Emily Robertson of Petaluma works in the apparel industry, and for her job she travels extensively. On one particular trip, she attended a quilt show where a vendor was selling jackets made from antique quilts. She bought one, loved it, wore it often, and decided to make her own. Now in her travels, Emily visits antiques stores and thrift shops to find vintage quilts and quilt tops that she can recycle into stylish garments.
Last month Emily brought me the antique quilt top pictured here, a traditional design called Grandmother’s Flower Garden. She was reluctant to admit that she planned to cut it up because she said some enthusiasts object to such desecration of a quilt’s purity. But Emily’s point of view is, “Why not?”
“Why keep a quilt as a museum piece that is never touched?” she asked. “It was made to be used. Often antique quilts have big areas that are trashed — worn thin, stained, ripped, discolored — so I discard those sections and use the portions that are still good.”
She added, “Every time I wear one of my quilt jackets, I receive compliments.”
When I met the Press Democrat’s ace reporter Rayne Wolfe last month, she was wearing a Mexican-style blouse that she had fashioned from antique dish towels and embellished with hand embroidery. She lamented, as Emily did, that some people squawk that she cuts up antique linens, but Rayne figures, “Might as well put them to good use.”
“The idea of mixing new and vintage, modern and historic images is what keeps me excited,” Rayne said. “I’m scanning old comics for images, old newspapers; anything kept in a trunk or under the stairs. I’ve been digging through boxes of linen stash because now I have a project that allows me to cut and utlize things I’ve been hoarding for a long time.”
Now here’s the clincher. When I told Emily that I knew a reporter who shared her passion for recycling vintage textiles, Emily asked, “What’s her name?” I told her Rayne Wolfe. She laughed and exclaimed, “That’s my next door neighbor!”
