Experts agree that there are many variables in our society’s quilticidal habits. Sometimes one kills one’s own quilt. This may be intentional or unintentional (see: rotary cutting accidents, sewing room coffee spills, failure to pre-wash). Sometimes one kills one’s relative’s quilt. Stranger-on-quilt quilticide is probably the most prevalent form of quilticide today.
Some quilticides are mercy killings. Pro-quilticide scholars argue that 30% damage often warrants fatal intervention. However, some quilticides are malicious or even hate-driven. Often, biases against florals, neons, pastels or so-called “southwestern” themes inform the decision-making of the quilticial individual.
Have you ever committed quilticide? Have you fantasized about it? Would you ever consider cutting up a quilt? Under what conditions? What about a quilt’s soul? Do vintage quilts have special “rights”?
<3 Erin
p.s. I, for one, have personally considered quilticide but never actually carried out my fantasies. This handmade vintage eBay suit made entirely from a repurposed hexagonal quilt is making quilticide look more and more appealing to me…
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I have HUGE regrets myself in regard to a quilt. I recently moved into the quilting world coming from machine embroidery and now could kick myself every day for something I did about 14 yrs ago. I was moving and there was a quilt my own mother had started making but never finished. I had absolutely no interest or time back then in quilting and space being limited after the move, I threw it away!
What? Was that a huge gasp I just heard from every quilter reading this? YES, tossed into the trash and didn’t even THINK to donate it. I hate myself for that now because she had used squares of fabric from clothing she’d made me as I was growing up. I cannot change it now but yea, huge regrets in doing that. Having said that though, there IS a very, very SLIGHT possibility it was kept at the last minute and is still buried in some of the few boxes we have never unpacked yet. I’m afraid to unpack them to find that I did indeed send that off to a landfill.
Now….I only mentioned that to say this in regard to your comment about quilticide …..I would much rather commit quilticide than to do what I did (or likely did), so I say go for it and don’t feel guilty. At least you’d be using the quilt for something or than helping to fill that landfill up somewhere and possibly use it to show it off in another way than to have it stashed away in a closet somewhere that no one sees how beautiful it is.
Oh, Vicki, this is heart breaking. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you that someday when you open up those boxes that you and your mom’s WIP will be reunited!
I’ll be happy to come be your secretary, assistant and pen holder. I can then soak up some of your creativity.
I have recently started trying to acquire some novelty prints. I would love to add cartoon characters. I want to make a quilt for my future grandchildren with all different novelty prints in it so when they snuggle in it they will search for their favorite square.
If I were to add something to my quilting room (that I plan to have in the near future)… I would like a quilting table that has a fold out for a cutting surface. I currently am using a makeshift table to sew/cut/iron on.. it works for now, but someday..
I once burried my best bud, Tokfia (dog) in an antique wool quilt. It was so worn out and bug eaten, and if I had it to do all over again I wouldn’t! I have two quilts that my grandmother made that are so worn out. One has a 3 foot hole in the middle of it, but I can’t cut them up. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with them.
I do like the hexie outfit a lot. I’d just worry a little where those two (purple and yellow) hexies would end up on me! Hmmm, not much to see there and I try to not attract any unncessary attention, lol.
Debbie, your comment made me cry and then laugh! That’s pretty amazing for 7 sentences. I agree that the front of the hexie suit may not be so flattering. I didn’t notice those two hexagons until you pointed them out – I wonder if that was intentional? The maker of this obviously had a sense of humor. Pretty hilarious either way… =)
I belong to a group of Clothesline quilters and this month we are going to play with Grandmothers Flower Garden. And now seeing your Hexie Suit I will have something extra to talk about. As for the little purple and yellow hex on me they would not even be noted. At least you could tell the front from the back.
A great Easter to all.
Have fun at your group meeting! Happy Easter back at you! =)
I love novelty prints, particularly those that involve food! Looks like a great book!
in highschool i found an unfinished quilt top that my friend and i turned into two skirts….she made a simple side slit the first time & then a few years later i made it a huge spinner with bed sheet triangular godets.
i remember the day we found it and we totally had a convo about what/who the quilt was originally intended for and why it was never finished by the original creator. either way, i know that at least 5 different people have worn those patches in the last 8 years. l
ast time i saw it, someone was reselling it on etsy. SO crazy. i made sure to tell the crafter that I had made it. she was sweet and made sure to credit me….it was before i had my own tags. i was almost tempted to buy it back, but i didn’t
currently, i have a vintage quilt my aunt gave me. it was made by one of her friend’s grandmothers. it probably about 30 years old.
it’s been through hell and back with my dogs trying to fluff the bed and ripping holes with their big ass paws in the super delicate old fabric.i’ve patched as much as i can, but it’s really hard to get a queen sized quilt under my regular machine. nevertheless, we have been using it frayed, tattered, and all.
it’s the most amazingly thin and warm blanket one could ever ask for. there are so many holes, that i have considered retopping it all together, but i think that might fall under the “quilt-icide” classification…..so i won’t probably won’t do it. even though it’s ratty and falling apart, we sleep like babies under it every night.