Kris P

My mom was a quilter, when we were kids, but she doesn't see it that way. She claims that all her quilts were utilitarian, and thus, she's not a quilter. But the quilts she made for us were amazing. When we were small, she made a Nursery Rhyme quilt with many of our favorite nursery rhymes depicted in colorful squares appliquéd from coloring books or story books using double knit. Jack and Jill, Pat-a- cake. Jack be Nimble... Probably 15 in total to fit my bunk bed.
When my brother moved to a full sized bed when he was 8 or 9, she made a similar quilt for him, but using a farm theme. Tractors, barns, Angus cows, Hampshire hogs, Chickens, dogs, cats.. I can't recall all of them. His boys both slept under this quilt at some point. I hope it still survives.
As our family grew, and 3 girls needed to share a room, my mom took a pattern for a sunbonnet lady holding a parasol from a quilt her mother had made, and made 3 quilts for us 3 girls. Each had sashing and borders in our respective color, and the dresses and parasols were made from different scrap materials from dresses or other clothing she had made over the years. Christmas dresses, Easter dresses, her square dance dresses, even some clothing from our grandma. Even 30+ years later, it is fun to look at the quilts and recall the clothing each dress came from.

My paternal grandmother made crazy quilts from heavy wool clothing with fancy stitching between and satiny backing. At least one quilter is farther up the line on that side, as a very old quilt was found in the linen closet when they were clearing out the house. Unfortunately, no one was interested in it , and it was sold at auction. Such a shame!

kyquiltlover1942

As far as I can tell, my Mother is a skipped generation. I have a quilt that was made by my 2rd great aunt, and was bought my grandfather at her auction in the early 1900's. It was given to us by my Grandmother as our wedding present. Although my Great Grandmother and Grandmother on my maternal side quilted, they did it out of necessity and scraps. And they were still beautiful. My father's Mother was a clothing designer and had her own dress shop in downtown Louisville, until she got sick with TB.

Edie

My great grandmother
My grandmother
My Mother
Me (and my two sisters)
My daughter in law
My granddaughter

Sounds like six generations to me and so very proud of it. Edie

gramma nancy

My mother made our clothes, but did not have time for quilting. I don't know about the ancestors. I do remember some templates and a small collection of cut-out fabric pieces we used to play with in the attic. I'm sure my mother told me who cut them out, but I have forgotten. She did encourage my sister and me to use the templates and cut out some more and she would show us how to sew them together, but that seemed like so terribly much work.

Fast forward several decades and here I am a quilter. Thank goodness for rotary cutters. I never would be doing this if we had to use those old templates for everything.

RugosaB

As far as I know, my sister and I are the first quilters.

My husband's mother was born in WV (in a coal mining town that has the same name as her maiden name) and the only photo I have of his maternal grandmother is one where she is sitting quilting at a quilting frame. His paternal grandmother was a quilter, left quilts finished and not finsihed with written instructions of what she was doing. I never knew this until after she died, I really think we could have been good friends.

Sewnoma

Both of my grandmothers were quilters and seamstresses.

Maternal grandmother made all the kid's clothes, most of the household linens, made quilts like mad, and also could restore & reupholster furniture. Her quilts are VERY warm (lots of them have wool tops & flannel backs), heavy, mostly made of scraps and salvaged clothing, simple piecing (mostly Trip Around the World), sometimes some embroidery, and are all tied. She regarded things mostly in terms of practicality, with aesthetics coming in second. (And her quilts are built like tanks, and are so warm and cozy...they are my favorites.)

Paternal grandmother was a professional seamstress (making slipcovers and heavy draperies), and made dolls and quilts as a hobby. Her quilts are thinner and cooler (some made without batting at all), made with colorful quilting cottons and usually more decorative/complex piecing, and all were machine-quilted. She was more into the art of things, and was also an accomplished oil painter - she used to paint amazingly detailed sailing ships onto clam shells and sell them; and she also sold her dolls and quilts. She also painted on fabric - the dolls she made for my sister & I all had painted faces, and I have a "Popeye" quilt where she painted Popeye onto several blocks of the quilt.

Nobody else in the family quilts now, and unfortunately I didn't pick it up until after they'd both passed away. My Mom's sister does a lot of embroidery; my dad's sisters are both into rug hooking and one of them also got her mom's talent for painting.

I have no idea if any of my great grandmothers were quilters. As far as I know, there are no quilts in the family that could have been made by the prior generation(s). Most of that generation, on both sides of my family, is from Germany and I don't know if quilting was really a thing people did much of in Germany back then.

bakermom

My grandmother(dad's side) was a wonderful quilter. I wish I could say I learned form her, but her failing health and my young age prevented that. However, my dad taught me-she had taught him as a child. My girls started quilting at 10-12 in 4H, even my son has made one. His wife also quilts, I think she is the only one in her family though

pokeygirl

I'm the only one that I know of. I just wonder why it took me so long to start. I didn't start quilting until I was 70 and this January, I will be 72. Now I have so much fabric that I need to really get busy or I will have all this fabric when I leave this world. I have tried to get my daughters interested, but no luck. Oh, well.....sigh.

EmiliasNana

My grandmother did everything: sewed, crocheted, knitted, tatted, embroidered, hooked wool rugs (used to buy garage sale wool items, remove the dye and dye her own, then cut and use), but she only tied whole cloth quilts made with locally made wool batts (still in business in Appleton, WI, I am told). She left me her treadle and sewing chest, and taught me to tat.

My mom only knit: fabulous kid sweaters with angora embellishments, lots of hats and mittens for us kids and even our friends. My husband's mom only knit too. I swear she could knit an entire sweater in a weekend.

I am the only quilter that I know of. I have sewn ever since I was in sixth grade (a friend's mom taught the two of us one summer). I took every Home Ec. class I could in Jr. High and H.S. and majored in Home Ec. in college. I took my first quilting class in 1984, after our last was born, and it is still in the exact place I stopped after the class. It was a sampler, quilt as you go and HAND QUILTED. I got two blocks quilted and all the blocks pieced. Every time I take it out to "finish" it, I just can't. My quilting is too good to take out, yet I hate the thought of quilting up the rest of the squares. Someday............... I really didn't start quilting on a regular basis until 2009, when I realized you could machine quilt on a domestic machine. There has been no turning back LOL I recently bought a Tiara II and hope to take my FMQing up a notch with it. I used to do all kinds of crafts but pretty much stick to quilting, knitting and embroidery now.

None of our daughters-in-law sew or seem interested, and neither does our daughter, though she is very creative in other venues: cooking, decorating, crafts. I really think our son and his wife would make a great team. She is artistic and he is a computer genius, creative, and a perfectionist, but does woodworking instead. I really can see a correlation between the two: woodworking and quilting. My husband too, does woodworking.

fivepaws

My Mom did 20 Dresden plate squares and they are sitting in my closet. My Aunt did one, this too is in my closet. My Grandmother made a twin-sized Hexie quilt for both my cousin and me. No, I can not say I am from a long line of quilters. I think I am the first one to make more than one. Now one of my daughters is interested and has made a few lap quilts for pound puppies. So, there you have it!!!