A bag of sugar and a bag of salt. Julie wrote to me and told me how her grandmother, who was born in the 1800’s, would tell her stories of shopping and carrying home cloth bags of sugar and salt.
Suddenly my “Kiss Me Quilt” had a new story, a new image, I hadn’t associated with it before. In my mind I saw a woman in a long cotton dress walking down the main street of a small town. She’s holding a bag of sugar in one arm and a bag of salt in another.
Women used those bags that staples came in as dish towels and curtains. They made them into dresses and sewed them into quilts.
I wanted to do the same. To be a part of that tradition. I’ve had my the bags that the sugar and salt came in, a long time. And I finally got to use them in my “Kiss Me Quilt”.
I used mostly vintage fabric in this quilt. A lot form the 1960’s and some earlier. I wanted it to have the feeling of something soft and faded. Something familiar and known.
I even used the back of some of the blue fabric to get a good contrast going between it and the darker front.
The red fabric with the woman at the ironing board saying “Kiss Me I’m Never Too Busy!” was an apron before I cut it up to use in the quilt. It isn’t the type of apron Julie’s grandmother would have worn, but maybe something her daughter might have.
Well worn, a soft faded red, it speaks of another time. A time when women were expected to put everyone and everything before themselves and their work. Especially their husbands. And even though times have changed greatly (whether you like Hillary or not, imagine the idea a woman being a serious Presidential Candidate even 15 years ago) it’s something many women still struggle with, even today.
But this quilt isn’t about nostalgia. It’s an acknowledgement of where women came from. And how we’ve survived and changed from one generation to the next. (often using humor, as can be seen in the illustration on the apron of the woman at the ironing board burning a hole in the clothes she’s abandoned to give her attention to her husband) A reminder of the things that were and the things we’re still working to change.
“Kiss Me Quilt” is for sale Sold . It’s 65″x75″ and is $400 + $20 shipping. If you’re interested in it you can email me at [email protected]. I take checks and paypal.
I’m reading a book right now where the mother boils the flour sacks several times to get them soft enough to be sewn into clothing.
I never heard that one Tricia. I did hear women used to bleach them to get the words to fade.