"Gift sharing" competition winner

Gift sharing competition: winner announced ! Carrolyn V from the USA; 

      Thank you to all of those good folk who sent in a “gift sharing” story. Actually, I was amazed that all of the stories had positive outcomes. Lynn

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             Here is Carrolyn’s story:-

I was fortunate to live next door to my father's parents as a child.  My grandmother is the one who taught me to sew, nurtured me in very special ways and was a part of my daily life.  I treasure her treadle machine today.

However my mother's mother died when she was 6.(back in l926)  As the youngest of 6 in a poor Arkansas family, she was passed from family to family to be raised and ended up only with a small pieced incomplete quilt top that was begun by her mother from worn children's clothing.  It was only about 3 ft by 4 ft but lovingly hand pieced crazy quilt fashion.  Obviously a labor of love and necessity.  My mother had shown it to me from time to time when she would open her cedar chest where she kept her treasures. 

When I was in my 20s, living across the country from all family and with a military husband doing overseas duty, I asked my sister to "steal" that piece from the cedar chest and mail it to me.  This was in early 1970 and well before the revived quilt craze here in the US.  But I had read an article on antique quilts, and always loving to sew....I decided to do something with that piece and try to finish it and give it to my mom as a Christmas gift. 

I scoured over whatever quilt history texts I could find and was at a loss as to how to find material to match the worn children's clothing cloth from the past.  And believe me, there was no such thing as quilt shops at that time.  Even just plain sewing was out of vogue.  But I did find a corner of a drug store with  bolts of fabric.  So I purchased  as many different little prints as I could find and tried to age them with various tea mixtures, repeated washings etc.(Little did I imagine that this would become common practice when the quilting phenomenon would hit 40 years later!)

  I ended up appliqueing this piece onto a solid navy piece (blue was a predominant color), embroidering family names around this "medallion" piece and then making desden plate designs around the outside on all sides.  Not bad for someone totally teaching themselves!  I even added a God's eye piece (put in upside down) as I had read that the Amish can't have perfection without offending God.  Little chance of that anyway, but I added it.  Then I spent that winter after teaching school in the daytime handquilting my double sized labor of love.  I knew nothing about tiny stitches, proper threads, hiding knots etc.  But hand quilt it I did, adding simple hearts, diagonal lines.  

The entire project took me about a year.  And when my mother received it, she was overwhelmed.  It hung in her room for years, and now covers that same cedar chest in the dementia facility where she resides at almost 90 years of age.  She doesn't remember much, but she can still tell me which pieces of cloth were her clothes, her sisters'etc.  That quilt will come home with me when mom passes and become a part of our family legacy.  I since have made hundreds of quilts, learned many more tricks etc.....but always feel a special rush when I touch that gift to my mom that helped connect our family with the grandmother we were never fortunate enough to know.

END NOTE:  On one trip to visit my mom, and having recently made a quilt with repro fabrics from the 30s......I decided to see how many pieces looked familiar to what was in that original piece.  I was disappointed to find nothing that looked like the 30s fabrics.  Then I realized that those were pieces of OLD children's clothing and her mom had passed in the 20s.  Of course there weren't 30-ish style fabrics.  These were authentic pieces from the teens and twenties.  Dah!!!!!!!

Well, the tears are streaming .......again.........as I am a 64 year old retired college professor sitting up here in my mountain home thinking about the grandmother I never knew.  Thanks for the memory this a.m. with my morning coffee. 

Please get in touch Carrolyn to let me know how you would like to spend your $30.00......I somehow doubt I will be getting a visit  although  quite a few do visit from overseas !!!!

 

After several requests, Carrolyn kindly sent me this pic of her Mum with
" the quilt ".