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