During 2004-2014 with the help of quilting friends all over the US, I was able to sew stacks and stacks of quilts to give to community organizations for their clients.
One of the last supplies from that time has now been turned into 2 log cabin quilts. Kathleen Gansart sent me a stack of pink log cabin blocks. I recognized many of the fabrics as the popular 1980s dusty pink/mauve calicoes.
With my new practice of working on quilts with a similar process, I knew during Log Cabin week (and now it is becoming "weeks"), those blocks would head the list. I had enough complimentary fabrics for borders. These turned into very pretty quilts. Wouldn't it be sweet if a mother chose them for daughters sharing a bedroom?
One of the last supplies from that time has now been turned into 2 log cabin quilts. Kathleen Gansart sent me a stack of pink log cabin blocks. I recognized many of the fabrics as the popular 1980s dusty pink/mauve calicoes.
With my new practice of working on quilts with a similar process, I knew during Log Cabin week (and now it is becoming "weeks"), those blocks would head the list. I had enough complimentary fabrics for borders. These turned into very pretty quilts. Wouldn't it be sweet if a mother chose them for daughters sharing a bedroom?
It's so uplifting to see these older fabrics sewn into beautiful useful quilts. These will be headed to the Houston Furniture Bank at the end of the summer for their No Kids on the Floor Initiative. They work with Houston social agencies to qualify families who receive furniture through the non-profit. They strive to get the 300-500,000 children currently sleeping on the floor into a twin sized bed. I made a personal pledge to sew as many quilts as I could (and with the help of others) to give to Houston Furniture Bank for the beds.
They have the quilts in a special place and the parent(s) chooses the quilt for her child. Houston Furniture Bank doesn't just hand the quilts to whoever walks in the door. It's a careful process and I appreciate their willingness to work with my project, The Grateful Threads Project.
This is a rayon quilt I stitched in the 1st group of quilts I gave the Furniture Bank. Definitely some vintage fabrics in that quilt! Most of the patches were cut from clothes.
I was told the mother chose this one because her daughter is an artist & would love the colors and patterns. Be Still My Heart!
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Do you have some vintage fabrics that could be sewn to make room for new fabrics?
It’s so nice to see older fabrics looking so appealing. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's hard to get away from vintage fabrics but they do serve a good purpose.
DeleteI think I may even have a couple of those fabrics! They are wonderful quilts. Was it difficult to sew up the rayon quilt? I used a rayon blend many years ago in a blouse, and remember it being very slippery. There are frequently beautiful rayon items at Goodwill, but I never thought of it for quilts.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes, I recognized a few of the prints too.
DeleteRayon can be tricky to sew which is why I keep the pieces large and irregular. It's soft, supple and drapes well. I have a fair amount needing a new purpose in life so it will eventually all become quilts.
I think I will have to give it a try. Maybe from some of the wild Hawaiian shirts that get donated.
DeleteA fair amount of the fabrics in this series of rayon quilts are thrifted men's Hawaiian shirts. I look for the heavier rayon or silk shirts for less than $5 each. The large sizes have a lot of fabric in them. If I didn't have the size of stash I currently own (I had a person basically give me her entire stash recently) I would be working with more men's shirts. They have great prints and the fabric is wonderful; as is the price.
DeleteCheck out this link to see one of the rayon quilts from thrifted shirts. Lots of big pieces.
Deletehttps://debraldixon.blogspot.com/2019/10/rayon-twin-quilts.html
If the link doesn't work, put rayon quilt in the search box and it should come up.