At the end of last September, I started piecing a quilt top,
which was made up of squares my grandmother had cut out the year before she
died, almost 29 years ago. Those squares
stayed in the shoebox my Aunt gave me a long time ago, before I started sewing
them into nine patch blocks. Then the blocks stayed around a while before
finally being sewn into a top, stretched, basted and readied for quilting.
I have been quilting on it off and on since then. At times I
got tired of it and then other times could not put it down, especially on cold
snowy days.
I must say that I am glad it is finished at last. I don’t
know whether my Grandmother ever thought that the blocks she cut would someday
become a quilt, but I think she would be very pleased. There are a lot of
memories in this quilt. Some of the fabrics I remember, such as her kitchen
curtains, her dresses and from other family members. Even a piece from my great-grandmother
is in the quilt. I hand quilted it in my mother’s quilting hoop. It’s the first
quilt in the hoop since my mother died and had used it for her last quilt.
That
added even more family memories.
I realized that I have no picture of my mother quilting, just
mental pictures of her sitting with her quilt propped up on the kitchen table,
with Dad close by in his rocker watching her. How I wish I had a photo of that.
This is the first full sized quilt I have ever made.
I
learned that it is a lot harder work than the small doll quilts I have always
made! There are a couple of full-sized, new quilts planned for later on; but
for now I’m taking a break from quilting. I am back to weaving and making some
new dolls.
19 degrees with a little snow this morn.
Happy Spring Everyone!
