Five On Friday...Old And Blue

It's Friday again so I'm joining Amy at Love Made My Home for Five On Friday and Jann at Share Your Cup Thursday. I've chosen old and blue for my theme today.

One, this old blue mason jar has been in my stash for quite a while. So long that I don't even remember when I got it, but I'm sure it came from a garage sale some time in the 80's.  

The front says it was patented on Nov 30th in the 1800's. It's a little rough for wear on the top and a little cloudy, but a favorite none the less.

Two, this vintage blue strainer with perfectly chipped sides and bottom. I love its old skinny handles and all the holes in the bottom and sides. The blue vintage color is just about perfect to me. Have you noticed the ones they make these days have very few holes and do a poor job of draining?

Three, this old vintage blue-gray galvanized metal bin with blue faux flowers on the shelf. I don't know how old the galvanized metal bin is, but the faux flower arrangement in the bin is one I bought at Costco in 1991 or 1992. Yeah, that's 24 years ago and they've lasted a lot longer than any real ones I tried to grow.

Four, there's lots of blue in this old vintage family quilt from Wild Bill's side of the family. My mother-in-law is 90 now and she was a young girl when this one was made.

Five, these old vintage pillow shams I bought at a flea market meet down in McKinney several years ago. The shams were faded when I bought them, but I loved the material and the color too. I could've bought the quilt that matched them for just $10, but I wasn't smart enough to realize I could use all that material to make pillows or trim draperies and such. 

Well, that's my five! I've been searching the house for all things blue to put together a blue and white bedroom for the first time in many years. 

I wrote a while back about how, during the late 80's, I painted the whole house blue in a pre-divorce life and have shunned blue since then. I didn't realize how depressed I was (I even painted the kitchen blue) until a car crash in 1991 woke me up to the fact that you can't stay in a bad marriage for everyone else, you have to live for yourself -- no matter what.

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Wednesday Woes And Things I Stowe

Somewhere, squirreled away, I have a box of old quilts that are falling apart. I mean really falling apart! My Wednesday Woe is that I couldn't find them today.

When I packed them away, I just knew someday there would be something I could do with those tattered quilts, and that someday has arrived. I'll tell you more about that project in another post. Right now, I have something I want to show you.

While looking for the box of tattered quilts, ones my mother-in-law gave me a while back (because she's a hoarder like me person who saves things believing everything can be reused or reinvented), I unpacked another wonderful memory quilt that my mother-in-law's cousin Ruth made for her in 1960. 

There's a square for each person in my mother-in-law's family. The hands on the quilt were made by making a paper pattern of that person's hand. 

Each lady's hand has a ring representing her birthstone and the flowers on the square designate the flower for that month. The men of the family didn't get rings, but they did get flowers.

I say "...another..."  because, last August in this post, I showed a quilt (pictured below) made in 1936 by a small group of my mother-in-law's family and friends.

This is my favorite quilt. I'm amazed it has survived fully intact, for such a long time. This year is the 80th anniversary of its creation. Each person sewed their own square and embroidered their name on it.

Wild Bill's maternal grandmother, Mattie, held a quilting circle on Tuesdays every week at her house. Her beloved husband, Will, rigged a pulley system on the ceiling that Mattie used to store her quilting frame up, out of the way, on the ceiling. 

It got me to wondering...do women still make quilts by hand any more?  

Most quilters I've known sew them with machines, which is probably a real time-saver in these harried times.

 I don't know for sure since I'm not good at sewing. But I do admire the perfect little stitches on these two handmade quilts.

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My Favorite Quilt

My mother-in-law's family has quilted forever.
 When you had a large family in early Texas,
homemade quilts were a necessity.

Here is my favorite quilt, made by her side of the

family. Perhaps you remember she comes from a
very large family...10 girls and 2 boys.

 

 Depending on how I fold it up, the quilt can be
quite soft or quite dramatic, but always colorful!

  Taking center stage is the square made by
"Mother" Mattie Savage, who lived to be
almost 100 years old despite having 12 kids.

My mother-in-law has agreed to tell me the
story of each person who created a square as
soon as she's had a chance to recover from
her latest hospital adventure.

 In the meantime, I keep the quilt tucked away
in my sitting room with the chicken pillow to
keep it company.

I know some of the ladies who made the squares,
and some I've never heard of. 

 There are a few people I can't wait to hear the
story of...bold AUNT TILDA and MITTIE are
at the top of that list!

Those are some pretty bold colors they
chose, considering it was probably early
1940's when this quilt was done.
 

I know that because my mother-in-law and
her sisters signed their quilt squares with
their maiden name Savage.
All except for Aunt Nola that is...who used only
her first name. She was as flashy as the bold
red material she picked out!

 Nola was a hairdresser with her own shop.
She liked makeup and jewelry. Lots of jewelry.
Could you tell by the square she made?

 I'm looking forward to hearing about soft Grace

 ...and sturdy Opal. 
Looks like Opal wanted her signature to last...

 When my mother-in-law gave me this quilt,
I struggled with how to clean it. It had been
packed away for a while and stored. I'm very
allergic to dust mites, so clean it I must.



I was going to have it dry-cleaned, but then thought of
the horror stories I'd heard about old wedding gowns.
 Who wants to be known as the family's quilt killer?



There's a quilt shop in another small town close by.
I planned to talk to the shop owner to get a ton
of instructions on the do's and don'ts.

 Then one day, while reading the signatures, it came
to me that these ladies used rugged stitches and
cloth of their day, and they had wringer-type washers
back then that must've crushed the hell out of stuff...
 
they were probably laughing at my panic and
indecision right now, from their sewing circle on high!



So I got out the Woolite, set the modern machine
on delicate, and said a prayer.



I'm happy to say we both survived.



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Anything Blue Friday:
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