When one moves into a 900 year old house of stone, where does
one start with decorating? Lucy moved
into the Manor, Hemingford Grey, in 1939, and immediately started the restoration,
realizing very quickly that she would need curtains and bedcovers. Because it was during war time, fabric was
scarce so Lucy had to use her creativity to come up with a solution.
While American-style patchwork was virtually unknown in
England at the time, Lucy, a very resourceful seamstress, looked at her fabric
stash and recognized the possibilities. Without
ever sacrificing precious wartime clothing ration coupons, Lucy selected favorite
pieces of scrap fabric, cut them into squares, combined them with towels and
dusters, and pieced everything into bedspreads and furniture covers.
The curtain problem was cleverly solved by buying old hexagon
quilts from the early 1800’s and hanging them at the windows. Not only did they
work as insulators, they added a splash of color and design to the cold look of
the stone walls.
As with any quilts left out for long lengths of time exposed
to the dust and light, the window quilts started to show their age and some of
the fabrics began to disintegrate.
Mending them is what inspired Lucy to make her own more complicated
patchworks starting in the 1950’S.
All of Lucy’s patchworks were sewn by hand using the English
Paper Piecing method. When she first
began, she bought the paper pieces in precut packs…not from Little Quilts, but
from a firm in Oxford. When this became
too expensive, she started making her own shapes just like many of us try to
do. Die cutters, photocopiers, and
rotary cutters were not available at the time, though, so you can imagine what
a tedious job this was. Lucy frequently enlisted the help of her
friends to cut the shapes … now there are some good friends!
Lucy was an artist and clearly had an eye for color and
texture. She made many patchworks
besides the Patchwork of the Crosses quilt we’re working on. Blocks in all her patchworks are like
miniature works of art. Lucy’s finished
projects are not technically quilts since they are made of only two layers –
the pieced top and a plain backing - with no batting in between.
The majority of her quilts were made when she was in her
eighties, and she was still quilting well into her nineties. According to her daughter-in-law, Diana
Boston, children would stop in after school to thread needles for her, and her
last few quilts were stitched with white thread so she could see the stitching.
Patchwork and writing were winter hobbies – spring, summer,
and fall were reserved for gardening.
All her stitching was done sitting by the fire in the warmest, but also
the darkest room of the house with artificial light, as depicted in this scene from the movie "From Time To Time" starring Maggie Smith.
What an inspiration for all of us!
For more inspiration, check out our Pinterest Board where I'm posting gorgeous "work of art" blocks from pictures sent in by all of you.
If you need more patchwork papers, glue refills or other supplies, check out our
website. Don't forget about the new Fussy Cut Finders we found at Quilt Market. They're available on the website, too.
