Something Else from Frances

As part of my current cleaning/sorting project, there have been a few surprises. Mostly, I've been moving and sorting boxes of things that I knew the contents. However, this was a shock. In fact, I'd forgotten it existed until I saw it. Also, in the same odd location was the missing autumn tablecloth I wanted to use last fall. It's now waiting to be washed. Everything else from that pile is now clean. I think it was a collection of things that had to be washed by hand, although the tablecloth should not have been in that category.

The rediscovered item is a quilt made by my Grandma Leary, Frances Bullivant Leary. Here's the story.

For at least 70 years, the quilt has been covered with a sort of drab duvet cover. It completely enclosed the original quilt and was tied to it with crochet thread- a commonly used product to tie quilts.

But even before I put this away (who knows when?) to be washed, that thin cover was filthy and coming apart from dry rot.

So, this week, I have carefully washed and dried the fabric and removed the rotting duvet.

This is what was underneath.

A closer view reveals the classic log cabin pattern. The center square in each block is red, but the rest of the fabric strips seem to be totally random.

I have no idea when this was made. All the stitching in the original quilt is done by hand, although the seams in the duvet are machine sewed. It has to be over 80 years old. I'm 77. Grandma Leary died when I was 4, and she certainly wasn't in good enough health to be making anything like this when I was small. I only remember it as the "brown quilt" in the back bedroom.

The quilt itself consists of the pieced blocks which were each sewn to an individual backing, and then tied to a quilt back as a third layer. There is no batting or additional fill. The stitching is not of the highest quality. The stiches are very even, but they are somewhat coarse. Tiny stitches were a mark of quality in a handmade quilt. (My other grandmother and her mother made beautiful quilts.)

I seem to have a vague memory of being told that Grandma Leary was ashamed of the quilt, and she had covered it with the other cloth. Not sure if this is true.

The backing is two different fabrics. Most of it is a light brown plaid. But at some point, Frances decided to make the quilt larger. She added two rows of blocks to the long edge and one to the end. The backing for the added parts is a light brown print.

I sort of speculate that the quilt might have been made for Dad, and when he grew to be six feet tall it needed to be made bigger. But this is pure guesswork. It's interesting how the extra pieces were added on. The finished edges of each were whip-stiched together.

I took a look at a lot of the strips of fabric to see if there were any at all that I recognized. I thought that was going to be a hard "no." But then this strip caught my eye- the black and white design with sort of clusters of double flowers. I can't seem to pull up a memory of what it was- an apron? a pillow cover? But I'm sure there were still many things made of old fabrics in use when I was a child. We were living in what had been Grandma Leary's house, and nobody threw anything away until it was beyond repair. My parents lived through the Depression.

And as a result, here we are 96 years after the Crash of '29, and I'm still living that way. I feel it is something of a minor victory when something like a towel has gone from bathroom use, to junk towel use (like for spills or toilet repair), to rag box, and finally comes apart to the point where it goes in the fabric recycle bin.

You can see a picture of Frances Bullivant Leary as a young woman at the link below.

In other news: I am closing in on completion of this sorting and cleaning project. Of course, they are never-ending. In addition to all my stuff, I have two generations and more of things from both sides of my family stored in boxes, trunks, tubs, etc.

And this brings me to the closing thought. Almost all of those things come from my mother's side of the family. From Grandma Leary I have the Hoosier Cabinet, now this quilt, and the Double Daffodils. Probably a few other things I'm not recalling at the moment, but not many. A couple of items have been accidently destroyed, so they are gone forever. I cherish the few I have, not because they are better than all the things from Mom's family, but because they are so few.

See Dad's Adoptive Parents