Log Cabin Quilt - Repairs

Log Cabin Quilt - Before

I had written about this Log Cabin quilt earlier, when I first started to mend it, in August 2023!  Above is the photo I posted of the quilt, then, before I started mending it.  Below is the photo I took today, after I mended or patched over the majority of the torn pieces.  I say, "the majority" because, when I spread it out, I noticed that there was one blue square that needed to be mended!  LOL.  

Log Cabin Quilt - After

As I had mentioned in the earlier post, this was the second quilt I had ever made and it was done in 1977, when my mother, step-father, and I lived in Florida.  The individual blocks were hand pieced, using fabric I had on hand, including two of my blouses, two of my step-father's shirts, and a black floral print blouse (which has since faded to grey) I bought from a thrift store for a dollar or two because I wanted more dark fabric.  At the time I made this quilt, I had no spare money to buy new fabric, especially for a quilt.  When I ran out of blue for the light furrows, I used some pink fabric that we had.  After hand stitching all the individual blocks, I persuaded my mother to sew the blocks together in her sewing machine for me and she machine sewed the top to an old bedsheet which became the foundation for the quilt top, because, by that time, I had found out that traditionally, log cabin blocks were pieced onto a foundation fabric!  Oops!  It was a bit too late to do that, but, I tried to rectify it by attaching the foundation piece afterwards! 

I used a wool blanket we had bought in Hong Kong, in 1973 as the batting and one of my mother's cotton saris for the backing fabric, which also formed a border.  The sari fabric tore and I removed it several years ago, leaving just a very narrow binding.  I removed the blanket, too, as it, too, had torn, after many years of use.

True to my patchwork piecing "traditions" I used scrap fabric I had on hand for the new patches.  Most of the red fabric I had were Christmas themed fabric, leftover from some of my daughter's childhood Christmas dresses and/or what I had bought to make Christmas crafts and gifts.

I plan to put some new batting and a backing to this old quilt top, eventually.  But, that's another project for another day.

Today, I am grateful for:

- Old quilts made with fabric from old clothes
- My mother's help with putting the quilt together
- Memories of those old days - I won't call them the good old days because, in many ways, they weren't so good.  They were, actually, hard, difficult days, but, we got through them.  
- Being able to mend my old quilt
- Piecing new memories to the old quilt with each new patch

I'll post more pictures of the quilt once I've put a new backing.

The Things One Finds

 

A Poem

I am still decluttering, going through my belongings, one by one.  This morning, I was going through my desk drawers and tucked under my spare glue sticks and post-it notes, I found a folded piece of paper.  I opened it to see what it was and it was a poem I wrote several years ago when I was remembering a loved one who had died in their sleep who used to tell me, "Don't cry when I am gone".  There is no title or a date, but, I think I wrote it sometime in the 1990s. 

A Poem: Written by me, a long time ago.

I still dream of you
at night
when I am asleep
and my defences are low
you come to me
shrouded in a swirling veil of mist
I see you smile
I hear you laugh
I feel your touch
your warmth
your nearness
your love
I still dream of you
at night
even though you are gone
and I have lost you forever.

You stole away
one night
when I wasn't watching
you didn't say goodbye
or even kiss me goodnight
you just stole away
like a thief in the night
with only a faint echo
of an admonishment long ago
for me not to cry
when you are gone.

*********************

I think I'll continue to keep this.