My grandmother on my father's side was a very prolific quilter, very active in her local guild and made quilts, wall hangings, placemats, stuffed animals...you name it...for everyone in the family and donated piles of quilts and dolls to charity. She also sewed all her own dresses and was an accomplished artist.
This past weekend I was out visiting with my aunts and we started talking about my quilts (I am now the only quilter in the family) and my aunt brought out Grandma's quilt journal and quilt photo album and I just about peed myself with delight! I had no idea these things existed. Her journal, in particular, was such a treasure trove - amazing drawings, patterns, notes...so inspiring, so wonderful. I found the plans and notes for quilts that were given to me and my sister when we were kids, which was really, really neat.
Then my other aunt mentioned that she had SAVED some of grandma's handmade dresses thinking she would some day learn how to quilt but now (11 years after grandma passed away) she knows she will never do anything with them, and sort of gives me the "hint, hint" look. So of COURSE I volunteered to take them and make a couple of quilts for them.
Then she has her husband drop this off:
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I was expecting 4 or 5 dresses...I counted THIRTY of them when I got home!! I'm super excited, my grandma had 6 children; one of them (my father) has unfortunately passed away since, but with THIRTY dresses there is definitely going to be enough fabric here to make quilts for ALL 5 of my aunts and uncles!!
I also took photos of some of the many, many, many hand-drawn patterns in Grandma's journal. Some of them are simply out of my league at this point, but a few of them I think I can do justice to and am going to select from those patterns to make these quilts. It just seems appropriate to use Grandma's patterns for turning her handmade dresses into quilts!
Before I cut into them, though, I'm going to launder and press them and get photos of each one. I unfolded several and so far I haven't found any that are identical and I want to preserve them in photos. I am thinking that an album of the dresses for each aunt & uncle would make a nice companion to the quilts.
I'm really excited and very touched that my aunts would entrust these dresses to me. I think my Grandma would approve of the use I am going to put them to and I can't WAIT to give the finished quilts to my aunts and uncles! I am going to have to be so careful, these quilts need to be as perfect as I can make them! I've only got about 25 or so quilts under my belt but as long as I keep it fairly simple I think I can turn out quilts that Grandma would have been proud of.