Adding to Grandma's Quilt List

My cousin Ellen sent pictures this week of three quilts she has which were made by our grandmother. If you have followed this blog for the long haul, you most certainly recall many posts about Grandma - stories of our outings; her giving me all her quilting supplies; and sadly, her death in June 2015.

Grandma was a prolific quilter, and nearly all of my siblings and cousins have quilts that she made for us. My goal is to collect photographs of as many as I can and share them in the header tab at the top of my blog.

I am so very pleased to see this red and white quilt. It is so similar to the red and white quilt I made last summer. (Click here to see it.) Grandma rarely made quilts that weren't either blue or scrappy, so this one is quite a delight.

Now, the LeMoyne Star quilt above is an entirely different story. Grandma must have made 20 or 30 of these over the course of her life. I don't know for a fact, but I believe each of the 15 grandchildren have a quilt like this. And I have no doubt that many others exist, too. If our mothers sewed, we girl cousins have quilts made with fabrics leftover from clothes our mothers made for us. Grandma almost always paired a print fabric with a solid when making the LeMoyne Star pattern. This is just classic Grandma.

And speaking of classic Grandma - what did I say about either scrappy or blue? This Churn Dash has been featured in many of Grandma's quilts, and quite a lot of them are blue, not surprisingly. I have looked at the picture close up and I am pretty confident that this quilt has been machine quilted. This tells me that it is one of her later quilts. There came a time at the end of her quilt-making years, that back pain prevented her from sitting at the quilting frame. Any quilts we have by her that have been machine quilted are most certainly from her later years.

Thank you, Ellen!! I can't tell you how pleased I am to get your pictures and add them to the long list of quilts that Grandma made.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Making a Memory

Quilting has done it again. Because of quilting, I have another wonderful, sweet memory to tuck away and keep in my heart.

I attended a quilt show yesterday with my mother and grandmother. We were invited by Mom's first cousin Marilyn, who is a quilter and an active member in the guild in her area. So already, we have 3 generations of the family involved from 2 branches of that family.

Now I have to say, that getting my 96-year-old Grandma to agree to go somewhere is no small task! We rarely ask her to go anywhere anymore because she always says no. Besides her Thursday beauty shop appointment, she is content to stay home!

I asked her on Friday evening to go with us on Saturday afternoon. We have learned that we can't ask too far in advance, because then she will have too much time to think of a reason why she can't or won't go. And we have also learned that we have to keep trips short. The ride to Peebles is about a 30-minute drive south of Hillsboro, and I told her she could dictate how long we stayed.

The last thing I told her was that I had a sneaking suspicion that one of her quilts was going to be in the show.

That got her! :-)

I tell you, I felt like I had returned to my childhood! Mom drove and Grandma sat in front, while I was in the back seat. Driving down the road and listening to them talk about the farms, the people, the landmarks and such along the way was priceless. One doesn't realize that as a child, so I absorbed as much as I could, and asked questions - a lot of questions. Grandma loved seeing the countryside, and reminisced about days gone by. Yesterday, while chilly, was sun-filled and the spring leaves are just popping out, so everything had a clean, fresh look.

Quilts??? Oh, yes, we did see some quilts! I will show most of those in my next post. Today, I will just focus on the family stuff.

Here is my spry Grandma Mary, age 96, flanked by my Great Aunt Nina and Great Uncle John. My grandpa, Mike, was Uncle John's oldest brother. These 3 are the only ones remaining in this generation. Grandpa died in 1997, and the two other brothers and their spouses are gone now, too.

Now, to the quilt. Uncle John and Aunt Nina were married in 1949, and Grandma made this quilt and gave it to them for a wedding gift. My cousin Marilyn, their oldest child and only daughter, says it was on their bed for many, many years. In other words, it was used! And there is some wear showing, particularly on the upper border.

The way we saw the quilt was really cool, and a first for me. The guild had scheduled a "Bed Turning" at 2pm. I'd never seen one done before, but I had heard of them. A bed is layered up with a dozen or however many quilts spread across it. A speaker tells a brief story of each quilt, and when finished, 2 volunteers are positioned in such a way as to fold and remove that quilt, so that the next one is seen. Then that story is told and so on with folding, removing, and revealing the next quilt.

When Uncle John and Aunt Nina's quilt was uncovered, Grandma practically squealed with delight when she saw it. "Oh! I see pieces I remember!" All the petals on these flowers were scraps from dresses and skirts that Mom and her 2 sisters would have had. Grandma made all their clothes, and no scraps were ever discarded! That would have been wasteful!

Marilyn had taken the microphone to tell the story of this quilt, and she introduced both her Aunt Mary (my grandmother) and her parents. It was so special. I think Marilyn was thrilled to have Grandma and her parents present for the Bed Turning. It really made for a wonderful event. I have to admit to wiping a tear. Or two.

And that's the way it is with quilting. The special times we remember; the bonds of family; the love of stitching -- so many facets of quilting bring people together. The fabrics are bits of other things. As gifts, they mark significant events. Quilts do indeed have histories and tell stories.

In just an hour we had finished our visit, and were heading back to Hillsboro. The front-seat talk was just as pleasurable on the way home, only this time added in were delightful comments about the quilts and about the family. Grandma thanked us over and over for insisting that she attend this event. It not only made a memory for me, but she and Mom were equally pleased with the afternoon's adventure. And, I would guess that Uncle John, Aunt Nina and Marilyn experienced similar delight at how lovely an afternoon we all had, and that they, too, made some memories.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Grandma's Quilts - Updated

This is probably going to happen quite a lot. As I get or take more pictures of the quilts Grandma has  made, I will be adding them to the "Grandma's Quilts" page, accessed by clicking the tab up there on the banner.

This quilt is the one I was talking about on the twin bed in the little bedroom. Grandma uses this room and frequently has "stuff" on the bed. The pretty little Monkey Wrench quilt is generally covered with a few jigsaw puzzle boxes, a board on which she works her puzzles and other assorted stuff.

We cleaned it off a week or so ago. Here it is!

Hand-pieced and hand-quilted, of course. Notice the design in the setting blocks - it's the same as one I'd previously mentioned.

Another quilt at Grandma's is the signature quilt I made for her commemorating her 90th birthday in 2006. Guests signed it at the big bash we had for her, and I pieced it. Then SHE quilted it! One of the last ones she did, actually. She really enjoyed quilting it she said, as it gave her a chance to think about so many fond friends and family members as she quilted the block each had signed.

This quilt is dispayed in her sitting room, where she watches TV. I used scrap blues and reds to give it a patriotic feel, since she is so fond of patriotic quilts. Still after nearly 6 years, she enjoys looking at it.

I will add these quilts to the page of Grandma's quilts. One job on my to-do list this summer is to photograph all the quilts I have here that Grandma made or quilted for me. Stay tuned!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Oh, What A Day!

I am breathless with excitement to tell you about the day I had on Wednesday! I spent a few hours with Grandma with the intention of helping her clean out a hutch. Instead, I  mentioned that sometime I sure would like to pull out all of her quilts, spread them on the bed, and take pictures of them all.

Ha! We just did it! We chucked our original plan and played in the quilts! It was delightful. I think the most enjoyable part for me was hearing Grandma's exclamations as each quilt was unfurled on the bed. She was enjoying it, too. ;-)

I am going to take a few days to work on a special page with a tab up at the top of the page where these quilts of Grandma's will be featured. For today, I will select one to feature here.

Here is Grandma and the quilt currently on her bed. It is a patriotic quilt, although in this pic it looks mostly blue and white. The inner part of each star has a patriotic fabric with red, but it's hard to see them. This quilt was hand pieced and hand quilted by Grandma, in the 1990's, we estimate.

Oh, okay, let's look at another one. *grin*

This quilt is on the guest bed and it, too, is hand-pieced and hand-quilted.