Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Heartbreaker...Heartmaker

My grandmother (we called her Gam) made this quilt (the one on the
right) sometime in the 1930s. I had it on my bed when I was a little
girl in the 50s and when I got married my mother gave it to me. I swear
I don't know how it got in this condition. It was kept in the linen closet
for years, moving with us a few times. When I started "officially"
quilting in 1999 I dug it out and it was almost in shreds. And this is the
good side!!!! I decided that someday I wanted to recreate it and went
in search of the right color pink. Believe it or not it was hard to do
because many of the reproduction pinks were too peachy. I finally
found it along with the curve master foot.

The original quilt is machine pieced and hand quilted. I duplicated
all the sizes exactly but machine quilted in the ditch. I then copied
the daisy for the large white areas to hand quilt and the cables
for the borders. I have finished the center and now working on the
borders. The batting is just a good quality flannel, making it a
dream to quilt through.

I think about Gam alot when I am working on it. This is one of
the joys of quilting...feeling a connection to the past as well
as making a connection to the future. Does anyone else feel this?

This old quilt doesn't have a label but you can bet the new one will.

Until next time...
Susie

4 comments:

Teresa said...

Wow! I love the quilt and it is really special because of what it represents.

What a wonderful way to honor your Gam.

Mar said...

What a beauty! I don't feel a connection so much with the past,(I'm a first generation quilter) but surely a connection to the person who is the recepient.

JoAnna said...

That is a fantastic project. You did such a great job! This is exactly why I love quilting. Congratulations on an amazing project.

Nicole said...

This is just marvelous! You might like to take a look at the website for JJStitches in Sun Prairie, WI. The owner collects antique quilts and recreates them with current fabrics. http://www.jjstitches.com/