May Your Week Be Filled with Love

This sweet jacket was made just about 40 years ago.

 Although it was sewn together on the machine and the bias binding was applied by machine, the applique and quilting were  done all by hand. It's my original design.

 If I remember correctly, I created the design for a pillow for my white sofa, and then thought it needed to appear on something else, but I didn't want to make it over and over for a quilt.  Yes, there was once a time when single and childless made white fairly practical.

 Each sleeve was adorned with one applique heart plus two quilted ones.
I was not the kind of gal who wore her heart on her sleeve, but these seemed okay.
The red fabric was left over from a shirt I made my dad as either a Christmas present or a birthday present, probably in 1967 or 1968. The green is by Wamsutta and is one of the few 100% cotton prints available at the time. The white is a  simple unbleached muslin, probably purchased from J. C. Penney.  Yes, every Penney's store had a nice big fabric department back then.

 Each front was also treated to a heart, along with some clam-shell quilting.

 Such fine stitches!  It was hand-quilted on a 14-inch wooden hoop with Coats & Clark hand-quilting thread.

The tiny little applique stitches were learned by studying my paternal grandmother's applique.  She was the first Dolly I knew of, although her full name was Dora Maude Shreve Scheer. She passed away when my dad was ten years old.

I made the jacket because I certainly wasn't inviting people into my bedroom--or at least that's what we joked at the time. Quilt shows were almost unheard of--at least where I lived in Central Illinois.  I think the closest we came to a quilt show was the annual Mennonite Farm Sale at Exposition Gardens in Peoria, Illinois.

I haven't worn it for years.  It's too small for me now because at the time I made it I was ill and quite thin. My daughter is much too thin to wear it, so it lives in my closet, and I take it out occasionally and reminisce about making it and how much simpler life back then seems in retrospect and compared to the lives we live today. I know it merely seems to have been simpler because our healthy brains are smart enough understand that gratitude is life-sustaining, so we've tossed most of the negative memories and experiences.

I hope you're feeling loved today and that you take time to celebrate love all week!

Happy quiltmaking,