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Sunday, January 27, 2019

Patchwork Mysteries... Concluded


Recently I shared about an unfinished quilt that was passed to me from Dianne Rudder-Rich.  When I posed the question about the name of this quilt pattern to a few quilting groups on fb the common pattern name that was given in reply was Rising Star.


Here is what I was able to learn about the quilt's maker...

Dianne Rudder-Rich’s grandmother’s name was Boots Skorepa.  

She was born in 1911 died 2007 and lived around Cleveland, Ohio for most of her life, then Columbus, Ohio until mom brought her here to South Carolina in 2003.

She didn’t work outside the home, but they had a farm for a while.  She was a heck of a carpenter, cook, and quilter.  She could pretty much do anything. Her hands were always busy, crocheting, sewing, quilting, something.

Her parents were both from Prague- she spoke “Bohemian” and loved to polka.

Boots is on the right and her daughter Sandy is on the left.  Notice the horse tattoo on her arm. ;)



I carefully marked (with pencil... because that was how all of the other wreaths were done) the remaining six wreaths that were needed to complete this quilt.  


I will sometimes mark with pencil myself, but never quite so heavily (as shown above)... especially on light colored fabric.  I was correct in my thinking that the markings wouldn't wash out completely... I have to move on to plan B for the removal.  Which is either using Dawn dish soap and a tooth brush, or using Retro Clean.  


Do you have a suggestion to get the markings out?

The things you notice when finishing someone else's quilt...

1)  All but two of the stars are appliqued with a sort of an outline stitch... Do you see the difference?  I think the two that don't match may have been the first ones to be completed, and Boots didn't like the look of it... but rather than re-do, she left it.







2)  The variations in the type of fabrics did not scare her.  she boldly used cotton with polyester and satin like in both of the above pictures... or all cotton...

Or a cotton and light gauzy polyester (below)... or cotton and textured poly like in the last picture!















Or satin and poly like in this 1/2 star... which reminds me of a crown!









When Dave asked me what I was doing with it when it was done I responded with "I don't know.  Maybe I will make a child's quilted jacket like ones that you pointed out to me at the show in Dallas."  





I didn't think to snap a picture at the show... and quite honestly, it probably would have been pretty rude of me to do that.  But here are some examples I found available on etsy.






I even have some vintage table cloths, hankies and napkins in my collection that I can use for the collars and pockets, as well as a couple of other vintage quilts that have already been cut apart for various other projects.  I think I will start with them first.  

It would be a shame to cut up the Rising Star quilt... but, then again, the jacket would probably last much longer.  The jackets at the show were only up to children's size 3... and three year olds don't really wear out jackets like that.



Ooooh, I am excited!  I have a couple little girls in mind to be the perfect models for my first jackets... maybe for Valentines Day... or Easter.  I'll see how fast I can get them done. 

I have perused my pattern collection and found a few vintage patterns that I can modify and make work.

Stay tuned!

Melva

Remember... leave a comment if you have a suggestion for getting the markings out of the quilt!
Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series
A NEW STORY IS COMING SOON!

Linking with:

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts
Moving It Forward Monday at Em's Scrap Bag
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion By the River
UFO Busting at Tish In Wonderland

2 comments:

  1. I have oodles of old patterns. Email me and tell me what you are looking for and I will look through mine and send you some if I have something you might be able to use. I am contemplating throwing most of them out. My email is redyankee45@hotmail.com.

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  2. The quilt turned out to be so pretty Melve. Dianne's grandmother was born a year before my mom and died a year before mine so this brought back a lot of memories. At the time we were growing up, there wasn't a lot of money so they used what they had--hence, so many different types of fabrics. Today these quilts are a treasure.
    I have been able to get all the markings out of my quilts by washing them in cold water and using about a half cup of Dawn. Good luck with yours.

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