Vintage Linen Quilts

Posted on | March 30, 2008 |

I am so excited to finally share with you a project I have been working on for a while. You see, when my MIL and FIL moved to Phoenix, we helped them to unpack and get settled. While unpacking, many family heirlooms were shared. My MIL’s mother, Sarah, was a sewer and an embroiderer. Among the heirlooms were many of Sarah’s hand-embroidered liens. They had been well-loved and well-used. Some had stains and holes in them. But they are still incredibly precious. Some are over 75 years old!

When we uncovered these, I knew that I had to do something to honor the work in them and to allow them to be displayed. It took a while, but I finally decided that was time to work on them about six months ago. I created small hanging quilts of these hand-embroidered dish towels. They each hang individual and they have minimal but highlighting stitching and quilting on them. The goal was for them to be displayed, rather than hidden in a linen closet.

As embroidery is so tactile, I did not want to just put them in a frame where they’d be stuck behind glass. I knew quilting was the answer. However, putting them together in one quilt without major cutting was not possible and I wanted to find a way to honor the individual designs. After laying them out, I decided that the best way to display them was through individual quilts that would hang among family photos.

To create some stability, I used Warm & Natural batting inside of them and I sewed skewer inside the top fold of each of the small quilts so that they could hang up. Finally, I added a plastic-covered jump ring with to each with some hand stitching. The construction of them is simple, but it honors the hours of work that Sarah put into

Today, I gave the gift of five of these quilts to my MIL. She was thrilled. She had known that I was doing something with them, but had no idea what I had come up with. I was so glad she liked them. It was an honor to work with some of our family’s history and to preserve it in a way that the detail can still be appreciated.

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