Starting to "FINISH" the Comforter.

These are three layers.  As I straighten them I am pinning them together.

Today I finally have gathered everything I should need to finish the comforter from the "crazy quilt" top Grandpa Powell gave me a few weeks ago.  (You may recall she gave me 4 pieced tops sewn by her Mother and Grandmother making them over a hundred years old.)   With 4 to do this one should be by far the easiest and fastest.  Grandma Neukam had several heavy tops finished this way.  Since it is of heavier fabric and darker colors it seems appropriate to me to go this route with it.

I have a special place in my heart for comforters made this way because as a little girl when we stayed on the Neukam farm off Limpkin Road between Logootee and Haysville,  I slept in a huge Oak Sleigh bed with a tied comforter of many dark velvets.  I thought it the most special and wonderful bed in the world.  And, my Grandma Neukam could sew, and she made many little dresses for me as a little girl out of feed sacks.  The feed companies packed the feeds for the livestock in lovely cotton prints and Grandma whipped many a little dress for me.  I remember most of them very well and my favorites were what I called "Sailor Dresses" because they had a big square collar like sailor whites have.  She often either lined them with a contrasting color or made the collar with a contrasting color. 

Well anyway, I have spread the under layer for the comforter on the dinning room table with all of the leaves in the table and draped the excess across the row of chairs away from where I am pinning.  I am using a large flannel sheet.  Next I layered the cotton batting and lastly the pieced top.  I plan to use safety pins each 6-8 inches to fasten the whole thing together.  That is the plan for today!  This should hold all of the layers securely while I stitch and tie the layers and then finish the edges before removing the pins.