Once upon a time this quilt was new. It's colors were bright and clear. No stains, no fading, none of it's color dulled. It's pretty sad these days. A velveteen rabbit of the quilt world. The quilt is real, love brought it to reality. Hard times...hopefully something that none of you are dealing with. And I say "dealing with" because I am part of a genertion that did that....deal with it. Whatever life tossed at you, you took it and dealt with it. And this quilt is a product of that time. My DH, who is now my DX, is an administrator. They work on contract. They run the gauntlet once a year and are either "retained" or not. Summer of 1983 found us living in WI, with 5 kids (Kdg through 8th grade) and "non- retained". If you are lucky, at that point, you can still find a school that is hiring, if not, you deal with it. The job hunt lasted from July 1st '83 til August 1st '84. It's a long time to "deal" with life that goes on whether you have job or not. We didn't. He did whatever tempory work could be had, and continued to search for a position. Needless to say that while we keep our heads above water, it was a struggle just to maintain life, and many bills got very little payment. We started the new job 11 months later very, very in the hole. And of course, moving costs money too. Relocating kids in school costs, as does getting the utilities set up, etc. Absolutely the LAST thing on a "needed" list was fabric, quilt batt or backing. But I am just finding my nitch as a new quilter. How can I be in this situation? In today's world I know my many quilting friends would have come to my rescue. We always have enough to share with another. But there were no quilting friends at that time and in a new town. So I did the best I could, because I didn't want to "not" make quilts. I did what quilters have always done, I made "do". I did what I could, where I was, with what I had. The quilt is NOT a beauty. It's NOT a pattern it's NOT nice new fabric, batting or backing that merits hours of hand quilting. But I loved the quilting part. I think it healed some of the dark shadows of the past 11 months. A few pieces of this quilt are quilt store quality, most are from Ben Franklin or scraps left from sewing. The red school house fabric was part of a square dance dress my DD needed in 4th or 5th grade. The yellow above it, with apples, was the ruffle and the sunbonnet. This quilt isn't an ORPHAN quilt in the true sense of being made from left over blocks. But it was the foundation for quilts that I would make in years to come. The school house was the only one I ever made. It was made for something else, a tote bag I think, that I didn't finish. This quilts true claim to "making do" is that I had no batt or backing for it. BUT I did have a tied light weight quilt from a church group. I suppose it was a shame to take that quilt apart, but I did..*G*. I snipped the yarn ties and pulled them out, and carefully removed the binding. And then I recycled that batt and backing to use for this quilt. It's not really something I am proud of doing, I still feel somewhat embarrased about it, like admitting that you are broke. The backing (that shows in the picture with the name embroidered) is too ugly for words!!! I would NEVER deliberately use that fabric. But I wanted to quilt! And now I could. I made the quilting last most of a year. When it was finished, I cut up older gingham curtains to use as binding. And of course, my youngest son, who got the quilt for his bed, never saw any of the things that were wrong with it. I seriously wonder about us as quilters. So hooked on what we THINK we need to make quilts. So quick to spend more and more when we already have so much fabric and so many books. And why there is still a stigma about having to "make do"? We love that particular aspect of vintage quilts, we love the quirks and kookies and economy of piecing the pieces to get a enough to use. Why aren't we more liberated in regards to OUR quilts?