Greetings, friends! The past month has been a flurry of activity, surrounding a very special family wedding. What a blessing it was to see so many friends come together to witness the joining of two lives together as man and wife! The newlyweds are now happily settling into married life.
This new season has been the perfect time to get back to a craft project that was just to the point of completion. But before we talk about what that project is, I’d like to introduce you to a very special person in my life. My Grandmom.
Grandmom is an amazing lady. She’s kind, loving, and utterly hospitable to her beloved family. I could literally write pages about her, but today I’d like to zone in on how she has shown so much love through her quilts.
You see, even while her boys were young, she was quilting with her mother. When each of her three sons were married, she made the couples beautiful log cabin quilts for their new homes. When each of her 14 grandchildren came along, she made a baby quilt for each new arrival. As they grew, she started on a journey of making a larger (twin to queen-size) quilt for every one of us, drawing on our personalities and interests for inspiration to make each child a unique piece of quilted artwork. She cut, she pieced, she quilted, her needle darting in and out of the fabric to form tiny, even stitches under her hand.
At some point, I became drawn to the craft and she began a new labor of love – teaching me how to piece, construct, quilt, and finish projects of my own. The world of possibilities began to open up before me and, even when we weren’t quilting, we’d sit with stacks of quilt books and magazines in her den, showing patterns to each other as we came across the prettiest ones. And when the great-grandchildren began arriving, we were soon collaborating on making their quilts together.
We just finished one.
After looking over countless ideas and patterns, we chose to go with a classic and well-loved block for both of us – the pinwheel. The top has nine 12-inch pinwheels from the Georgia Bonesteel book. I highly recommend her lap quilting book for a gallery of basic patterns!
We’re not sure if Baby is a girl or boy (but one thing for sure, it will be a joy! :)), so we wanted to make this quilt to work either way! We chose fabrics entirely from her stash, pulling the sweet, happy colors together with a couple of beautiful teddy-bear-and-rocking-horse-bedecked prints. After the piecing, we hand-basted the layers together and I machine quilted the straight lines on her Bernina sewing machine. Then, we were ready to add the hand quilting. I really love this method of combining machine and hand quilting! We chose a spiral stencil to mark in the pinwheels and lots of interlocking hearts in the borders. Grandmom did most of the hand-work.
Then we decided it needed a bear! Grandmom’s stairs are lined with fluffy teddy bears and she worked bears into many of the baby quilts of my generation. We actually chose to use the bear applique that she’d used on my baby quilt, so I traced it out and cut it from a tawny brown fabric, with lighter accents. Then, with a little trepidation, for I’m not super well-acquainted with the art of applique, I started sewing on each piece with tiny stitches.
He came home with me, where I embroidered his nose and friendly smile and ear details…and fiddled with the tiniest pieces, wondering how Grandmom had made my bear’s eyes…
My quilt is on the right – I love the look of a well-loved quilt! (Hey, look, it has pinwheels too!)
There was something amazing and full-circle about working on this special project with Grandmom! It’s as if I can imagine her working to add this very applique to the quilt of my childhood, with love in her heart and anticipation of my birth, before I knew anything about her. I realize, as I examine and think through the little details, all the work and creativity that she put into my quilt, and the constancy of her love for me all through my life…and I treasure it even more. It feels like a hug.
Then there was the joy and awe of realizing that decades after my quilt was crafted, we unknowingly pulled one of the very same fabrics from her stash for Baby’s quilt!
Unintentionally matching pinwheel blocks – across the years!
I know what we made is just a simple little quilt, but the time and love shared together is priceless. God gives such good gifts, and I count myself very blessed by His gift of being friends with Grandmom! If you have grandparents, or parents, or older friends who are willing to share their wisdom with you and love you, please treasure them!
We’ve already started the next quilt!! 🙂
Now I’d love to hear…are quilts a part of your family heritage? What’s a skill you learned from someone dear to you? Please share in the comments! Thanks for reading!
Because of Jesus,
Maggie ♥
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