Quilts.
I learned to quilt while I was in college. One of my friends there (who was slightly older and therefore had her own rental place off-campus and therefore also had a room bigger than a walk-in closet) had a quilting frame and cranked through several projects during her last year at school. About the same time, my grandmother (Jane) decided that she would take quilting classes to learn. The ironic part of that is that HER mother, my great-grandmother, quilted a lot and was a fine stitcher, but because my grandmother was the eldest child, she spent a lot of time outside with her dad on the farm, and not-so-much time inside learning how to quilt. So, in typical GJ fashion, she took herself off to the community center and learned how to as a birthday gift (I think it was the year she turned 80?).
Anyway, two of my prized possessions are two quilts my great-grandmother, Albina Watson Johnson, made. The first is a yellow and white cotton diamond-pieced quilt. I think perhaps called a "Texas Star"? The points and the piecing are expertly done and she has quilted several rope knots and star motifs in white-on-white in the empty muslin areas. It has lost a lot of its original loft to the batting and is somewhat fragile, so I don't use it much, but I love the technical expertise of it.
The second quilt is the last one she finished. It was a wedding gift to my mother (married in 1964, and my great-grandmother died in 1968). She was already starting to fail in her health, and it although the colors in the scrap pieces are bright, my gram commented that this was the only quilt she could remember her mother making that ever had browns in it. Maybe tastes change when you aren't feeling quite yourself?
The final quilt is a small sample/wall-hanging one I made when I got into quilting. I love everything about this little piece - particularly the fabrics, but also the cheerful pattern. I worked very hard on the piecing, which at the time was a lot of intricacy for me, as well as the quilted motifs (the borders have quilted leaves in them, although they are hard to see because of the printed fabric).
I forgot, in fact, how much I enjoyed making this piece. So much so, I may have to dig out my quilting supplies and see what I still have.......
All for now.........
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