Miss Golie's Bedspreads

Today is an eye-candy of a post, so get ready to be amazed. I've got lots to show you. I have this sweet, little old lady neighbor. Her name is Golie and she's 86. Because she knows that I crochet and appreciate crafts, she took me over to her apartment yesterday afternoon and showed me a collection of handmade bedspreads, I mean handmade BY HAND - no machines (except for one which I'll point out to you.) Are you ready? Tell all your sewing and quilting friends, they'll want to see this:



This is what I saw when I walked in her bedroom, a yo-yo-bedspread. I've never seen or heard about a yo-yo bedspread before.

Now take a closer look:

(Top side)                                                                                   (Back side)

These are all little circles, gathered in the center and pulled together, then handsewn onto each other. No two colors are next to each other and she told me it took her cousin years to make, because she worked on it whenever she had some extra time, which in those days was probably not much. There is no background and they are all free standing. She wants to sew on a back ground because she's afraid to lift it because the the weight of the bedspread may tear the rounds. They all look to be a sheer kind of material, like nylon maybe.

She asked me if I were to sell it how much I would ask for it and I said at least $2,000 or $2,500. She said she was thinking at least $1,000 or $999 and I was thinking: "keep it and pass it on - or take it to the Antiques Road Show and have it appraised." I was flabbergasted! These photos don't do it justice, but I simply had to show you.



There's more...











She then pulled out this Quilt that she embroidered and hand quilted. The only part that is machine sewn is the outer edgings of the yellow and green borders, but each individual square is first embroidered and then quilted around each branch and each cluster of flowers as you will see in the photo:

She explained to me how difficult the embroidery yarn was to work with and that the only way she knew how to quilt it, is by going around each individual design of the embroidered branch or clusters of flowers and if you look closely, you will see the tiny imprint of her stitches (all by hand) to attach the backing. Again, the only part she did by machine is the green and yellow trim around the 12 squares.

She also explained how she made her quilting frame by asking her husband to put four big hooks in the ceiling and make her a frame out of wood so that she could pull it up and down. She said that whenever she had some time, she pulled the frame down from the ceiling to work on it and then pulled it back up and out of the way. How clever is that? I love how inventive people had to be back then when modern day conveniences were not yet available

On to the next...

Then Miss Golie pulled out this knitted bedspread that one of her cousins knitted (by hand, of course) and gave to her back in the 50's. She said that it was $15 "back then" but her (Golie's) husband wouldn't buy it for her, so her cousin sent it to her for free. (I love all the stories that go with these pieces.)

The next one has been in the making for a long time. Miss Golie's sister in law started it and then it lay around at her son in law's for a while (but him, being a guy, didn't even notice it) and now it came back to her. She's in the process of completeing the outer edging and then give it back to her son in law for him to use. It's all hand sewn, not a stitch is made by machine. Just look at these tiny squares:

Miss Golie said that "in those days, they sewed all their own clothes" and undoubtedly that's where all these little pieces came from. I couldn't stop admiring all those perfect little squares, all hand sewn together.

She showed me the hand made stitching inside (right pictures above) as this is the area she needs to finish. She will sew all around the outside edge to complete this item and return it to her son-in-law.



The last one is a bedspread she crocheted herself and it's been well used:

(I didn't even know she crocheted)



I'll ask her if she's serious about wanting to sell her Yo-Yo-bedspread (the fist one) and maybe I can list it for her on Etsy and Artfire.



Also, I have more exposures of all these bedspreads so that if anyone is interested in seeing more detailed pictures, just let me know and I'll send the photos to you in an e-mail.



And this concludes this section of today's bedspread post, so on to a few more nature shots from yesterday.



After I walked back from Miss Golie's apartment to mine, I looked up into the blossoms (as usual) and lo and behold, there was the moon.

Around 7:30 pm last night, I decided to drive to Bank's Lake with Gizzy to watch the sunset. I got there a little too late and will try it again tonight, but I was just in time to collect a few mosquitoe bites.

Right: Driving to the lake                                                   Right: at Bank's Lake

The trees at Bank's Lake were blocking the final sunset and I probably would have seen it better from the road, but there's always tomorrow - I still love the pink hues in the water and it was very romantic looking.

My boy had fun sniffing around, but when I heard an alligator croak rather close to the shore, I knew it was time to take my little doggy and go home - after all, canine is an alligator's favorite food, only Gizzy was not on the menu!