Wednesday, January 5, 2011

A Very Old Blanket

Laurie Anderson from SewNso's Sewing Journal is having another Linky Party, this time the theme is Weathered and Worn Wednesday. She must be describing me!


I just happened to come across this old blanket in my linen closet a few days ago. It was embroidered by my grandmother for me, so it's well over half a century old.  It is a very sweet blanket with appliqued kittens frolicking among some flowers. The embroidery is in pretty good shape, but the blanket edging is beginning to fray a bit. As this can be very easily replaced, it is not a worry.



The embroidery consists of running stitch with detached chain leaves and daisies, french knots, a stem stitch pink flower, and lots and lots of straight stitches. In fact, the kittens are appliqued on with straight stitch, not blanket stitch. The whisker on the right is beginning to come apart, but black is pretty easy to match so I am confident I can manage to mend it without it looking like it was fixed.  The blanket fabric must be cotton blanketing material, and it is pilling quite a bit, which cannot be repaired without destroying the blanket. But it is still fairly soft so it is usable. I think that after I replace the edging and repair a few stitches, I will make it into a wall hanging for the next grandchild, assuming there will be one.

Hop on over to Laurie's site and check out all the entries!

2 comments:

  1. LOVE your blanket! It looks soooo much like my vintage blanket that I recreated for Sew Beautiful magazine - you can see it at http://www.southern-stitches.com/Heirloom_Gifts.html

    You also need to go back to my blog and change your link b/c it takes you to an older post - I don't want anyone to miss this one!

    Thanks for participating!

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  2. I love those gorgeous kittens! I have all my old baby things too although they are only 40 yrs old and a few shawls that my mothers granny made so they would be about 70-80 yrs old. I might pop over to the other blog and have a peek.

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