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I've beenaughing myself silly this morning!
After posting about the stack of dusty rose fabrics that I was bound and determined to use up as a backing, my friend Jill sent me this photo with the following caption:
Bonnie....Found the perfect way to bust out the rest of your dusty rose stash!
((SNORT!!)) OH, I remember these rompers from the 1980s…WHAT WERE WE THINKING!? Do gathered stripes and ankle bands and very ginormous collars look good on anyone?
And this is the era a lot of this fabric came from.
It was THIS kind of stash that I was trying to rid myself of by piecing it into a backing.
I finished the backing yesterday morning....and had a great time throwing in random blocks to spice it up!
I was able to lay my quilt back out on the deck before the siding guys worked their way around to the back of the house. Good thing too – because today I wouldn't be able to lay it out anywhere!
Not SO bad, is it?
Most of the blocks were gifted to me for my 50th birthday. All different varieties, all different sizes – so showcasing them in something like this is really fun.
There are a few blocks that are mine that I never did anything with…..that feathered star in the bottom left is one, and the applique block at the upper right – as well as some of the spool test blocks.
I like to work pieced backings in long columns, so I can mount the quilt sideways and have the longest seams along the roller bar, instead of wrapping around and around it. It’s still a crap shoot on how this will quilt up…but I’ve had mostly good luck doing it this way.
Oh, the size? BIG! It is backing a 91” X 101” quilt!
But those fabrics..what a walk down memory lane!
See this peachy rose print down the center? 1984.
How do I remember this? Because Jason was born in 1983, and when he was 9 months old I took a part time job at the local Arts & Crafts Supply in Ontario, Oregon. I made shop samples…and that fabric was actually used in a baby quilt I made that also included lace panels….ewwww! But I loved this little print, and I still do. I sewed like crazy on my little Kenmore ---and this scrap still looks as new as the day I brought it home. Fabric is like that. With fabric, it’s as if no time has gone by at all!
Darkish dirty pink with dotted design –1982 Maybe?
I remember exactly where I bought this print..at a little mill end fabric place, also in Ontario, Oregon ---the same place I bought my first quilt book ever: Mary Ellen Hopkins, “It’s Okay if You Sit On My Quilt!” I loved patchwork, but at the time I was making stuffed geese and sheep with little wooden legs, and this fabric was for them. Why is it hanging around? It’s such a non-descript color! It’s not really pink – it’s not really red – its not really brown….it was harder to use up ---until now!
Dusty Pink Country Hearts!
Okay, I admit it…this came from a yard sale…it was huge HUGE balloon shades for $3.00 and there was yards and yards of fabric in it…and this was about 1990. And it is still hanging around…..it needs to be cut SMALLER! LOL!
Large Cabbage Rose print
THIS is the fabric that reminds me of the romper era from the pattern above….I never had rompers..but I do remember a dress with a dropped waist and a huge collar and big rose print like this….OY! This fabric however started life out as a shower curtain. And wound up in the “sorta pink, sorta not” use it up in a backing pile – and luckily there were only a few narrow strips of it left and that’s where it ended up in this quilt back.
Can it really be 30 years old? Where has the time gone?
It’s now loaded in the machine and I am quilting away on a quilt for the next book – can’t show it to you yet – but I will as soon as I can!
I’ve been thinking a lot about fabric, current, and vintage ---and you know what?
No matter how current the fabric you sew with today is…eventually that project WILL end up just like the romper pattern above. Dated or Outdated – but we don’t have to look at that as a bad thing. Enjoy the whole process. Quilt in the NOW – with whatever you are enjoying sewing with, and let the future take care of itself, whether future quilters will chuckle at the use of your color choices, or the style of fabrics you liked at the time. JUST SEW with what makes you happy.
I can’t run around being concerned that something is going to be old school or out dated at sometime in the future. Because...it ALL WILL BE at some point. We can't help passing from one era into another, and neither can our quilts.
After all – who is the designer of your quilt --- YOU? Or the home dec industry that decides what is “IN” and what is “OUT” seasonally to keep you buying?
I’m happy with my back! The only bad part is ---I didn’t use near enough of that pinky rosy old stash – I’m hoping there will be girl babies in my future, because I sure have a lot of pink backing fabric to use up!
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