It Was Only One Moment

So it was only one moment... really one day.

Alright, it was a week.

A whole glorious week... with no Internet.  

No television.  

No phone.  

No air conditioning.

This is where we were.

And in the picture above is a little boy.  

See how small he is against the walls of rolling surf?

See how small he looks against an expanse of stripes of color?

This boy is learning how to balance his intense desire for electronic gaming magic with his parents' desire for him to "go outside and play".  

This is him, too.

He's a wonderful child.  

He's the youngest of our gang... the baby... and the only boy.

He is his father's son, and his mother's whole heart, 

and my responsibility to look after for a while.

So it was really only a moment of a different kind of vacation.

He claims to have hated it.  He claims he was bored.  He says it was terrible because there was no television... no Internet... no air conditioning...  No games, no boardwalk, no people, no shops, no restaurants, no arcades, no ice cream, no streets, no mini golf.

He says it was the worst vacation ever and he never wants to GO THERE EVER AGAIN!!!

But I remember things a little differently.

I remember the one that didn't get away.

And I remember the joy shared with his father.

I remember my two favorite guys fishing against a backdrop of a perfectly straight horizon line.

The moments of the sea fading into the sky...

...and a little boy who said, "Why are there so many stars here?  Why don't we have all these stars at home?  This. Is. Magical."

And I want him to remember that, too.

I also want him to remember the ribbons of waving grasses...

and the burn of the hot sun

and squeezing every last drop out of every last second of every last minute...

of daylight.

**********************************************

 Fourteen short and long sleeved men's dress shirts.

Two boy's long sleeved dress shirts.

Three hand dyed fat quarters.

One errant scrap.

Stabilizing the Slippery

Making certain types of fabric behave can be tricky.  

Ask anyone who as tried to accurately cut and sew a fine silk gorgette on the bias.  

And some polyesters can be just as ornery.  

For the purposes of this project, the cream with blue and green foliage shirt shown applied to a base block in the bottom right needed help to behave appropriately.

This help came in the form of well applied stabilization.

Recognize the four shirts from the previous post?

(Yes, those are my toes at the bottom of the picture...)

I've sewn with just about any type of fabric you can imagine and I've learned a thing or two about how to make stuff do what you want it to do.  

The polyester shirt was not only slippery, but it wanted to fray... badly.  

My ultimate plan was to perform a fusible web applique technique which meant the raw edge of the fabric would be somewhat visable on the final product and I needed a sharp, clean edge to zig-zag stitch over.

This fabric did not want to stay folded and maintain the sharp creases that are needed for an accurate design.  

The intricate cutting that needed to take place for this Hawaiian applique block to come together would not have been possible for this shirt if I had not stabilized the fabric.

Stabilizers, also called interfacing,  are used in sewing to make collars and cuffs stiffer.  

Heavier weight stabilizers and interfacings are used to help provide the engineering structure of a tailored suit jacket.  

Some stabilizers are sewn in while others are applied directly to the fabric with a hot iron.  

Tiny dots of glue melt when a hot iron is applied.  

Make sure the correct side of the stabilizer is against  the wrong side of the fablic you wish to stabilize.  In the picture below, you can see the difference of the 'wrong side' of the stabilizer.

In the above picture, the dots of glue, while visible, appear less sharp and crisp.  Also, you should be able to feel a slight texture difference as the side with the glue dots will be slightly bumpy and the 'wrong side' will feel smoother.

Because it is easiest to work with, I chose a light weight fusible stabilizer.  

Using my iron and following the manufacture's directions, I applied a whole piece of stabilizer to the back of the 16" x 16" slippery polyester piece that I had cut from the shirt.  

The fabric went from disobedient to compliant as the glue bonded and cooled.  

Now, I was able smoothly fold, crease, and cut!!

Here is a picture of the stabilized, bonded, and zig-zag stitched polyester shirt secured to a foundation piece.  

This block is finished and ready to be included in the quilt top.

If you are going to make a quilt out of clothing, don't be afraid of including a fine, thin, worn or 

slippery fabric.  

It can be strengthened and made to behave with a stabilizer.

Pineapples and Polyester

Sometimes I have a difficulty finding inspiration.

However, lack of inspiration was not the case with this project.

I was given a handful of men's shirts by the wearer's widow. 

All the shirts were of the Hawaiian type except the tan one, second from the left, in the above picture.

100% percent cotton.  Circa 1968.

65%cotton, 35% poly.

Rayon cotton blend.

100% polyester.

Of course my intention was to construct a quilt that reflected the story of this man's life.  I spent some time with the widow who enthusiastically shared the significance of "Hawaii" in their lives.  

I will share details of that "Once upon a time" in a future post.

My challenge with this project was working with the different types of fabric.  Stabilizing would be absolutely necessary.

I wanted to do a traditional Hawaiian applique, but did not want to compromise the integrity of the delicate fabrics with excessive handling as is the practice with traditional needle turn applique.  I also encountered the challenge of best utilizing the rather small pieces of fabric that are left after disassembling a shirt.

I imagined a way to use fusible web applique on a small scale to create the desired effect and significance that I was looking for.  I will be sharing that technique as a tutorial.

Using a resource I had on  hand which is an excellent introduction to Hawaiian applique by Elizabeth Root, I was able to find a pre-designed template that best suited my small scale needs and offered a pattern that fit with the story:  Pineapple.





Traditionally, the pineapple is the symbol of friendship and hospitality.  The man for whom this quilt memorializes was best know as a hospitable friend.
Hence the name of the quilt:  "You've Got a Friend in Bob".

Sometimes, Papa Braids My Hair

My brother is the father of four beautiful daughters (and 2 strapping sons!)  Many years ago, when there were only two little girls in the family, my brother's wife went away for the weekend, leaving the girls and all their little girl-ness in his care.  The three of them visited that weekend and the curly locks of the oldest girl were braided beautifully in two long plaits down each side of her head.  Knowing their mother was away and attempting to make conversation with a precocious three year old, I asked her who had braided her hair.  When she told me her Papa had done this, I pretended to be surprised and astounded.  She nodded her head vigorously and explained to me that "Sometimes, Papa braids my hair!"

"Once upon a time, a long, long time ago -- even before you were born --  there was a beautiful lady.  She loved the sunshine and would often go for long walks in the town where she lived.  

She loved pretty clothes and had a special affinity for things made out of silk.  

In fact, her favorite dress was a deliciously soft, buttery yellow dress.

One day, this beautiful lady met and fell in love with a very handsome and extremely intelligent man.  He was a little bit of a nerd, so he wore plaid shirts -- A LOT!!!  

On the day that the very handsome and intelligent man asked the beautiful lady to marry him, he was wearing an orange and yellow plaid shirt.  

He choose to wear that shirt on that day because he knew she liked yellow and he wanted her to say "Yes!!"

The beautiful lady enthusiastically agreed to marry the nerd, because who can really resist a plaid shirt in their favorite color?  Over the next several years, these two worked very hard to weave their lives together.  Sometimes it was difficult, but usually it was a lot of fun!  

Sunny springtime days were their favorite.  

And that was the kind of day it was when YOU were born!

The End."

The above little story is one I made up for this precious little sample quilt.  This quilt measures 36" X 53".  It is considered 'crib sized'.  The purpose of Once Upon a Time Quilts is to create for you a family heirloom that enables you to tell a story over and over again.  Stories are how we pass down values and culture within our families.  A quilt made from the clothes worn by loved ones carries the energy and memories of the people or an event.  You supply clothing, tell me the story, and we develop a design together.  Drawing on my over seventeen years of quilting and sewing experience, we'll choose or develop a pattern and translate a part of your family story into a warm and beautiful 'jumping off point'.  A small quilt made from the clothing of mother and father is a wonderful way to welcome a precious new life and begin to tell the unique story of your family.


Crib sized quilt:  $172.00 - $278.00



This quilt is made from shirts (3 men's oxford-type button downs), one ladies' silk dress, hand dyed cotton, and a delicate feminine calico.  To prevent distortion and to improve stability, the quilt is foundation pieced to a high thread count 100% cotton fabric.

Usually a quilt is made with batting placed between the layers, but I choose to eliminate the batting from this piece and backed the quilt with a soft mottled green flannel.  By not using batting in such a small piece, the beautiful fluidity and drape of the quilt is maintained.

Hand quilting is done at about 1" intervals to strengthen and add interest to the quilt.

The finishing touch, binding, is a separate piece of fabric.  This one of hand dyed cotton:  machine applied to the front of the quilt and hand stitched to the back.

https://www.facebook.com/OnceUponATimeQuilts

Juliann Rager
juliannerager@gmail.com
(570) 956-2191

Biography

     Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a great big house with lots of windows.  Sometimes, when she would visit her NaNa, she would sit on the floor by her NaNa's feet while her NaNa sewed at the sewing machine.  The little girl liked to collect the fallen scraps of fabric and  make pretty piles on the floor, arranging designs on the carpet.
     When the little girl's hands grew big enough to hold a tiny needle, her NaNa showed her how to poke thread through the eye of the needle and make the two long strings into a knot.  The little girl started attaching her pretty piles and designs together with long crooked stitches and wads of tangled thread.  Occasionally, the tiny tender  fingers of the little girl would get poked by the sharp needle and bleed.  NaNa said that was ok and to keep working to get better and better.   In the process of making beautiful things, sometimes you get hurt.
     The little girl did keep working to get better and better, and she did get hurt many times.  When she was big enough to sit at her mother's sewing machine, she made some pretty strange creations and jammed the sewing machine about a million times.  One day, when she turned 21 years old, instead of going to the bar, she got a sewing machine of her own.  That night was the first of many nights that the girl sewed instead of sleeping.
    My name is Juliann Rager, and I am that little girl!!  Since receiving my first machine 17 years ago, I have been sewing and quilting and teaching and learning.  Quilting has been the unifying constant in all my creative endeavors.  Once Upon A Time Quilts was born "to create beautiful and functional heirloom quality quilts that serve as visual and tactile cues for telling the unique story of lives and events."
     I believe that every life is a beautiful story, and within that beautiful story are endless threads of other anecdotes.  Using clothing, textiles, artifacts, and even paper, I can help tell your story or the story of a loved one.  Designing your quilt is an interactive process that starts with you telling me the story!  The quilt top design will reflect special qualities and characteristics of the life or event.
     This blog is where I will share my projects and the accompanying stories.  You may also visit Once Upon A Time Quilts on Facebook.