My great-grandmother was a quilter, but she pieced and quilted everything by hand. Each of her grandchildren have received a quilt. Her work is beautiful. Someday I’ll post pictures of the quilt she made me. When I was 15, she was visiting and had me and my sister start a quilt. We bought our fabric from Walmart and she helped us cut out all of the pieces. Of course, I picked a block pattern that was way too difficult for my skill level, but I was determined. I took me until I was 21 to hand piece all of the blocks. I completed 10 of the 20 blocks throughout six years and the last 10 in a month or so. I had a feeling that I needed to complete that quilt so I could show my great-grandma. I sent the finished blocks to my mom. She cut them to be the same size (the were all wonky because I had no idea what I was doing) and put the sashing and border on. The sashing, border, and binding fabric is called “Freckles.” I have tons of freckles. My great-grandma was able to see the quilt top. I mailed her a picture. Shortly after, she passed away. I finished hand sewing the binding while in Albuquerque for her funeral. Obviously, this quilt means a lot to me. My sister’s quilt is not finished and even though she thinks it is ugly now, I’d like to finish it for memory’s sake.
If that’s hard to read, this is what is says:
In Memory of
Alice M. Wheatley
1912-2010
Great Grandma Wheatley
started Lesley Latham hand
sewing the block on this
quilt at age 15. Lesley
completed all 20 blocks at
the age of 21. Joni Latham
put the sashing and
borders on the quilt and
Cleoria Ficken, Davenport,
NE, did the quilting. Aunt
Cathy Chase sewed on the
binding so that Joni
(assisted by Lesley) could
hand sew it on the way to
Grandma Wheatley’s
funeral in Albuqueruqe,
NM, Feb 11, 2010. The
fabric used for sashings,
borders, and bindings is
called “Freckles.”
-
Pingback from The Closet Quilter · Family Quilts on October 24, 2014 at 2:02 pm
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