Old School Quilting
07-30-2011, 03:59 AM
#41
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: N.W. Florida
Posts: 866
Yup, that's how our Grandmas made them. I recently received 40 Dresden plates ready to applique. They came with the template used to made each little part of the plate. It was sandpaper. The fabric was completely vintage feed sack.
07-30-2011, 04:00 AM
#42
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Sturbridge, Ma
Posts: 3,992
There is a lot to be said positively about the old ways.
Sally Collins in her book "Precision Quilting" states that everyone should start by doing an easy hand pieced project. That way we learn how to manulipilate the fabric.
And just this week I rediscovered the value of scissors.
I was making half square triangles using the method of marking down the center and sewing 1/4" on either side.
For most of them I then went to cutting table and used rotary cutter but my cuts were not always consistent.
I decided to just sit at the machine and cut with scissors.
No standing, and the cuts were more accurate. I am a strong advocate of just stopping, slowing down and do one the "old fashioned way" and really look at the process of quiltmaking. It just might improve our technique
After reading many posts I am convinced that the answer is go back to the basics - pencil, paper, graft paper. The math formulae is not always the best answer.
Sally Collins in her book "Precision Quilting" states that everyone should start by doing an easy hand pieced project. That way we learn how to manulipilate the fabric.
And just this week I rediscovered the value of scissors.
I was making half square triangles using the method of marking down the center and sewing 1/4" on either side.
For most of them I then went to cutting table and used rotary cutter but my cuts were not always consistent.
I decided to just sit at the machine and cut with scissors.
No standing, and the cuts were more accurate. I am a strong advocate of just stopping, slowing down and do one the "old fashioned way" and really look at the process of quiltmaking. It just might improve our technique
After reading many posts I am convinced that the answer is go back to the basics - pencil, paper, graft paper. The math formulae is not always the best answer.
07-30-2011, 04:25 AM
#43
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Maine
Posts: 1,469
Originally Posted by miholmes
Okay so I watched this video this afternoon, and was kinda FLOORED and how this woman quilted. Mind you this film was done back in 1979.
But it was interesting watching her cut out her fabric with SCISSORS with a homeade template, and then sew it with her Coats & Clark thread, and then quilt it by hand on her homemade frame.
To me it was really nice to see what someone could do without all of the gadgets and gizmos, and she turned out BEAUTIFUL quilts!
Give it a watch if you think it will interest you.
http://www.folkstreams.net/film,104
But it was interesting watching her cut out her fabric with SCISSORS with a homeade template, and then sew it with her Coats & Clark thread, and then quilt it by hand on her homemade frame.
To me it was really nice to see what someone could do without all of the gadgets and gizmos, and she turned out BEAUTIFUL quilts!
Give it a watch if you think it will interest you.
http://www.folkstreams.net/film,104
:)
07-30-2011, 04:50 AM
#46
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,688
Originally Posted by ptquilts
the way you are all amazed at "old school quilting", I am amazed that people pay $40 for a "Die" to cut out an 8" square on an Accuquilt!!Fer cryin' out loud, it's a square!! and a big one!! How hard is that to cut out? I would rather have the $40 for fabric. I manage to quilt without all the gadgets.
07-30-2011, 05:01 AM
#47
Junior Member
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Oregon
Posts: 255
This is the way I started doing quilting and it was fun. That being said, many of the new gadgets make a big difference in accuracy and productivity. Cutting with scissors doesn't give the clean lines that a rotary cutter does (if I can do it right). One of the things I love about quilting is that there are so many ways to go about it.
07-30-2011, 05:06 AM
#48
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Sulphur Springs, Tx.
Posts: 878
My Mother and I used to cut every quilt piece with scissors.
She made templates from heavy sandpaper. You sure had to be accurate with your cutting, and my Mom wanted her quilts perfect. She wouldn't tolerate more than a quarter inch difference in sides or ends when the top was complete.
We also had a frame swung from the ceiling. It worked on a pulley so it could be raised when not in use. Such wonderful times we had at that quilt frame.
She made templates from heavy sandpaper. You sure had to be accurate with your cutting, and my Mom wanted her quilts perfect. She wouldn't tolerate more than a quarter inch difference in sides or ends when the top was complete.
We also had a frame swung from the ceiling. It worked on a pulley so it could be raised when not in use. Such wonderful times we had at that quilt frame.
07-30-2011, 05:14 AM
#50
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 1,751
Didn't watch the whole film but will when I get home tonight, but that is the way my mother did her quilts. Used cardboard for templates and quilted on a frame with four boards tied to chairs. After rotary cutters came out she used that. But that is the way I hand quilt, with four boards and c clamps on stands. I also don't like the machine quilting, to hard and stiff, but I have seen some nice machine quilting. To each his/her own.
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