Quilts

 

My mother wasn't a fancy quilter, but a practical one.  She put together and quilted or tied a large number of quilts in her life-time, mostly for her children and other relatives.  Especially during my teenage years when we were "mostly" grown, she had more time for sewing and quilting.  Much like her mother and aunties had made quilts for her and her siblings and cousins, she sewed and quilted for her own children and nieces and nephews.  I remember one Christmas break in particular when my siblings and I were all participants in the quilt creation process.  We had an assembly line with probably two sewing machines sewing the patches together while listening to Christmas music on the radio.  Mums mostly did simple patterns with square blocks, many created from leftover fabric from our dresses or other clothing that she had sewn over the years.) Once the quilt top was sewn, the "sandwich" was created with a plain backing fabric, the fluffy batting filling in the center, and the patchwork on the top.  These were all stretched onto the quilting frames put together by my Daddy, and then we all gathered around to put in our share of the stiches, either right next to or right inside the "ditch" or the patchwork seams.  Once everything was quilted, Mums would hand stitch the binding around the edges, and then the quilt was ready for gifting.  

Other times we would gather together with Aunts and Uncles and cousins for quilting showers for whichever cousin was about to be married.   The Aunts would have the quilt top and sandwich all prepared, and we would gather around stitching, visiting, and of course, eating delicious pot luck lunches with lots of goodies.    And of course, when I did marry in my early twenties, we were gifted several quilts that were made by my dear mother, and another very treasured quilt made by my Aunts and quilted by my cousins . . . and including many stitches put in by my own dear husband.

Did you grow up with any quilting traditions in your family?   Do you have a treasured quilt?