Stuff You Dream Up

A while back, my David brought home an entire box of white linen table napkins. They were to be thrown away. They are 15 by 15, or so. Lovely material, maybe 50 of them.

I put them in the closet and have thought what could be done with them.

I had the first glimmer of an idea this night as I was watching the art work of Charles Shultz. My children grew up with Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Lucy and Pig Pen, the Little Red Haired Girl, Sally and all the rest.

I have decided to make an appliqued blanket where each of these linen squares have a favorite cartoon, words and all. Not just Charlie Brown, but some others like Pogo. I am just thinking about this, so it it is a long way from done. The quilt I made for my daughter was called Saturday Morning. In honor of all the cartoons we watched on Saturday mornings, I will make this one for my son.

Love,
Betty

8/25/2009


Betty.....


That's such beautiful idea, I know
he'll love it because it comes from the heart..


Love Joe...

Wow Betty, good idea!.

I had this wild facination to start a boat making business at one point in my life. But it was to make ancient replicas of Greek/Roman ships to past down to my family.
I guess I became a writer instead.

I still am in hopes of finding that one thing that after i am gone they would appreciate.

I love quilts and made a few many years ago.

I have many little squares I have embroidered. I need to put them into a quilt someday.

Carol

Many years ago, I met a couple of Americans in New Zealand (a professor from Whitman College, Walla Walla, and his wife). We visited them a couple of times at their cabin on Priest Lake. They introduced us to their good friends, one of whom made quilts. These good friends retired and built a home in the Blue Mountains. When I received a letter from the States saying that the home of these good friends had burned down (the chimney caught fire) and they had lost everything, I remembered the quilts. I pulled out all the bits of left-over material from my dress-making days and sifted out everything red, white and blue (the American flag's colours) and made a quilt and sent it across the pond.

I have a small collection of old quilts. Love 'em. It's true folk art (as opposed to fake folk art, like the junk sold in "country" stores).

The cartoon-on-linen quilt sounds great, Betty, you will have to post a pictures when (if ) you finish it.

Several times, in my home town, different groups of women got together and made "friendship quilts." Each member of the group was given a square, and a focus for designing it. We made one for a friend who had lost her 4-year-old son during heart surgery, another for a close friend who was moving across the country, several smaller ones for new babies, and others for other reasons. Once the squares were complete, someone would put up a quilting frame for a few days, and we all took turns sitting around the frame, stitching the individual squares into a whole quilt.

Ann

This avatar is a picture of the quilt Saturday Morning that I made for my daughter last Christmas.

Love,
Betty

Wow, Betty! What a super quilt!

What a lovely "thread" about threads. I made each of my children a quilt when they were young, and my daughter made two quilts for our cabin. One has squares from dresses my mother made for her, dresses my mother made for me, and even a square from my bridesmaid dresses.

You have me wanting to get out the sewing machine!

Betty, your quilt is beautiful.

If you need any more napkins, I have some.

Carol

The women's club with the Grange does up quilts here. They donate them to the Red Cross and give them out locally for families who lose their homes to fire, and who fall on hard times.

I used to crochet lap blankets and throws. Arthur Ritus has pretty much called a halt to that, though. I never did get into quilts, but they sure are nice.

That was a wonderfully thoughtful thing to do Shelagh. I think your friends will treasure your quilt forever.

Betty, the linen squares are a great idea. You are so industrious, and will probably use your time not spent gardening this winter to finish your quilt.

Yes, Betty. It is a beautiful quilt. I would love to see it close up.

Ann

Thank you all! I have put a couple of pictures of this quilt on my photo album. Maybe they are larger there.

Love,
Betty

Betty,

How gorgeous! The last quilt I made was for our grandson with dinosaurs on it. I need to get in gear again.

Oh, yes. It is beautiful, betty. Thanks for the pictures.

Ann

This is the quilt I sent to America:

Dear Shelagh,
I love your quilt, the precision and the design. Making quilts is a falderol of expression. It is all about color and space and connectivity.

I have never made a traditional quilt, one where the pattern was prescribed. I guess I am a blurter of quilts as well. It looks like you are, too.

I have seen some of your designs and they are like my dreams where I see the carved wooden doors from some place I cannot tell.

We are all more than we can express on a message board.
Lovely, you are.

Love,
Betty

Hi Betty,

I love the idea of cartoons on the napkins. You will have to add your sketches here so that we can follow you as you design your quilt.