Grandma's handiwork 16 1/2" square
This past spring I took a class from Wendy Richardson through the Boise Basin Quilters called "Permission to Play". Wendy dyes doilies, ribbon and applique motifs, among other things and uses these to create small "art" quilts. I was interested in taking the class after seeing the way she used doiles as I have 6 from my Grandmother on my mother's side. I wanted to use display them somehow, but just never came up with anything I liked until I saw Wendy's work.I didn't have the heart to dye the ones that I have but used some decorator samples (from another project that I still haven't done) as a base for the pieces. I was brave enough to cut the one table runner...you see a corner wedge on the right hand side. The rest I saved so I can make another piece for my siblings to share.
The leaf shapes and ribbon were dyed by Wendy but all the rest of the embellishments are from my own stash. Buttons came from my mother's button box, my button box and my mother-in-law's box. I sort of "drizzled" the ribbon on the piece and tacked it down with tiny seed beads to give it a sparkle. Pearls were added to the doilies and each have buttons in the center.
The button (shaped like a flower) in the center of the small doily came from my mother in law. When she moved from AK to CO in the 1980's, she gave me her button box and contents...but this button was not in the box. When she went into a nursing home this year, my husband brought me her button box and these buttons were in it. She died before I had the chance to ask her about the buttons. They must have been special to her since she didn't give them to me in the 80's. According to Wendy they are 50-75 years old so I figure they must have been off a special dress, but were not shown on her wedding dress or any of the other formal photos we have of her at that time. I also added a button that I saved from when I was a stewardess (way back in the 60's) to bring it up to the current generation.
Labels: Wendy Richardson
posted by quilter99755 @ 5:20 PM
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