My turn on the My Family Quilt Blog Hop!
Well, readers, I am the last stop on the “My Family Quilt” Blog Hop. Let me show you a few quilts from my family.
This is Louisa Henrietta Busch. She’s my great grandmother in law. See, my family doesn’t have any quilters that I know of. My grandfather was a wonderful tailor, and could sew pretty much anything, and was actually big into plastic canvas sewing for a while. My grandmother made some baby quilts for my younger brothers and sisters and cousins, but even then she wasn’t what I would call a “quilter”. Nope, the first hardcore quilter I had ever come across was my husband’s great grandmother, who I never got to meet, but is rolling in hot tied-quilt style here in this picture.
My husband’s family are the crafter’s/maker’s/homesteader’s dream. Got a hole in that beautiful caned chair? No worries, we can fix that. Hooked rugs, porcelain dolls, weaving rugs (the braided and on a loom kinds BOTH), cross stitch, embroidery, knitting, crochet, macrame, basket weaving, or make a broom? These ladies have you covered. Aunt Beck, Aunt Idie, and Aunt Ruth were Grammie’s sisters (Hilda Viola Ely). The four of them were an ever expanding resource of crafting. They could make ANYTHING. We have lots of things that they did make in our home, and it’s wonderful.
Back to great grandma. She’s the queen of tied quilts made out of whatever fabric she has on hand. So when I come into the family in 1996, I ended up marrying the owner of a couple of of her tied quilts. When I taught myself how to quilt, my first big quilts were tied, just like hers. The two quilts on the right in the picture above are hers. That grey checkered 9 patch was modern before ladies knew what modern quilting was. This blue and yellow one on the left was made by me, but we tied it on her antique old quilt frame rails that she made her quilts on. (Insert time machine noises to take you back to the year 2000…)
I pieced the quilt specifically to tie as a family. Aunt Beck and Grammie were the only sisters left, and they called a bunch of fiends and relatives to come tie the quilt. Here is a picture of all of us from that day.
So in the end I didn’t come from a family of quilters, but I married into a family of Makers, and they sure taught me a lot. I’m thrilled to have two of great grandma’s quilts, and to have had family help tie a few memories into my own.
Go back and check out the rest of the wonderful blog hoppers and be sure to leave comments! 🙂
Oct 1. – Sylvia Lewis
Oct 2. – Judi Hurwitt
Oct 3. – Deborah Massie Boschert
Oct 4. – Sheila Frampton-Cooper
Oct 5. – Pokey Bolton
Oct 6. – Frieda Anderson
Oct 7. – Lisa Chin
Oct 8. – Cheryl Sleboda <<== That’s me!