25 June 2009

A Treasured Find

My husband and I are in the midst of combining households. Having been moving back and forth across the country for the last 5 years, things are starting to get mixed up. In case you're confused, for economic reasons we have mostly lived apart. In about another year we should be finally together in one place.

Anyway, I was cleaning up my second bedroom (as I stated in my previous post) to make myself a nicer sewing area and take advantage of the larger desk space when I came across one of his containers. He's left all of his "winter stuff" with me because Atlanta doesn't get as cold as Buffalo. Look what I found inside:

It's a quilt from his childhood. He was born and raised on farm in Northern Alabama, and I can tell that the fabric is composed of pieces of shirts. There are various strips, some solids, some fabric that looks like poplin. And, it weighs a ton! There are some worn sections on the binding, and I can see that the batting is super thick. It's tied with green yarn, and I can imagine that no sewing machine would be able to handle that batting. I know that sometimes flour sacks were used for fabric. This backing feels thicker and coarser. His family grew cotton, and I wonder if the fabric is from the cotton collection sacks.
It's a bit yellowed and slightly musty. If you have any ideas on this quilt I would love to hear them. Does anyone have any suggestions for cleaning and restoring this? Thanks in advance! I would love to hear about your treasured finds!


1 comment:

Karen said...

How wonderful! Maybe you can get some cleaning info off the internet.