our thick winter skirts, made of such things as Harris tweed, were made by a dressmaker.  What I remember about her was going to her house for fittings and she had pins in her mouth!  At a very early age we had been taught NEVER to do that, which I think is why I have not forgotten.  With these skirts we wore hand knitted pullovers (called jumpers in NZ) usually in oatmeal colours.  They were generally knitted by my maternal grandmother.  My sister and I generally had the same outfits which meant she, as the younger one, had to work her way not only through the one made for her but, when she was a bit bigger, the one in the larger size which had been made for me!  I think it put her off 'hand-me-downs' for life!

Anway, I can only remember having three dresses that were not made by my mother.  First there was a red and white checked number which was supposed to have been designed by Norman Hartnell.  A likely story but it was given to our family by an English family whose daughter did not want it or had grown out of it.  I do not have a photo of it.  Both the other dresses were bought when I was about eight.  We had just moved to Wellington which meant there were department stores and I am not sure why I was privileged to get these two dresses.  It was certainly considered a treat.

The first one was a party dress.  We did not have 'party dresses' in Hastings although I do remember going to birthday parties where perhaps other people had special dresses.  I am on the right in this photo.  I am not sure what the dress was made of but probably voile as party dresses were supposed to be filmy.  It was yellow and you can just make out that it has puff sleeves.

The second dress was completely different but I was very fond of it.

It was blue denim and came into the category of 'sun dress' although it was quite covered up.  It had a heart-shaped neckline and a gathered skirt, I seem to remember.  I remember that at this stage of our lives our casual summer wear was generally denim shorts and striped T-shirts or gingham shirts/blouses.  In this photo my younger sister who must have been about four, is wearing the standard dress.  Although we wore shorts in summer I distinctly remember that for most of my childhood I never wore trousers in winter.  Of course, jeans did not exist but I do not know whether the fact that my father hated women in trousers had anything to do with it.  I distinctly remember being invited by a cousin when I was about thirteen to stay at their beach house in the the winter school holidays and that my mother set to and made me a pair of trousers for this.  I seem to remember they were tartan wool.  From then on I had a pair of winter trousers but again, I do not have any photos of them.

Of course, we wore school uniform five days a week so we only had one 'posh' winter skirt for going to church and the trousers.  I cannot remember if we had more skirts in the years when I did not wear trousers at all.  What I do remember is that we had very few 'mufti' clothes - more for summer because of the long summer holidays but in winter there were only two breaks of two or three weeks from school: one in May and one in August.  As there was no Christmas or other festival during this period, what to wear was not important.

Old work - hangings

Recently I found a whole box of photos of quilts I made in the twentieth century.  I think this proves that it is a good idea to photograph everything although I am still looking for photos of some of the more important ones!  I may even have to retake some of the photos as I realise the originals may have gone up in smoke in 1999.  It appears I made a lot of traditional - ish quilts before I got into what my husband always calls 'slash and burn' in the mid-nineties so I will do a post or two about those.  A lot of you know I am very much a cat person so to start here are some cat things which I made back then.

This is a foundation pieced cushion which I made my husband for his desk chair. It was from a 'Piecemakers' kit and it was much more difficult to stitch than I had anticipated.  The cushion has now bitten the dust!

And back in those days I used to do Christmas items.  One year I made two cat wall hangings: this one for us

and this one for the friends we used to share Christmas with.

 It must have been about twenty years ago that I made these and I can see that the quilting was pretty basic.  In the end we stopped hanging ours so last year I gave it to the friends' daughter.  We no longer have Christmas together and the daughter, who lives in a tiny cottage, celebrates Christmas at home.  However, I thought it was probably full of memories for her and it seemed better than sending it to the car boot sale.  When you get to the down-sizing stage it is difficult to know what to do with the finished items as opposed to the UFOs.  I have a whole suitcase of earlier efforts under my bed and another couple of hangings rolled up in sheets and stored on top of a high bookcase.  I know I should unroll and reroll them from time to time but life is too short.  I honestly have no idea what to do with them so if you have any ideas, post a comment.

Another fancy dress party

As I said, my father was artistic and imaginative.  He was also a keen leader in the Boy Scouts  so one year (1955) we had themed birthday parties. This was my tenth birthday.  We were a bit unusual because this was an era when the opt out for parents was to hire a film projector and show short films and I can remember sitting in darkened living rooms a lot.  I seem to remember my sister had a Winnie the Pooh party and I had an Alice in Wonderland one.  My father went to the books of games he had for the Scouts and all the games were themed.  What I really remember about my party, though, was the blanket hung across the door into the sitting room so that you had to bend down to get in there.  This was to represent the rabbit hole in the original book.  I know we played games that had been adapted to suit the theme.

The food was also themed.  We had a tin mould in the shape of a rabbit so the centrepiece was a white rabbit made from 'delicious pudding', an old family recipe that I have managed to find in Victorian recipe books although the only other people I knew who ever made it at this time were those in my grandmother's family.  It was sitting in green grass (jelly) and I think it had red eyes, presumably cherries.  My mother was also very good at making 'mushrooms' from meringues with whipped cream decorate with cocoa powder on the underside and stalks of pieces of apple and I am sure there were some of those in the grass too.

Here are the party guests on our front lawn.  I am not sure if you can enlarge the photo so I will briefly summarise the costumes.  In the front row on the left is my sister dressed as Alice and next to her my little sister who was only four so did not wear a costume.  Then there is another Alice, me as the cook (people came as characters from both Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass) and a white rabbit on the end.  The person on the left of the back row was the Carpenter, the person second from right is the Queen of Hearts and the person on the right was some kind of animal although I cannot remember what.

This was the only year we had themed parties as by the next year we had decided we were too old and began to have a three or four friends for a meal and then go to a film at the cinema.  How different from today's parties!

Fancy dress

I am sorry there has been a pause in my textile related posts but here is another one.  We were walking through Sainsbury's earlier this week when I noticed a rack of children's fancy dress outfits.  How different from the 1950s.  As I remember it you had to make your own in those days unless you had a lot of money and could afford to hire the costumes.  I do not think we went to fancy dress parties much and there were no 'festivals' for which you wore fancy dress so I was not surprised that I could only find two relevant photos.

I remember this event clearly.  It was a Christmas party for children held at Government House in Wellington in December 1954.  This was our second Christmas living in Wellington. I remember that the party was held on the lawn, that there seemed to be a lot of children at it and that my sister won the attention of the Governor-General during the lolly scramble.

My father was artistic and imaginative so he always rose to a challenge such as creating costumes.  Needless to say, my mother was the one who had to do the sewing.  So here we have my sister as 'Mary, Mary quite contrary' and me as a Christmas tree.  As I remember the dresses were made from green cotton.  My sister had bells round the neck and waistline, flowers on the skirt and a row of what look like real shells round the hem.  The flowers appear to be made from tinfoil.  This was when milk bottle tops were tinfoil so I think it was quite easy to get hold of.  I do not know how my parents attached the shells as having tried to attach them to quilts I know it is very difficult.  Her watering can hat was made from corrugated cardboard.

My Christmas tree dress was made with several tiers with pointed lower edges.  The packages were empty boxes wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and there were strings of tinsel draped round the entire dress.  My head-dress was a wreath with a star in the middle.  We wore our school Clarks sandals - remember Christmas is in summer in New Zealand.

Down sizing - how to start

I have known for several years that we will have to leave this house as it is totally unsuitable for someone with disabilities.  For a start it is on three levels so I now have two stair lifts.  It only has loos on one floor (upstairs) and there is no way of putting one on the ground floor.  Then there is my studio which we converted from the garage as a combined utility room/studio.  Here it is when we first moved in.

I used to work in the bedroom.

To save money, not least because we did not want to lose the wall between the study and studio, we did not put in an internal door.  This means going out the main door and across the yard every time you have to do anything with the washing not to mention any art work.  I can no longer do this in case I fall out there, which I have done in the past, but when I was much less disabled than I am now.  It has been a brilliant studio because although the ceiling is low and the light levels not good (the back wall is built into the side of the hill) it was a totally cat-free zone!  After years of working round cats it meant I could leave my work out.  I also had two sinks, a long workbench and the kitchen table from our old house so there has been plenty of room for wet work.

You may have seen a couple of recent posts featuring my Bernina which I have brought inside again as I cannot bear to think I will never sew again, although following another nasty fall three weeks ago I have not been able to do a thing.

My husband has now agreed in principle that we will have to move.  Decluttering can start instantly  so last week I invited the local creative textiles group to come and select what they wanted from the studio. I really wanted them to take all the wet work stuff and the large quantities of fabric for dyeing.  I was not able to get out there myself though, so when I finally stepped over the threshold I discovered they had been very enthusiastic and helped themselves to all my rotary cutting equipment and a large basket of batik fabric that I am currently using.  I am glad to say they have now returned it.  Just shows you how you must spell things out if you want to give away or sell things I should know having taught.  I see the group also took all my machine embroidery threads which were not on my list.  However, I have decided to let them keep those as I know in my heart of hearts I will not be using them again.

Now I can ask the car boot sale person to come and take away all the empty containers!  This is how you do it folks.  When we had our house fire in 1999 I lost absolutely everything down to the last needle and pin and it is amazing how quickly you build up a studio again.  But you need to grieve for the things that are going.  I am glad I no longer have all the stuff from my youth as it is making this whole process much easier. I will post some photos if I can find some suitable ones.  Now it is on to the bedroom where most of my stash has always been.

Sewing machines 2

I have owned four sewing machines as an adult.  When I left home access to a machine was not important as I finally discovered you could buy clothes!  I also found that in the UK dressmaking patterns were behind shop bought clothes in terms of fashion whereas in New Zealand the time lag for bought fashion meant they were current.  And I never learnt pattern cutting.  My mother encouraged me to go to evening classes in tailoring after I had finished university and these proved useful but I left New Zealand part way through the academic year.

I can remember making a winter suit when I was an au pair but that was not made on my machine.  I did learn quite a few dressmaking terms in German, though, as that was where I was living.  I can also remember borrowing my aunt's sewing machine when I was flatting in London but cannot remember what I made on it.  I then  spent a year in Italy but did no sewing.  I met my English husband in Italy and we decided to get married.  We had very little money but I had bought a white and gold sari in Singapore on my way to Europe and I decided this should be made into my wedding dress.  I began by making a Laura Ashley cotton dress in the pattern I had chosen.  This was when everyone was wearing long dresses and the Laura Ashley dress plus a pinafore that went over it was very useful as I could wear it to work.

Sewing the sari was a different issue, though.  It was so fine that it would not go through the machine so in the end I made the entire thing by hand.  Here are two photos of the work involved.  There is a photo of me wearing it on the Hats post.

Then I closed the bank account I had in my maiden name and spent the money that was in it on another Elna.  I seem to remember that I went for the model below the supermatic as I did not think I would use all the stitches that had.  I remember calculating that by the end of the first summer, this machine had paid for itself as I had made so many clothes on it for both myself and my husband.  I had this Elna for many years but when I began to be serious about quilting, I realised it had one big disadvantage: you could not lower the feed dogs.

Partly for that reason, I decided that I should have a new sewing machine for my fiftieth birthday.  This was the point at which I moved over to Bernina.  I really appreciated its features and ability to deal with machine quilting.  However, this machine had a short life.  After four years we had a terrible house fire and I lost absolutely everything related to my textiles because it was all kept in the attic.  After the fire there was no sign of the Bernina which I thought was perhaps because it had melted but it may have been because what was left of our thatched roof had to be swept up.  Somewhat to my surprise the Elna survived although I never looked at it again.

You can just see it in this picture, marked by a red arrow.  

I was very lucky because the insurance assessor was very understanding and I was allowed to replace the Bernina with a brand new one  It is even marked as being a Millenium Quilters' Edition.

This is the one I am still using.  It has spent most of its life in the studio that we created from the garage but after Christmas I brought it back into my bedroom. I do not think I should be using the studio much because of my disabilities and the possibility that no-one would hear me if I fell (which I have done in the past).

In 2009 I bought a second Bernina to take to workshops.  This replaced a very cheap machine that I had bought because I was worried about taking the big one in the car.  About that time I stopped going to workshops so this machine has hardly been used and this is the one I gave away a couple of weeks ago.  I found the receipt when I was sorting it out to give away.   It had cost much more than I had realised but I regard it as a legacy and it is good to think that two generations will benefit from it.