A Quilting Family

I recently learned that I am not the first person in my family to take up quilting.  My grandmother, Isabel Cramer (Maybee) Stark, made quilts.  Two of them to be precise.

Grandma Stark sewed a lot.  She made curtains for lots of family members when they bought new homes.  She made clothes for my mom[1] until mom started school.  Grandma Stark also made clothes for her cousin, Charlotte Ann.

I used to spend a week or two each summer with my Grandma and Grandpa.  They took me to see Star Wars; my pick, not theirs.  One summer I discovered her embroidery floss.  She let me make my own patches for my denim jacket.  It was remarkably fun doing something from scratch.

I did 4H one year to learn about embroidery.  Fast-forward a few decades and I have completed roughly 30 quilts.

One of my aunts revealed that Grandma had also quilted.  Her first quilt is on display in my aunt and uncle's home and it will eventually find its way to one of my cousins.

The pattern is known as Mariner's Compass.  I've only completed one quilt using that pattern and I'm unlikely to return to it as it is very time/labor-intensive.  Lots of custom cutting for the pieces.  I had the benefit of some modern triangles to help with cutting each of the various pieces.  Making the same pieces using a ruler and custom measurements would be much harder.

Isabel Stark - Bicentennial Project - Click to embiggen

Parenthetically, that headboard and side table were in the room that was my aunt's for many years.  It was good to see those magnificent pieces of carpentry again.

My aunt sent along the following that has been lightly edited for privacy purposes.

Mom made the quilt in 1976 and deemed it her Bicentennial Project.

She used a large white cotton sheet and appliquéd the stars onto the sheet. Looking it over and holding it up to the light, I can see two machined seams putting the backing together. It was a bedspread, and there is no batting inside.

It looks to me like she probably machine stitched the edges to the backing and then folded the edging over onto the front white sheet, and that is hand-stitched.

I remember her saying that a traditional quilt should be done by hand. All of the stars and the appliqué are done by hand as is the quilting. 

Of course….I have no idea when the long arm machines started to be produced.

Mom only made one other quilt. It was after she finished this one. The second quilt was commissioned by a friend for her mother and the commission went to the church. It was not a formal pattern and was made of many fabrics in a diagonal across the piece. The friend, a professional pottery artist, said at the time that Mom’s sense of color and design was phenomenal in that she never had any formal training.

Compass - Click to embiggen

As described, Grandma created the compasses from pieces and then sewed them onto a flat sheet.  This is a process known as applique.

Compass center detail - Click to embiggen

 

The center medallions were also added via applique.

Compass detail - Click to embiggen

Here is a detail from one of the compass sections.  

Accent strips - click to embiggen

The additional accents are just strips that are gradually shifted to cross over one another.  They also do a weaving pattern over the medallions located between the compasses.

Back and binding - click to embiggen

Grandma Stark had a great sense of style and color.  I hope that my quilts continue that tradition.  Unfortunately, the Compass I made for my dad hasn't survived very well.  The colors on the Michigan State fabric ran.

[1]My mom would victimize my brother and me by making our clothes while we were young.  There are photos.  There are photos!  I cast very few aspersions towards my Grandma, but setting this example for my mom is one thing we all could have lived without.