Quilt Show

The local "yokels" are having their annual quilt show this week-end, being the quilt lover that I am - we arrived about 30 minutes after they had opened the doors. There were quilts of all themes and some of the most beautiful fabrics were used in the quilts. I guess that hand quilting is a thing of the past as I did not see ONE quilt that was hand quilted. I know that many women just don't like to spend the many. many hours that is required in hand quilting--not to mention they could piece several quilts in the time that it takes to "quilt out" just one. The machine quilting arm is really all they are using. The machine is pretty expensive so most just pay someone to quilt out their quilt for them.
As I admired the many works of art that the women had invested their time into sewing, I couldn't help but to compare the quilts of today with the quilts of old days. Most all of the old quilts were actually old from the start because the fabric that was used had been a piece of clothing that was too worn to be used any longer or maybe it was torn--ANYWAY, the women would cut the salvageable fabric into the blocks or whatever pattern she was making her quilt block .. As I have stated in the past post, the old feed sacks & flour sacks etc. were a very big hit with the women because of the pretty bright colors and now they could actually make a NEW quilt--my oh my how times have changed---In the old days the quilts were made out of necessity for warmth on the cold winter nights and they would also lay them on the floors to make a "pallet" for someone--usually a child--to sleep on. Now the quilts may have several hundred dollars invested into the making of the quilt and when completed many use them as a bed cover but most seem to just use them for decoration---which is great from my point of view anyway that they want to use them is fine...I am just grateful that the appreciation of quilts and their history is still appreciated.