Grassy Creek is a Flimsy and Hazel on the Antique Quilts

Decided to get out the antique quilts that my grandmother had made for her son in law's second wedding and last baby.  I have told you the wild story on here before.  So here is Hazel on my Uncle Rick's baby quilt.

Finally finished up the string borders and got them on (they fit perfectly!) Grassy Creek.  I need to get a picture outside...we will see if it is sunny enough today.  Snow is melted but things are still a bit wet.  Sunshine immediately did her happy dance on top of it.  

Here is Hazel on top of the wedding quilt.  I have a picture of me around this age on the same quilt (see bottom).  Hazel loves quilts and I hope she will continue the tradition...her mom does do a bit of sewing but so far does not have the bug like I do!  Here is the story!

 

Antiquing with the Quilt Whisperer!

 Bonnie wanted to hit the antique mall and see what fun we could get up to there in between our workshop and lecture.  Terri and I (and later Kathy too) were happy to oblige!  I have been to this antique mall several times and usually only find about three or four quilts worth looking at so I was crossing my fingers that Bonnie would not be disappointed in the Merchant Square Antique store. 

 These are just some of the quilts we found--she is apparently the quilt whisperer!  They were everywhere! 

 This cute little quilt had "wounded knee" stitched in it and went home with Terri.  We think it may have been tribal made as it did not have a regular binding.

 Bonnie was a hoot of fun and tried out this none too comfortable baseball bat bench!

 It is blurry but here we are laying out quilts in the aisles and taking pictures and then folding them up again.  Sometimes Bonnie redisplays them better than we found them.  Super fun!

We found Bonnie her swimsuit for this summer  Hot stuff!  And her Partridge Family dress too!

 Terry is planning for her quinceanera!

It was a whirlwind trip and fun!  Kathy joined us at the end (after unloading our machines at home and feeding the dogs) and then we all went out for sushi.  Bonnie blogged about it here in case you didn't see it.  

Kathy and I sewed last night so we could get Midnight Flight done and get back to En Provence.  We made a baby size quilt.  This pattern is advanced for the triangle challenged.  I have diagnosed myself with triangle dyslexia.  I cannot tell you how carefully I laid things out...checked...double checked and even triple checked--and STILL I unsewed.  In the end my blocks are mirror image of what they are supposed to be and at least two small blocks have hst's that are turned around..maybe three.  I am apparently letting go of my inner type A because as far as I am concerned it is done!  I will NOT be making this one again anytime soon.  I love it but I find too much frustration in all the checking of chevrons, four patches and hst's for direction.

 I will add a larger border at some point when I need a baby quilt.  Until then, I consider this one done!

Next up the lecture fun!

Antique Quilt Show at Nimble Thimbles

 Shirley showed us her antique quilts at Tuesday night's Nimble Thimbles meeting.  Her quilts were true beauties.

 This close up is from the above quilt and has swastika fabric in from back in the day when it was a good luck symbol.

 Love the one cheddar block in the center!

 Really cool border on this one and Shirley liked how it isn't all matchy matchy at the corners.

 Close up on the above quilt--I love that red fabric!

 It was nice to go back to Nimble Thimbles...I rejoined and this is the group I go to quilt camp with tomorrow morning!  I have the car all packed and am ready to go!

The Gift of a Quilt in 2006

So in June of 2006 I spent the day with my Grandma Nan in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin (my father's adopted mother) cleaning all of her closets, dressers, etc. in preparation of her move Aug. 1st. I am the organizer in the family and the always willing to help one, so I was nominated for the job. I have much fun with Grandma Nan though so I wasn't even dreading it and it turned out to be an amazing day!

While sorting through all of the stuff that has accumulated in her apartment the past 24 years, we came across two quilts in her cedar chest drawer (dressers are not made like that nowadays!) and she told me a few stories that I want to record here. The first quilt we came across was a crib size tiny hexagon quilt which was all hand stitched and hand quilted (hours and hours of work) and had been given by my great grandma Annan (real name Eva Maude Lottridge) to her only daughter Florence's firstborn son in 1944 (my uncle Lewis who incidentally built the house I sold to move to Arizona and he died in 1998 of ALS). Somehow when my grandma Florence died Annan wound up with the quilt and later when Grandma Nan married my Grandpa Len and had my uncle Rick, Annan gave it to her for Rick to use since she had no descendants except the boys Nan was raising (Lewis, my uncle Jim and my dad Al). Grandma Nan said she used it with Rick and later with the grandkids, most recently Rick's daughter Lindy (my youngest cousin on the Neff side).

A little deeper in the drawer we came across a double bed size quilt that looks like a large star in the middle and is surrounded by a larger star. It is pastel colored with pink backing. It is also hand stitched and quilted and is in fabulous shape! It has most likely been in Grandma's drawer with little use these past years. Grandma said that Annan had it made (she thinks) by a friend for Nan and Len to have on their bed after they got married. While I oohed and aahed and couldn't believe that Grandma had never showed it to me since we quilt together on occasion (and in fact most recently made a similar star quilt at her place--though mine is triangles made to look like parallelograms, and this one is actual parallelograms) Grandma just stared at me! I mentioned to her that we should refold it differently so as to lessen the fold damage and she said she didn't know about that and wished she had somewhere to display it...while I started refolding the quilt an idea came to me and I said.....Grandma I just bought a wooden quilt stand ($6.50 at a thrift sale!) and it would look great displayed in my living room...thinking someday...and Grandma said you want it, you take it!!!!! I don't know that I have too many more valuable gifts in my house because I feel like I was given a piece of history and a connection to my Dad's grandmother that I never met and then...

A few drawers later we found a Grandma's brag book with long ago pictures of me, my sister Tina and my cousins Carla and Tricia. I found a picture of me asleep on Grandma's floor and believe it or not, the very quilt my grandmother had just gifted to me was pulled up over me while I slept soundly at about 4 months of age!!!!

Well I just felt like it was meant to be...I don't recall the quilt from my childhood and yet there it was with me (none of the other three babies were with it in any of the pictures) like it had been made for me!

I just had to share my luck and happiness at getting this gift from not one Grandma, but two!

I typed this story up right after it happened so that I would not forget the details. I wish I knew who had made this quilt! Tonight my quilt history group met and we were talking about the Century of Progress and the World's Fair and all that...that made me remember that on this same day we were cleaning out grandma's apartment she found my grandfather's World's Fair change holder. I should have taken a photo of it before gifting it to my youngest son but one day I will get a picture. I think it is in storage now! If I remember right it was brown leather and a circle shape which opened up like coin purses do..it had a gold image and said World's Fair on it. I did a google search looking for a picture of what I remember and didn't find one. Anyhow thinking of the coin purse made me think of this quilt and story...I thought I had already blogged it, but in digging through I didn't see it (so if you have already read this sorry!) so I updated the story a bit and here it is. This is one of my most cherished possessions and I hope one day to have a granddaughter to pass the quilt on to!