Something New from Something Old

I think a lot of folks that are interested in a more DIY, grow it/make it yourself lifestyle do it for many reasons, but among the top three gotta be 1. it feels good to create/make, 2. you tend to recycle and that means consuming less, and 3. it makes being frugal (ahem, cheap) a lot of fun.
Earlier this year, my pal Jamie visited an exhibition at the Flint art museum that featured the quilts of Gees Bend.
I was so intrigued by what she told me of the exhibition. I've always loved quilts but have felt that was crafty territory this chicka could not travel into for my complete fear and intimidation of all things using PATTERNS. I'm just not the type to follow directions apparently. Whether it be knitting, sewing, gardening, cooking... I like to do it free-style. And quilts to me equal insane perfection. Perfection that I so respect but just have no patience or aptitude for.
But GEES BEND!... Amazing!
Our library carries a couple lovely over-sized coffee table art books on the quilts of Gees Bend. One in particular is great because it features not only detailed photographs of the quilts, but also contains dozens of narratives from generations of African-American quilters. Amazing women to read about! If I had half a brain, I'd tell you the title, but I can't remember it. I'm sure it'd be easy enough to find though. At any rate, reading this book and looking at the pictures totally inspired me. These women crafted quilts, many by hand, out of necessity to keep their families warm. They didn't have money to buy bolts of fabric and fancy edging. They didn't have $2000 Swedish sewing machines that could add a monogram and an embroidered reindeer (and if you have said machine, I'd love to see what it does. To me those machines are like my old Volvo next to the space shuttle). These women quilted by hand (and later, with simple machines) with what they had on hand. Old work pants, shirts, etc. Later they would use leftover corduroy and other fabric scraps from area businesses. What came from all their work were amazing, beautiful, useful  and well-made quilts.

Reusing fabric! Something useful! A creative outlet! No patterned perfection required! Yes!!

Inspired by this, I bought an old Sears Kenmore sewing machine circa 1973 for $20 at a local yard sale this summer. For an additional $8, I was able to buy a scanned pdf of the original manual off the internet because I had no freakin' idea how to use a sewing machine. Our daughter S took lessons all last year, so she was very helpful! However, the machines she learned on were very fancy and not like the Kenmore I share a birthday with.
At any rate, I've been making little things on this machine. I made a very simple elastic waistband skirt for myself and felted wool mittens for myself and the kids. I've made several insanely colorful log cabin style quilt squares but have not pieced any of them together into a single quilt yet.  My mother in law (who can sew quite well and is strictly a pattern woman-- who ironically cannot cook or follow a recipe to save her life) has a birthday coming up. When I asked her what she'd like, she said she'd love to have a quilted pillow cover or two in shades of pale green for her couch throw pillows. From me? Seriously?! I said I shall do my best, but would not be offended in the least if they ended up a dog bed at the local pound. Nonetheless, I was excited at the challenge and her good-natured belief in my questionable craftiness.

So I spent around 8 hours over a few very late nights cutting and piecing together what came to be a quilt! Both my mother in law and a good friend gave me fabric scraps late summer. Using those fabric scraps, the cut off length of my bedroom Ikea curtains, an old Ikea duvet cover (that had a very stubborn hot chocolate stain on it), a piece of fleece for batting and some twine (yes, I said twine)...I made a quilt! It's more like a throw, I suppose. Something to put in your lap as you sit in your favorite chair and sift through junk mail and knit. (That's the image I have of my MIL  using this quilt.)

 Here's the front

and the back

 

And a wee bird with twine feet

(I had to run out and grab the twine roll from the musty, leaf-covered garden box the other night to make bird's feet!). I also did some wing-like stitching on the bird that you can't quite see in the photo.

So there you go! I'm so stoked that I was able to make something useful without buying a single thing! I am fortunate to have encouraging friends (Amy) and family(Margaret) who have gifted me scraps and helped me jump my sewing machine fears. This quilt is faaaaaaaar from perfect and that is so okay with me. And as my pal Grace reminded me yesterday, the Amish always leave an imperfection in their near-stellar quilts because only God is perfect. Righty-o. I am happy to be ye old humble, scrappy, eternally novice quilter.