Tuesday, November 20, 2007

My Humble Beginnings

that's my quilt on the wall behind me
O yes, it's true. Before I became the Rock Star that I am today (or, was last week) I worked in a sweat shop, making bedspreads for wealthy people who could afford custom decorator furnishings. I say 'sweatshop' but only wish that were true in the winter months, where it was really really cold . The real sweatshop happened in summer when it was really really hot, sweaty and linty all at once. Horrible. While I was there I learned an inordinate amount of useful stuff that would later become pertinant to my career, little did I know. This was before I went on to grad school, where I thought I would be learning stuff for my career. Not. A. Bit.



I worked on industrial machines that had real walking feet, nothing at all like the feet on home machines. Trust me, you don't want to work on industrial machines. The noise ruins your thought processes, so we all wore headphones and listened to music or books on tape while we sewed. I quilted bedspreads, sometimes six a day and then other days I finished them with starched bias tape and machine hemming machines. Dull as dirt work.


I also made cushions, pillows, cornices and tablecloths. Almost everything had some sort of welting, inserted cords or ruffles. I am adverse to most of that now, but I do have the occasion to make my own necessary furnishings and so we are back to the headboard construction.


Foam by itself is not a good filler to cushions. It needs to be wrapped in heavy batting. So I wrapped the two pieces of foam (after I cut one to size with my handy dandy electric carving knife) and then stitched the batting closed by hand.


The cover is simply a tube of red canvas that is closed with a zipper and then the four corners are folded and stitched at the edge to form a square corner. Easy peasy. No welting (or piping) was used in the making of this cushion, as I couldn't find any in the garage, where I expected to have packed it somewhere, sometime, but didn't.
The part of the cat is played by Popeye

Neat and snug, but not exciting. Not everything can be exciting. Some things are merely fine.

I meant to base my decor on hot pink, but when faced with an array of color choices, I automatically choose red. It is a character flaw.

10 comments:

  1. Your red is perfect with the really great new quilt on the bed! I love the look.

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  2. I don't know how anybody could call red a character flaw. But then stating that you have any flaws just is silly. Oh, fawn, fawn.
    The headboard looks wonderful. Really cool.

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  3. Anonymous6:47 PM

    sweet dreams..........

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  4. The bed looks great - that duvet is just gorgeous and the new headboard sets it off.

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  5. Love your blog, your colours and your cooking lessons. Keep them up.

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  6. Anonymous5:22 AM

    Love your flashback story Ms Mel.
    You have really done a lot with that duvet/quilt covering and your head board, makes me want to make a quilt cover for my wooden head board.
    Do you remember what size binding you were using then for those custom made quilts? Asking because I need to get a binding attachment for my machine.

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  7. Anonymous7:12 AM

    You. Brighten my day. Always.

    Thank you and keep on.

    : )

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  8. Anonymous7:25 AM

    And you even decorated your workspace in the "sweat" shop with a quilt. Nice!
    Marty in Charleston

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  9. Loooooove it! I see you going wild with the pillow cases, though ... a hot pink one, then purple, and on through the spectrum.

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  10. Anonymous10:58 AM

    Looks great....but I am not sure I could manage the perfect corners.

    I AM going to make a duvet cover tho (and it's cold enough here to put the down comforter IN the duvet...expecting 1-4" of snow plus a lake effect snow advisory).

    teri

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Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com