Quilts, Quilts, and More Quilts

One of my memories from Spring Meadows Farm is my great-grandmother's quilting frame in the living room.  That massive wooden contraption was centered in the middle of the room with all of the available kitchen and dining room chairs around it for the ladies to sit with their needles and thread to stitch away the afternoon while catching up on the daily news (gossip, you know!).    While I don't remember actually using my own needle to complete any of those tiny stitches, I did sit, watch the progress, and listen to the tales they would spin and the news they would share.  I could hardly wait until I had quilting parties in my living room so I could so the same with my friends.

You know what happened. My great-grandmother died in 1962 and many of her friends followed soon after.  We moved to southern Indiana in 1963 and there was no room in our new house for a quilting frame, plus we were too busy adjusting to a new location, making new friends, and trying to become acclimated to a new school and town that any ideas of quilting went out the window.

Grandma Greta must have continued the quilting tradition in the family, however, because one year for Christmas soon after we moved, she gave Greta, Sherry, and me quilts she had made especially for us.  And later, when Gary and I were married in 1976, she gave us a few more quilts that Great-Grandma and she had made and I placed them on the spare bedrooms upstairs in our old farmhouse.

When Grandma moved out of the farm into an apartment, I knew that something had happened to all of the quilts she had made or that had been made by Great-grandma's sewing circle of friends.  Mom had them, but since she was very possessive about her material possessions and fearful that one of us might like something and want it for our own homes, she rarely talked about the quilts, or anything else for that matter.  Only after Mom died on May 19 were Greta and I brave enough to open the blanket chest and discover the treasures inside.  Not only that, but Gary and Matt uncovered, literally, three more chests (two cedar lined) that contained more quilts.   Plus I found in boxes and bags stacked in the laundry room, more quilt tops that need the finishing touches.  Unfortunately not much is known about who made the quilts specifically or when they were made, except for one with the date embroidered on the border.  They are all beautiful, but the specific history is lost.

This quilt is the one Hilary selected to keep.  There is a stain on the fabric that I hope can be removed.  The colors are beautiful.



The white stitching on the border of this quilt says that it was made by the Ladies Bible Class in Beloit in 1926.  That was the year Mom was born, so I wonder if it were a gift for Grandma for the new baby, perhaps?  Or maybe Mom kept it because it was the year of her birth and maybe the ladies were sitting around the quilting frame while Grandma Greta were pregnant with her - or since she was born in February, while she was just a newborn baby.

 

This one is Megan's choice out of this group.  I like the pattern of this one since it reminds me of the 9-patch that I just made for our queen size bed.

 


The stitching on this quilt is very intricate and really the showcase of this piece.



I like the flowers on this one.  So pretty.


 

And there are more!

While I am really sad that we don't know the stories behind these quilts, they are still beautiful treasures and remembrances from my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and probably several great-great-aunts as well.

Just beautiful!