A 65 Anniversary

My in-laws will be celebrating their 65 wedding anniversary in a few days.  Wow.  Thinking of all that they have lived through together makes me feel very proud to be part of their family.

They started married life farming.  After a few years they moved to the city.  Dad worked while Mom took care of not only her own children but others as well to help make ends meet.  They also took in boarders.  And still farmed!  Every weekend and vacation was spent on the farm to work on the fields and in the garden.  Of course there was also a huge garden in the city as well. 

What are they most proud of raising?  Their three wonderful children.  The most important blessings of their lives.  And now their grand children and great grands.

After 65 years they still own a farm although they rent out the land.  But the maintenance of the yard, taking care of the garden and machinery still has to be done.  And yes, there is still the garden in the city. 

What to gift them for this anniversary of a long and caring marriage?  They really don't need or want anything more except more visits from their family and friends.  But there has to be something to honour the occasion.

One of the first purchases they made after their wedding was a Reliance treadle sewing machine.  It was purchased from the Eaton's catalogue.  The machine was used to sew all their clothes, canvas for the swathing machine, bedding, curtains....the list goes on. 

After I started quilting Mom and Dad offered the treadle to me.  I was thrilled to receive it.  I had never sewn on one.  I just wanted it as a piece of family history. 

Well for their 65 anniversary I took the TV off of the cabinet, opened it up, and let the machine see daylight.  After a good cleaning, new belt and a whole lot of YouTube videos so I wouldn't mess up too badly, I started sewing. 

I'd like to say that I made them a huge complicated bed quilt.  But that didn't happen.  What I made was a reversible lap quilt that can be used while watching TV during the colder months.

My intention was to make the entire quilt using the treadle.  And it almost happened.  I'm going to blame the recent laser procedures on my eye for what happened.  But I can still see clearly out of one eye so that's just an excuse. 

The quilt was finished including the binding when the problems were noticed.  Just before it was going into the wash I found several strips of fabric that had shifted during the sewing and did not get caught under the seam. 

There is no way I was going to take the quilt apart to fix it.  So decorative stitch on my Janome was used to hold the fabric in place.  So not every stitch was made using the treadle.  But I tried!