Family Quilts - Extra Special Treasures

Last week, I talked about how I found quilting and gave a quick glimpse of the family quilts that have become mine to care for. These quilts were made by my grandmother and great grandmother. They were a farming family and primarily quilted for utility. Each of these quilts is special in its own right. I love that I have such a diverse set of examples from the many quilts they made.

This scrappy trip around the world quilt stays on my bed all year round. My bedroom doesn't really have a color scheme so it is nice to be able to pull from the wide range of colors in this quilt.

 

This quilt is the only one that has anything other than a solid fabric on the back. 

This is my favorite quilt in the collection. It is wonky and scrappy, and modern looking. This quilt lives on my bed in the winter (on top of the trip around the world quilt). It has a heavier batting than the others. I'm not sure if there are multiple layers or if the content of the batting itself is different, but it does a great job at keeping me toasty warm in the winter.

There are some really great fabrics in this quilt.

This modern looking grid fabric is fun. I have no idea when any of these quilts were made but these prints make me think this one is from the 1970s. I eventually hope to make my own version of this quilt.

This sixteen patch quilt stays folded in a cradle most of the time. It has a wide pink binding which is highly faded in one corner. That corner of the quilt saw a little bit of sunshine every day when it was in regular use.

This quilt is the first one where special fabric was used to give consistency to the pattern. The purple sashing and pink cornerstones add to the girl appeal of this quilt. It is purple on the back, too.

I love the pop that this navy and white striped fabric gives to the quilt.

All of the quilts are machine pieced, most likely on a treadle machine, and hand quilted. The quilting on this one is really beautiful.

This last quilt was completely planned. Every fabric has its place. There is nothing scrappy about this one, which makes me think it was made for an extra special purpose.

The red cornerstones are an interesting choice.

Sometimes I think about the stories that these quilts could tell. Stories of my grandmother working hard every day to take care of her family. Stories of my mom and her sisters growing up. So many stories. I will treasure these quilts forever.

Do you have family quilts? I'd love to see them.

Linking up with Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Quilt Blocks From My Great Grandmother

My mom recently spent a few days with her sister. One of their projects was to sort through some quilt blocks left to them by my great grandmother, Eunice Fincher. We called her Mama Fincher. My mom has two sisters and Mama Fincher wanted each of them to have a quilt made by her.

We are not sure when these blocks were made but suspect they were much later in her life, because of both the quality of work and the origin of some of the fabrics. My mom recognized two of them as fabric she had purchased with her own money as a teenager to make skirts.

Each block is huge, measuring 18". They are all hand sewn, at least for the piecing. There is some machine sewing, where scraps were lovingly sewn together so there would be a big enough piece of fabric to make the block. They did not have much money and made the most of everything they had.

Do you know the name of this block? I did a little bit of research but have had no luck in finding a good source for identifying it. I know the curved part alone is called "orange peel" but I wasn't sure if the combination with the corner squares had its own unique name as well.

Mama Fincher made enough blocks so that each sister received 19 or 20 blocks. My mom and her sister completed the job of sorting through all the blocks and dividing them into three piles. Mom then enlisted me to help her decide what to do with her set of blocks.

After thinking about it for a while, I thought the best plan of action was to stay as true to the original intention with these blocks as possible. My great grandmother made the blocks and now my grandmother's treadle sewing machine will sew them together. I considered adding some sashing (a strip of fabric between the blocks) to help them go together better since they are not perfectly square, nor are they all exactly the same size. We're going to try it without that first since I am fairly certain that is how the original project would have been finished.

 

The machine was in good working order not too long ago, and just needs her belt put back in place and she can go some more. My hope is that my mom will sew the blocks together with this machine. I am very fortunate to have the machine living at my house while my mom lives just a few miles away. When the quilt top is together, we will layer it and big stitch hand quilt it. At least that is the plan for now. There is no deadline so we will take our time, enjoying the special job of finishing a quilt that was begun many, many years ago.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday with Lee over at Freshly Pieced.