I sometimes wonder if I was born in the right age! Just this past month I FINALLY succumbed to the dreaded cell-phone plan! With a daughter at college and two boys involved in Boy Scouts and athletics and youth group activities, it's probably long overdue. I'm being dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age.Ironic, since I'm (clearly) online. :-) That's different. :-D LOL
But I daydream of earlier times. I've been listening to audio books while I applique and quilt by hand, and I'm currently in the 5th of the series of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig. The books are a little bit mystery, a little bit spy novel, a little bit romance, cool history stuff from the early 1800's. I love 'em!I'm fascinated by the stories of those long-ago days. Maybe that's why I'm drawn to reproduction fabrics. I'm working on an English paper pieced tumbling blocks because of an antique quilt top I purchased on Ebay (would you believe I got it for $30, shipping and all!).
Karen Witt from Reproduction Quilts took a look at the top when she was at our quilt show a couple of years ago. She dated some of the fabrics as early as the 1830's. Cool. There are still bits of paper inside some of the blocks with a script from an earlier age. I feel like I'm in the presense of that erstwhile quilter of long ago! :-)
Another ebay find was this antique broken dishes quilt top. I'm saving half-square triangles as I "quick piece" blocks so I can do a quilt like this one.
And finally, there's this beauty, also from the 19th century. The hand quilting is exquisite! and while I'm not (yet) inspired to make all those little Lemoyne Stars :-D -- they finish at 3 1/2 inches! -- I think the quilt is beautiful and I wonder about the maker.
All this fascination with the past and its quilters, though, is just that. Would I give up my rotary cutter, or my immeasurable choice of fabric, or my sewing machines? or my internet, or my ELECTRICITY!!?? Probably not.
Mordecai, uncle to Queen Esther in Persia of old, told her "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14b)
We are all, invariably, in the here and now because that is where we are supposed to be! When Paul preached at Antioch he told them, "David had served God in his own generation." (Acts 13:36a) Likewise, we are here to serve God in our own generation.
In this age of internet and cell phones and instant communication, you have to wonder if handmade (even if we use a machine! :-D) quilts have a point. Of course they do! We are preserving what has gone before us, and continuing traditions that matter. We are forging new ways to create and express and dream. We are passing along art and beauty and faith for "such a time as this."
Aren't you glad this is your time!?
Blessings!
