The Hankie Quilt

I’ve been thinking about it for a while, months if not years.

How to use all the lovely little embroideries on the corner of all those hankies.  Most of them are stained in some way, but the hand embroideries, though precious, are also tough.

They’ve lasted a  long time fifty years or more for some of them.  And they evoke so much of what is trying to be suppressed in today’s political thinking, the enduring strength of the feminine.

Today I pulled out the box of hankies from under my work table.  The ones I folded and set aside some time ago.  Each one is embroidered and a bit stained.

Working with both, I began folding the hankies to show the detailed thread work and hide the stains.

This is where the stains became so important, because they guided me in how I would fold hankies and ultimate sew them into a quilt.

Today I mostly folded the hankies and stitched them into new shapes.

And then I began sewing them together.

I considered placing a piece of fabric between each one, but no matter what fabric I tried, it wasn’t working.

Then I thought to just sew them together. That their power was in all the small individual embroideries joining together to becoming something greater…

Looking at just these hankies placed next to each other I know this is what I want. I’ll probably put a piece of printed fabric behind them all which will show through in the thinner places and help them them even more cohesive.

I can’t wait to get back to work tomorrow.