My Quilt Journal

Great Grandma Overboe with me on the right

Quilters are often asked to describe their first emotional encounter with quilting. For me, it was between my fourth and eighth grade years, when I began to spend time with my Great Grandma Overboe, who was a prolific quilter, as was her mother. I would go to her house after school, or if in the summer time, during the day, and sit on her couch next to her sewing basket. She had a wicker rocking chair she sat in that was close to the couch where she could reach her sewing basket. I liked to look through it, because her notions were very odd and old looking. Every time I went to see her, we talked about her sewing. If it wasn’t too cold, she would let me poke around in her sewing space on the unheated front porch. She had a treadle sewing machine there with little drawers on the sides full of things to snoop around in. Sometimes she had cut pieces of fabric on her machine, and she would tell me what she was working on.

Grandma Jenny's Button Can

I remember the “sewing” smell of fabric, threads, buttons and bobbins when I opened the drawers. It is the same smell when I open my fabric storage box of sewing things, if they have been closed up for awhile, such as after a move, or the same smell when my Grandma Jenny, her daughter, opened her big cherry tin full of buttons.  I got immense pleasure looking at the designs on her fabric scraps, because to my eye, they looked old fashioned and grandmotherly. When I was looking at my mom’s wedding memorabilia, I saw the wedding gift list, and Grandma Overboe’s name was listed with a quilt for a gift. I asked mom what it looked like, and she could not really remember much about it other than using it until it wore out. I have very vague memories of quilts on Grandma Jenny’s beds, and being shown several of Great-Great Grandma Fosdick’s quilts, one of which was a Sunbonnet Sue with black blanket stitching, and a signature quilt with names of people I did not recognize. Grandma Overboe was a busy seamstress making bed quilts for the grown-ups, or crib quilts for all of her grandchildren, and soft dolls, and her own aprons and dresses.

Great Grandma Overboe and Pamela

Actually, my first emotional connection probably occurred shortly after my birth, with the crib quilt she made for me. My crib quilt, which I still have today, has a backing of cotton fabric with tiny red and white checks.Grandma used a flannel sheet for the batting, so it is a very flat quilt. The quilt pattern is sometimes called the “Arkansas Snowflake”, and has colored prints with a muslin background. She also machine quilted it. When the sewing machine first became available to women, they often used it to machine quilt their every day quilts, saving much time, and they did not try to hide their stitching lines. I am glad that grandma machine quilted, as it enabled her to make us lots of crib quilts, and that she made no attempts to hide her stitching lines.

My Crib Quilt From G. Overboe

Pam with "Thumbelina"

The much coveted “Thumbelina” doll became mine, when I was eight years old, and thereafter, I seriously  played “house” with my three little sisters, and sometimes my younger brother, if we could talk him into it. Thumbelina got to wear all of my little sister’s out grown newborn clothes, and was snuggled up in all of our baby quilts. Mom let us use our crib quilts in our doll buggy, or for spreading on the ground to signify our “houses.” I’m amazed that my quilt is not a rag by now.

Grandma Overboe's "Spools" comforter

Grandma Overboe sometimes made quilts that were more like comforters with wool battings tied with yarn, rather than thin ones quilted on the machine. Our family had three or four of these double bed size comforter quilts. If they were not on our beds in the winter time, my mother kept them up in an attic in a large trunk that had a hump top like a camel which provided many imaginations for us when we played “house” in the attic.

One summer, when I was ten or eleven, my brother Paul and I went to a summer church camp that had cabins with bunk beds. It was suggested that sleeping bags be used rather than bringing sheets and blankets. My mother solved this problem by folding one of grandma’s comforters in half and sewing up the open side about two-thirds the way up. She then rolled them up with our pillows in them and tied a rope around them and pronounced them sleeping bags. I still remember the pink fabric with flowers on mine, and how at home I felt in my camp bunk bed, all cozy in my great grandma’s quilt. I can’t speak for my brother, because he brought his suitcase home unpacked in the same condition my mother sent it, so maybe he never unrolled his “sleeping” bag either.

Grandma Overboe's Sewing Machine

In March, when I was thirteen, my Great Grandma Overboe died. Later, I was given her treadle sewing machine. When I moved to Oregon, I was unable to take it with me, so I gave it to my sister-in-law who liked antiques. Recently she kindly sent me a picture of it, so I could be reminded again what it looked like and to share in my journal how beautifully it was decorated. I think with some maintenance, it would still sew a fine quilt today, as it was working fine when grandma gave it to me.

Recently, I was given one of Great Grandma’s quilts that I did not know existed. My sister mentioned a very ugly quilt that she had been keeping over the years. Having had it brought to my attention, I, of course, asked to see it!  It was one of Grandma Overboe’s double bed, wool batting, fluffy comforter style quilts done in a nine patch. The ugliness supposedly came from the wide assortments of solid colors and prints, and gray binding topped off with a bright yellow background cheater on the back.

Grandma Overboe's Nine-Patch

In that quilt, I could easily identify fabrics from my dresses as a young girl, some fabrics used in my brother’s shirts, dresses and aprons from both of my grandmas and great aunt, and some of the fabrics used in our dolls. The quilt felt as if it had never been used or even washed. It must have been one of the last ones Grandma Overboe made. My sister still says it is ugly, and was glad I wanted it, because it barely escaped being cut up for other uses. I have used it on my bed under another blanket to keep it from soil, or folded at the foot of my bed ever since I got it. Yes! I am so glad it is mine!

The anticipation of having my first child motivated me to make my first quilt.  Since I was living half way across the country from my family, I had an older friend, who gladly took me through the steps of layering the front, batting and backing and getting it tied.

Pam with First Quilt and Friend Tressie

I used her sewing machine, as I didn’t own one then. The top was a whole cloth, and I put a ruffle around the edge rather than binding. Up to that time my sewing only involved garment construction, and compared to quilts I have made recently, this one hardly qualifies, but I still have fond memories of it, because the top fabric had the cutest little rabbits on it. All that work was for naught, as I had a boy, and the pink had to wait for another baby. After the second boy, I passed this quilt on to my younger sister, who had recently given birth to her second daughter. I am glad I gave it to her, as I never did have any daughters.

Shortly thereafter, emboldened with confidence, I made another quilt on my own of similar construction for my brother’s first daughter.

Pam's Second Quilt

My Grandma Jenny had given me her Singer sewing machine by then, so I thought I would try it by myself. This time I used a whole cloth top as well, but I did go to the trouble to embroider a large rabbit on it and fill the color in with fabric paint. The word “appliqué” was not even in my vocabulary at that time. For the binding, I brought the backing material to the front and folded it over and sewed it down.  That was pretty much the extent of my quilting attempts for a few years. I then learned to crochet and got interested in other crafts.

What was it that actually provoked me to try my hand at a traditional pieced quilt? I believe it was when I went home for a visit, and my mother had a quilt out on a frame that she was hand quilting. This was amazing to me, because it was the first time that I knew of my mother making a quilt. She was an excellent seamstress in garment sewing, but quilts… this was exciting! She had pieced a double Irish chain quilt in blues and white, which have always been my favorite color combinations. Her friends would come and visit and sit around the frame and help her quilt, so I took a hand at it too and learned the basics. I just remember feeling the excitement of having the whole quilt experience right under my nose. When I got home that was all I could think of: making a “real” quilt. Of course, I knew nothing about cutting triangles on straight of grain, and all the little tips I know now, but passion moved me forward: I had seen a block for a red school house that appealed to me, I liked decorating with red at the time, I home schooled, I loved teaching, and… it had that “real” quilt look to it.

Red School House Quilt

I have no records of where the pattern came from, or if I even came up with my own border ideas. What I do remember well…is having the first block turn out to be an absolute mess!  It did not lay flat, nothing fit together, biased edges were stretched, corners weren’t matched, and so on.  Hmmmm…this is a little harder than I thought. Discouraged, but determined, I did some research on block construction and learned about cutting triangles, exact seam allowances, pressing one direction, and the second block was amazingly flat and correctly sized. I pressed on to the finish.The following year, while my husband had military duty in Korea, I stayed with my parents, and my mom helped me get my quilt on her frame, and we hand quilted it over the next year. I was very proud of it, and eventually gave it to my oldest son.

My Second Pieced Quilt

After completing the school house quilt, I made a second pieced quilt for my second son, using red white and blue. I doubt that it covered him up very long, as he grew very tall, very fast, and it was a single bed quilt hardly long enough to even tuck under the end of a bed. I never did a get a full size picture of that quilt, but in the picture, it is in the quilt hoop. That was pretty much the extent of my quilt sewing for about a decade.

Quilting returned to my life when my husband accepted a job in Maryland, and we ended up living very close to my Aunt Ellen, who also quilted. Together we attended quilt guild meetings, and went to some quilt shows. Through the guild, I learned more quilting skills. I also remember being impressed for the first time with all the fabric issues involved with quilting. What kind of a stash would I want/need?  I had always had a modest collection of fabric and sewing supplies that fit in a plastic sewing box. Would that now be adequate? Would I collect something in every color line, as I had seen other quilters do?  Should I have enough quilting stuff on hand to run a quilt store out of my home? Maybe even turn a bedroom into a studio?  How about buying batting by the roll? Owning every gizmo?  Since then, I have decided my “stash” will consist of fabric given to me that I truly like, and keeping  all the scraps from my own projects…and it all has to fit in a plastic tub that slides under the bed. I discovered the ambience of the quilt shops over the larger department style fabric stores, and enjoy visiting them like one would a tea room, so shopping for special fabric for particular project is more fun than hunting for it in my own stash. I truly resist gadgetry, and I only have a few cutting rulers. I utilize the library and internet for quilt inspiration and ideas.  I try to remember that women quilted for years using their kitchen tables, a comfy chair by the fire, and a sewing basket with scraps, needles, thread, scissors, and a thimble. I personally enjoy the added convenience of a sewing machine, a table I can raise to counter height for cutting fabric, a rotary cutter and a mat.

These are my Maryland quilts.

Christie's Quilt

This first quilt was made for my niece’s first daughter, Christie. I had found the backing fabric at a quilt show and miserly only bought one yard of it, realizing later that an extra half yard would have enabled more creativity in designing the front. I used scraps I had for the other colors. I liked the idea of using a bias cut strip for a small inner border. It worked OK with lots of pinning. In looking over my quilts in time, I notice that while I dislike yellow and greens in general, they seem to show up in my sewing projects.

Our guild asked members to make quilts to send to families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 tragedy. I made two quilts to donate.

Quilt Donated for 9/11

Quilt Donated For 9/11

We were told specifically to make a certain size, but there were no other restrictions. The red, white, and blue quilt was very soft, and I have never been able to duplicate it in another quilt. I felt my quilts were inadequate for the project, after seeing what some of the other ladies donated, but the guild representative for the project insisted mine would be just as treasured by the grieving families. I hope they were.

Homespun Fence Rail Quilt

The “fence rail” quilt was constructed with homespun fabric in checks of navy and tans designed to coordinate with a wool rug I had braided, and for my husband to use on his new recliner. Seven years later, after lots of use, it is still looking good on the recliner.

Eagle in the Mountains

My youngest son decided he wanted a fluffy comforter type quilt on his bed. I had borrowed a book from the library titled: “Go Wild With Quilts: Fourteen North American Birds and Animals” by Margaret Rofle. Jonathan had seen her Eagle in the Mountains pattern and wanted me to try it.  I machine quilted this by just outlining the main squares, due to the thick batting. It was very difficult machine quilting, and I would only tie a quilt with a comforter batting in the future. The dark blue fabrics were a batik.

My father had died a couple years previous to all this industrious quilting in Maryland, and I was given all of his ties. On one of my mom’s visits, we had taken them apart and washed and pressed them. I started making Dresden Plate blocks and finished enough to make a nice size single bed quilt, however, I was never satisfied with the quilt top and could not move on to finish it.

Crazy Quilt With Dad's Ties

Resolved to use dad’s ties in a quilt I could be excited about, I disassembled all the blocks, and thought about it some more. I was always interested in embroidery and cross stitching, and I realized that I wanted to try and make a crazy quilt with the ties. Each one of dad’s children and grand children’s name would be on the quilt in some way. My dad and mom had traveled a lot going back and forth visiting grandchildren, so I made the quilt to sort of look like a game board with triangles instead of rectangles around the border with the names of the ones they traveled to visit on the corners, and embroidered comments about their travels in the triangles. Each triangle is outlined in a couched stitch.

Crazy Quilt Close Up

I just worked as the ideas came to me, and I would go over to my work table and sketch it out or go ahead and do it. There is no batting, just the foundation cloth the patches were sewed to with the front tied with black pearl cotton thread to a backing of a black mole skin fabric. This quilt was given to the oldest granddaughter who would leave little sticky notes in his ties saying, “this one is ugly” etc.  There are a lot of chicken related designs on the quilt, because she had pet chickens and Dad had built a cute chicken house for them to live in. The white ovals are “egg people” doing activities that my niece enjoyed. The girls in the middle section with the long braids were the cousins who played together a lot. I would become so excited about the next idea to stitch that I finished it in less than a year.

Our family decided that we needed to move back to Oregon. I did not know any quilters, nor did I join any guilds, but that did not slow down my quilt production. Since I was now living close to my two older sons, and they were now adults, and I had not made them any quilts since they were children, I took advantage of getting their input on what type of quilt they would like. The three of us spent a Saturday visiting quilt shops and looking at fabrics.  I worked on Daniel’s first as he was able to find fabric he liked, and he had already picked out a quilt pattern he had seen a quilt in a magazine that I had and had suggested a few tweeks. Actually, I was surprised at their willing involvement.  David wanted me to make him one of Debbie Field’s quilts, “Spirit of the Northwoods”. I would have to order the flannels for it on line. It took quit a bit of searching to get all the fabrics, but  a year later I was able to start on his as well. Daniel’s quilt was designed for a queen size bed since he is so tall. He picked out the colors, fabrics, batting, and even had some input on the actual machine quilting design. I hope I don’t have to machine quilt without a long arm a quilt this size again.

While I was in Maryland, I had bought fabric for a log cabin quilt, but did not make it until I was in Oregon. After finishing Dan’s quilt, and while I was locating fabric to do David’s quilt, I pieced the log cabin. I also decided to hand quilt it, so I could stitch on it when I wanted to sit quietly rather than work at the machine.  Inspite of all the work and the expense of buying new fabric, I never liked the log cabin quilt after I finished it. I detest the color orange, and the center squares for the fire, while I thought they were red enough, ended up looking too orange for me. I loved the backing fabric and wished I had used it for something else. This was a surprise to me, because the dislike for the quilt grew as I hand quilted it, until I had to admit after all was said and done that I did not like it. My youngest son, insisted he did like it and asked if I would give it to him. I gave it to him for a wedding present, and felt somewhat better. I chose the design from an antique quilt that caught my eye. Another thing that discouraged me, which I blame on my inexperience, is that the quilted feathers in the light areas did not stand out. I did not know that quilted feathers need to be on solid colored fabrics to show up well.

David’s quilt that I mentioned already, which I nick-named “Woodsy,” was next on the sewing table. Debbie Field’s pattern came in a book, and it required lots of tracing, fusing and stabilizer. This quilt introduced me to new skills, and PATIENCE. I think the reason I pushed myself and took the time to do it well, is because I absolutely loved the flannel fabrics and all the outdoor prints of cabins, snowshoes, birds feet ect. Every block was like making a painting. I loved working with all the colored threads to do the machine applique. It took me most of a year to complete it. When I was done, I had enough fabrics to make a second one for my other son, Allen.  He had a quilt on his bed, my mother made for him that he liked, so he never bugged me for a quilt. After I did David’s quilt, he thought he would like one like it too.  Normally, I would not sew two quilts the same…too boring, but in this case, I really enjoyed working with the fabrics and making more “paintings” for the quilt blocks.  I even made four more blocks for a set of curtains, and had scraps left to do a single bed quilt in a “Boxy Stars” pattern. Below is a picture of Allen’s quilt. I did them both alike except for the outside border and backing fabric. There is a block for each month of the year starting in the upper left corner for January.

And a few close ups on some of my favorite blocks. I quilted an outline of the cardinals in the block border.

Boxy Stars in "Woodsy" Flannel Scraps

After all this large scale quilting, I decided to limit myself to baby quilts, or smaller square coverlets or lap robes. It is really hard for me to manipulate the quilt and do the quality of machine quilting I would like to do. Following are a series of baby quilts I made over the period of a couple of years.

"Peanuts" baby quilt in a Friendship Star

Courthouse Steps in 1930's Reproduction Fabrics

The border says: "Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World"

Topsy Turvy Houses

"Candy Wrappers" in 1930 Reproduction Fabric

After receiving an engagement announcement from my son Dan, I decided to make a wedding ring quilt for a wedding present. I had a two color pattern for a long time that I had been wanting to try out. I chose a marine blue color on white background. Actually the white background had tiny rosebuds on it. To be honest, I can’t remember what I used for the backing. I hand quilted it. The close up shows the stitching pattern.

Wedding Ring quilt

My sister-in-law asked me to help her make a special quilt for her daughter’s high school graduation. She courteously asked me about a year ahead of time, and had some specific idea of what she wanted her quilt to look like. She wanted it to feature different aspects of her daughter’s high school years and interests. She picked out a lot of the fabrics and suggested ideas and colors. The quilt you see below was for a queen size bed. It had a polyester almost comforter thickness batting. I did the quilt as you go method, I could do the detail quilting on the blocks while they were a manageable size. I then only had to sew the long lines in at the end when the quilt was larger. I removed personal information on some of the blocks, so if they look like they are missing something… they are. I had to use a variety of quilting skills, embroidery, and embellishments. The diary actually opens with an entry in it. The back of each block has a different musical instrument novelty fabric in black, white and or gold. Sometimes it pays to have a quilting sister and aunt.

It also pays to have a quilting mom, as my son wanted to honor special friends with a quilt at their wedding. I love quilting with new fabric when someone else is paying for it. This quilt was made using the Wiscassett collection from Minick and Simpson.

This brings me to the close of my journal for now. Sadly, there were quilts made that did not get photographed, some got photographed, but were not included for various reasons. I have a quilt I am in the process of hand quilting now, as well as two small table runners. Leave a reply and let me know how your stitching is going.  Pam