Thursday, September 29, 2011

September is National Sewing Month

My grandparents
 September is National Sewing Month.  Bloggers have been encouraged to tell about how they got started sewing or quilting.  My fathers mother sewed clothes on a Singer treadle sewing machine.  My daddy wanted me to learn to sew like his mother.  I wasn't interested in sewing when I was growing up.  I did love the quilts that my grandmother had.  Her mother and sisters quilted.  My grandmother developed Alzheimer's while I was in high school.  I didn't get interested in sewing or quilting until after her death.








My great grandmother
 My daddy wanted me to learn to sew, so badly, that he bought me my first sewing machine for Christmas when I was in 2nd grade.  He knew how to thread it and sew on it, but, I still wasn't interested, to his great disappointment. I kept that machine until it disappeared when we moved to Illinois.  I wish I knew what happened to that machine. 

 My great grandmother quilted.  She gave my parents a quilt when they were married.  As children, we played Matchbox cars on that quilt.



My parents wedding quilt
 I started a quilt in college.  I didn't know what I was doing.  I bought several fabrics and cut them into squares.  I never got any further than that.  I don't know what happened to that fabric.

 In 2011, I signed up for a quilting class at my church.  I made my first quilt, a mini quilt.  I rushed so that I could show the finished quilt to my daddy at Thanksgiving.  The rest of the class hadn't even started to hand quilt theirs yet.  Thus, I taught myself how to hand quilt and bind.  My daddy was please that I finally wanted to learn sewing in some form. 


My daddy

 My father died from Alzheimer's in November 2009.  As a tribute to him and his mother, I wanted to find a Singer treadle sewing machine for myself, and sew on it.  In August/September 2010, I acquired three Singer treadle sewing machines in 4 weeks.  I have sewn on the first treadle, a Singer 15 series from 1896.  My daddy and my grandmother would have been so happy.

5 comments:

  1. Your daddy was a handsome man, and I know he IS so proud of you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a wonderful tribute. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a beautiful story. =) I wish my mom could see my quilts.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely stories! and the sewing traditions continue!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your daddy is smiling down on you. I would be like you, wish I knew where that first machine was now. If we all could back up and punt sometimes. :)

    Thank you for linking up at my blog. www.stitchandquilt.com

    Please add my link to your post so your readers can come and link up too.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are IMPORTANT to me. Thank you for commenting. If you are a no-reply commentor, please leave me your email address, so that I can reply to you. If you don't want everyone to see your email address, then you can send me a private reply (my email address is listed under my profile).