Question to older quilters?
#41
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 683
Oh yes , I remember using sad irons. In later years I used one for a doorstop and was running to answer the phone--barefoot. Yep! hit it and broke two toes! Saw one once in an antiques store painted with flowers, big price tag!
#42
Oh ....my goodness..she was and I miss her so much..but with all her hard life..she made it to 93..with a broken leg one time and the had 3 screws put in one hip...one time...I took her to a new Dr..here by me..one time...she was about 84..and the Dr.. ask her "Mrs. Bishop, when was the last time you had a pap smear...she said..." I haven't ever had one and I ain't about to start now"!!...and she didn't...lOL LOL the Dr. just smiled and said "OK"...and went onto something else...she was very healthy and got dimentia the last year of her life..I just pray I make it that far..so I can do all the quilts on my bucket list...
#43
This is what my grandmother had to do when she was young. It was still being done by many quilters when I learned to quilt 56 years ago. My grandmother had rolled batting when she taught me. It was hard to locate and no where near the quality of the many different types of batting available today.
Yes. Years ago quilters did not have available what we do today and batting was not bought on a roll. It was bought in bulk hunks, cotton or wool.. Before layering it, it had o be "pulled" apart evenly and spread over the backing. As you can imagine, this was difficult and time consuming. Often quilters re-used quilts or blankets in place of batting, to save all this work. When you see old quilts with lumpy batting it was because there was not enough actual quilting, or the quilts were tied. Aren't we lucky today??
#44
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Illinois
Posts: 9,018
It's been a while since I've seen her but I worked in a beauty salon and we had a client who used to raise llamas and alpacas. She would take them out of town to get them sheared then she kept the wool and she would card it and spin her own wool and local cotton. She made some of the most beautiful quilts.
#45
Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Lumberton, Texas
Posts: 69
[ATTACH=CONFIG]405720[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]405721[/ATTACH] These belonged to my mother...she used them in the 40's and 50's to card the cotton...(that she picked) to take out the seeds..so she could use the cotton in her quilts...Hard work...I have these on display in my sewing room...they are priceless...I remember her doing this...
#46
Our local museum has a fibers course where we learn about cotton, linen and wool, and the process to get it all the way to fabric. One of the things that children were expected to do every day (1850's and before) was to pick the seeds from the cotton, generally they got to pick enough cotton to fill one of their shoes with seeds( each day). Before the cotton Gin, all the work was done in the home. During our Colonial times families were taxed by the British to spin a certain amount of wool a year. The British had just gotten mills to weave into cloth. A great deal was needed so often a woman in the extended family (usually an older single lady) became the spinner for the family. In exchange for spinning fiber this woman got room and board and a place with family. She became known as a Spinster. (seriously). When carding to take the wool or cotton off you reverse one of the card and it will roll into a loose roll this is called a rollag I have probably butchered the spelling. The rollag is used to feed the spinning wheel while making thread. The rollag could also be used to make the batting. When you make felt you pull the fiber to make it all go in the same direction, then you go back and lay another layer of fiber the opposite direction. We don't realize it, but before the industrial revolution women were spinning every single day of the year. Often if they didn't have a loom, there was a man in the town who wove for many. He is where they would get their fabric from. I think it takes 4-5 full time spinners to keep a weaver busy. Also the term distaff came from spinning. There are also many fairy tales with spinning wheels in them I figure it had to do with Mom, busy spinning, and telling stories to her kids for entertainment. By the way there are no sharp points that anyone could prick their finger with. On a walking wheel there is a long prong thing that comes out from the spinning wheel, that tapers but it is far from sharp.
Hope I didn't cover what was already said.
Hope I didn't cover what was already said.
Last edited by Pepita; 04-03-2013 at 11:25 PM.
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