An Unfinished Quilt

I have a passion for making quilts. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many I have made.

I also can't tell you how many old unfinished sets of quilt blocks or quilt tops I've seen for sale in my time. The pattern one is most likely to find in an antique store or at a quilt show is the beautiful “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” (GFG). The reason so many of these blocks go unfinished is that the quilter really enjoys hand-piecing the actual block, but when it comes to sewing the blocks together to make the blocks into a quilt top.....well, the tough part begins. This particular pattern it is difficult to sew together, the project becomes less portable and frankly it goes from a relaxing pastime of hand-piecing to a real pain in the ass.

I know this because I have completed a GFG and it took me four years. I carried all of the tiny pieces around with me and worked on them while waiting on the doctor, flying out of town, driving to North Carlina and to where I accomplished more than you will ever know--My Lunch HOUR. I'd hand a few pieces to friends ostensibly to teach them how to do the piecing, but really I was just trying to get them to do a block for me.. Finally, after leaving work on a Friday, not knowing if we'd be involved in a labor strike the following Monday, I handed my anxious friend Gail a bag of fabric ready to sew some GFG blocks to ease her nerves. She showed up Monday morning with almost twenty-five completed blocks. I had not planned on her being that nervous and was now faced with having all I need to begin sewing my blocks together.

Most vintage blocks you find for sale are usually made from Gramp’s old ugly plaid shirts or wool that has served as a meal for moths. Rarely do you fine old blocks that can be sewn together without having to true them up or cut them down to be able to even fit together. So, when I found this very nice set of ten unfinished blocks at Joyce’s shop several years ago, I wanted them. They had plenty of potential, were clean, came with extra yardage and were expertly hand appliqued. So why did the previous owner fail to finish her quilt? While squaring up and arranging the old blocks into a layout that pleased my eye, I thought about the beginnings of my quilt and the circumstances of the woman who started it. Since the blocks also came with the receipts for the 36 inch wide fabric that she purchased, I decided that this woman from Vincennes, Indiana walked into the Gimbel-Bond Company on July 17, 1941 and purchased 7 ½ yards of the main fabric - a creamy soft yellow percale for $ .25 a yard along with 2 ½ yards of green for the leaves at $.22 a yard. She may have already found a pattern that she liked and just wanted to ”get started” because her next purchase of fabric for this project was on August 16, 1941 at which time she bought 3 more yards of the yellow she had finally decided on for the flowers. Meantime, without having everything she needed to complete the quilt, but having enough to start the blocks; she cut out her paper patterns and began to applique.

My guess is that she may have been short on money and stretched it out over time or even worse, her husband, father or brother had headed off to war the following December after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th. She took quite awhile to make her final fabric purchase for the quilt, buying 3 yards of fabric on October 12th, 1942, over a year later. This was probably going to be used for the quilt backing and prices now were up to $ .32 a yard. The three receipts added up to $4.14. Did she have to work outside the home to do her duty for the war effort? Was she so preoccupied with the events of the day that she couldn’t concentrate on her pastime? Whatever the reason for not finishing her quilt, I am thrilled to have been lucky enough to have found her quilt blocks and finish them for her. If it were possible, I would return the completed quilt just to see the expression on her face and her relief that her money and time wasn’t wasted after all. There’s nothing worse than a UFO (un-finished object) staring at you every time you open a drawer or in my case, the trunk of my car. I have a significant collection of incredible fabric. I have so much in fact, that I could start sewing today and everyday thereafter and still not use it all up. But one thing that I don't have are unfinished projects staring at me like that doggie in the window. When I'm looking through my stash for just the right color of blue or a print that "speaks" to me, the only thing staring at me is Michael Miller, Alexander Henry, Kona Bay or Three Sisters for Moda begging to be cut. I can't handle the reminder of a well intended purchase and lack of “stick to it’ness” that would cause me to start something and let it go unfinished. I am one of those rare women who hardly ever allows this to happen. I learned this from my Mother.