Pieces

as adapted from magazine Trailblazher article, Pieces

We are all connected through these threads that weave across time, hearts and lives. 

Sarah Petersen of River Terrace Ranch is passionate about creating wearable and usable items that are a piece of this connection.  

To piece fabric is to join one shape to another so that they are one.  Whether to provide warmth, a functional item or as clothing - this has been practice across cultures, wealth and time.  From elaborate designs to the most simple, they each hold within them care and dedication to become something greater.

Sarah has pieced fabric since she was very young.  Fascinated that a thing could be created from little scraps considered nothing to later, constantly daydreaming in seams and fabric.  

Friends, family and neighbors have often gifted old scraps or unfinished projects to her.  When a relative passed, the sewing box was given to her.  While she does not use her grandma’s sewing kit, it is a treasure in its disheveled state - one that obviously kept for function not a love of.  The little pieces of a sewing kit organized in animal farm care vials.  In complete contrast, some fabrics from an incredible seamstress and fabric collector of a great aunt’s was also passed along to Sarah.  These were instantly adored, but unsure how to utilize.  Throughout all of the gifted sewing collections, a commonality was the little bits of daily life tucked into the folds of the fabric.  Photos of people long gone, daily-life notes with a phone number not to lose or what apparel piece a fabric was to become written in longhand cursive forever connected to the  fabric by a now well rusted pin.

The untold stories that became so evident in these old boxes quickly became a big piece of the treasure.  

Sewing is one of those things that happens alongside all of life, the very best of days

and the very worst days.  From Sunday dinners to the monotonous never-ending barn chores of a Tuesday afternoon.  The cold of a morning you can see your breath to the dough rising in the warmth of the kitchen.  And whatever is being sewn together on the fringes of that day, the threads that piece it together will forever hold that moment in time within.

Like every fabric collection, Sarah’s is an ever growing stash.  Quick to come home from thrift stores with her are grain sacks, handmade doilies, vintage linens, unfinished quilts… one day in particular, a fragment of a quilt - was found.  It was so crumpled it was hard to tell its shape.  Where it came from or when it was made was unknown.  But the little hand stitches piecing the squares together (even though also eventually abandoning) were a strong story worth continuing.  It became the back of Sarah’s first quilt jacket.  The jacket was lined with a vintage piece of fabric from her great aunt’s collection that seemed made just for it.  Once finished, it had an entirely new path forward.  But it very clearly and sweetly held on to all of its original moments in time.  No longer crumpled and lost.  But something to be worn.  Seen.  Appreciated.  Heard.

Many jackets and items have followed in this one’s similar journey.  Vintage textiles paired together to become a modern heirloom.  

And so began this deep passion of creating wearable and usable pieces from vintage fabrics, left behind quilts and grain sacks.  It is a deeply rooted connection to our history, to farming and rural living, and honors what has been lost and disregarded.  Turning old forgotten items into a functional, beautiful piece of art.  Then, and now again.

Whether  a quilt that was started, but never finished or a grain sack patched together with rustic field sewing, The greatest message of all being that these pieces have a story to tell.    

  It may have been a first attempt at quilting - it may have been seen as not good enough to complete - it may have been set aside as life took over the minutes available… but for some reason, it was tucked away and never returned to. 

 It is often the rust stain in the fabric or the mismatched threads in a quilt top or a patch sewn on that are given a prominent position on an item.  The common thread through time is the beauty and perfection in each of these stitches, the eloquent wool from a vintage collection, the mishap of colored threads on a beginner’s sampler…

Throughout the finished piece, there is a story woven into it.  A piece of history.  The jacket, completed.  The one who brings it to life again by loving it.  

Deeply rooted in this modern world.

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Each Piece tells a story. Find yours here.

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Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to get to know a little bit about the making process!

Current stock of jackets, wearables and home decor can be found at Sarah’s Etsy Shop River Terrace Ranch

For daily tidbits of what’s happening on the ranch and in the sewing studio, visit Piece of my Peace