Sunshine and rainbows and ribbons for hair bows
So I figured out how to handle the trim around the edges of the quilt for my great grandmother Cassie. I was inspired by the christening gown she made (above) to bring ribbon work into the quilt in some way. I also needed to decide on a book for the quilt.
My strongest connection to Cassie was through her son, my grandfather Stewart. My grandfather was a handy man bar-none. He could build or fix anything. He was the maintenance man at the old Sears store in downtown Bangor (back before it moved out to the mall). As in he was the entire Maintenance Department. When he finally retired they had to hire an electrician, a plumber and several general maintenance people to replace him. He had in his possession an old Sears & Roebuck Catalog that got passed on to my mother that she in turn passed on to me thinking I might use it for this project. It seemed the perfect fit for this quilt. Here’s a page from the catalog:
I felt a bit guilty taking it apart but it’s in such bad shape that I didn’t even need to cut the pages out, they nearly all fell out on their own. I realized that the sections dipped in wax for the quilt will really be the only parts of this that survive much longer. Did you know that you used to be able to order horse drawn carriages from the Sears & Roebuck Catalog?
Dipping the pages from the catalog is teaching me patience. The pages are so old and brittle. They are the most delicate paper I have worked with to date. Just the act of dipping them in the wax can make the strips tear, and then they can tear again if I am not careful with the heat gun while removing the excess wax. I even managed to tear a few when removing them from the wax paper after they cooled. Deep breathe in, then exhale…
To bring the ribbons in I thought I would slice the pages and thread the ribbon through. Given how difficult this paper is proving to handle I decided to test this out on a scrap of printed paper. I cut ½” slits a ½” apart down the center of the strip of paper and thread the ribbon through to see how it would look. I used some of the monoprinted scrap so that there would be a contrast and so the paper would be a bit stronger than the plain Rives BFK paper. Here’s how the sample looks:
If I can just manage to dip enough strips from the catalog without destroying them…