My mom came from a big family, there were 17 children. When the family got together the women would quilt and cook and the men would finish whatever work there was then play cards. The kids would play under the quilt in the frame and listen to the stories from the women as they worked,and thread the needles. The babies were layed on a bed kept warm by my grandma's quilts. In the summer we had enough people for 2 baseball teams. Then after dinner the ones lucky enough to have the gift would play musical instuments, the rest of us came up with song titles and we all sang. Now there's just my youngest brother and I and neither one of us can play an instrument. I'm glad I can quilt so I can pass that much of the legacy on to the babies.

Since I grew up on a farm with no central heat, the first I remember was when I was 6 years old.
The quilts were very heavy and warm. Still have 2 of them and I believe they are made from mens shirting. the quilting work is great probably done in the 1920's. Have several quilts done by a great aunt 2 in Bears Paw Pattern. One was a wedding gift 45 years ago. Love to hang them from my loft so we can really appreciate the work and the beauty of the quilters

My parents both sewed my dresses when I was a child, and my grandmother made me doll quilts from the scraps. I can still tell you what came from what....ANd she made me a Sunbonnet Sue on muslin, which she never finished. I still have it and wanted to cut one of the Sue's out and put on the back of quilts for my grandchildren. Too bad they are not interested in quilts....The granddaughters did get my doll quilts and they have strict instructions that those are to be passed to all the girls in the family.

My momma and the ladies at Wheatland Methodist Church quilted every Wed. from 9am to 230 pm .... I was 4 years old and I remember sitting under the quilt frame watching their fingers as they ran the needles through the fabric...I played with my dolls as they sewed and talked ... sometimes I fell asleep on the floor and woke up to my momma and the ladies talking softly and laughing.... it was so much fun and the quilts were so beautiful.... the best part is 3 years ago I went back to Wheatland and there are pictures of the ladies of the quilting circle on the walls in the Sunday school rooms with 2 quilt frames and quilts on them ....I loved it brought back all kinds of memories

My grandmother always kept a quilt frame with quilt in her very large dining room. It pulled up to the ceiling to get it out of the way. She had a large family and the girls would help her quilt. I remember the quilts being so heavy that you could not turn over when you slept under them. Oh,fond memories.

When I was old enough to hold a pair of scissors I would spend the night with my Grandma and she would give me a cardboard templete in the shape of a diamond. She would peice by hand and I would cut. Then go to sleep in her big feather bed. Oh what good times we had.

One of my daughters is fantastic with crocheting.She can do it without even looking at her hands. The other daughter laughs and says she passed the creative gene on to her children. But she is an amazing cook. She comes down to help me in my shop and makes sure my coffee pot stays full and cooks my dinner.

To funny :P :-P

My very first quilt...1983...a 15 block sampler.... all together with 9 blocks, hand quilted and is now rolled up stored in a canvas bag....

Daughter saw it a few months ago and said that it is the color of her bedroom...so I think that I will pack it up and send it out to her........

that's my earliest memory ....... and longest........

Old quilts made from old clothes were what we used for keeping warm when I was a kid.
The frist quilt I made, I saw was in a craft mag. It was made from old jeans. So I made one for our Queen size bed, I sewed some pockets on top, and a blanket for the bottom and that thing weighed 10 #'s. You couldn't move once you got under it. So I took it apart and made 2 small quilts out of it and the gr. kids now use those when they go to football games.
They tell lme they are warm. :thumbup:

I played this same game when I was about 5-6, back in the 70's. My grandmother, who was 80, had a scrap quilt that I loved to sleep under for that reason. :):)

I was one of the lucky ones to have been born under a quilting grandma. I have never had a store bought comforter until I married my husband. His Godmother wanted to buy him a very special gift for our wedding, so she bought us the entire bedding set. All we needed to supply was the bed. She had no idea I was a quilters grandchild, until our last gift to open..(that was on purpose to open hers last) was another beautiful quilt from my grandma. All made from the colors of our wedding, and one square in the dead center of it, was a copy of our wedding invitation. The work she had to do, to get that copied to a piece of material 33 years ago?? My mother then embroidered all the details of it. So to this day, I have never had a store bought quilt. I so remember learning as a child how to trace and cut out the pieces needed for her many many quilts. My grandfather had a table sat up in the living room for it. Their living room was so huge, one end was for just quilting, the other for watching T.V. This was all winter long.

Such beautiful stories....

I am the only quilter in my family....lots of talented seamstresses, knitters and embroiderers though. I have very happy memories of sleeping under my Nan's eiderdown. Big warm and filled with feathers with a very intricate sateen cover...we were travellers and it went absolutely everywhere with us.

I don't remember seeing my mother quilt when I was small. I think with three kids and a huge summer garden she just crocheted a lot because it was something she could lay down and pick up again in a hurry. She must have quilted after we went to bed because we always had quilts on our beds and she made sheets out of flour sacks and picked out matching feed sacks for quilt backs and used the scraps for blocks. One winter her sister, Anna stayed with us and she had me pressing fabrics for a crazy quilt and I got interested. I still have the quilt and it is absolutely the worst workmanship you ever saw, but its still warm and comforting. Years later after the kids were grown my mom made quilts and I have about a dozen of them. I know my sister had some too but she is gone now and I suppose her son got those. I have been making quilts for many years and all my children and grandchildren have quilts that I have made. I think my maternal grandmother made quilts but she and my paternal grandmother had passed away before I was old enough to remember them.

When my nana gave me a hand embroidered quilt I think I was 5\or so
Lisa

I remember my Mom getting out the quilts every fall when it turned cold. We didn't have heat up stairs so it took blankets and quilts plus flannel pj's to keep us warm. Every winter when that time came I always said that I got dibs on the navy blue polka dot comforter. I would have fought my brother and sister for that comforter, I loved it so much. It's long gone now. I wish I had just a little piece of it. It was very thick and tied with red yarn.
Good memories!

Playing under the quilt frame as Mom and the neighbor ladies

quilted and visited. Threading needles and watching them

take little bites of the fabric. :thumbup: :thumbup:

When I was about 6 years old, I got the German measles. I was so sick for such a very long time. My Grandmother didn't visit us very often, but one afternoon, when my siblings were at school, and I lay on the couch asleep, she came and gently touched my arm. I was laing there so depressed, but when I turned around, she stood there with the biggest card, with a big yellow duck on the front. I opened it up and it said "Dear Alisa, get well soon, Love Grandma." I had never seen a card so big in all my life! when I looked up she was holding a banana, which was a real treat to me back then. She said now lay back down and get some rest." I gave her a hug, laid down and she covered me with a "coat of many colors" as I used to call it. I used and abused that quilt and I still have it to this day. the edges are raveled adn the binding is no more. sometimes I think about fixing it, but then it wouldn't be my grandmothers quilt anymore. There is a twin bed in my sewing room and it lays at the foot neatly folded. Sometimes after a hard day, I just lay on that bed. hold it close, and reminisce.

When I was little I would go to my grandma's for "vacation".. I thought it was 'my' vacation, much later I learned it was vacation time for my parents! hahaha..

Anyway, My grandma taught me to do all sorts of different kinds of handwork.. knitting, crocheting, tatting, embroidery, crewel, painting, and quilting. From the time I was very little she would sit with me and we would quilt together.. If the stitches weren't good, she would make me take them out.. but to my knowledge, if she let them stay in she never removed them later.. I have loved handwork but especially quilting all my life thanks to her.

My mother made me a doll quilt out of 2 inch squares. I still have it. Also, at my grandmother's, she would pile the quilts on the bed until you couldn't turn over. The only heat she had was a coal fireplace and the bedrooms were chilly. So those quilts felt really good! I have a vague memory of a quilt frame suspended from the ceiling.

oops! :oops:

When I was 10, we moved into an old farmhouse. My sister and I shared the grand adventure of sharing the room over the barn. It was not heated, so it was pretty chilly in the winter. I remember my step mother bringing us a quilt, her great grandmother had made. It was a true 'crazy quilt' with no squares, just all over patches and fantastic embroidery. It was all velvet. It was pretty similar to the one I recently saw that sold for $70,000, but much bigger. I remember being so warm under it. It probably had home made wool batting since they were sheep farmers. I do remember it weighed a ton. Unfortunately we lost it in a barn fire years ago.

My abuelita (grandmother) would sew blocks together on her treadle machine while I played around her feet with my dolls. I was three. Nice memories.

I could have written this word for word. My quilting grandmother was born in the 19th century, and her quilts were mostly calicos and some solid woolens, and always very scrappy. I remember studying the colors and patterns and loving to watch her and my aunt sewing together. When gma passed away in 1956 we lived a few hours away. By the time we got there, not a single quilt was left. She had a huge family: 10 kids and 34 grands. Obviously, I was not the only one who loved those quilts. I may not have a quilt of hers, but I have something more valuable from my experiences with her, an appreciation for this wonderful hobby.

The first quilt I remember was made by my Grandmother. It was a Little Dutch Girl, somewhat like a Sunbonnet Sue. Their dresses were made from material from my aunts' dresses which my Grandmother also had made. My sister and I always loved to see if we could remember any of the fabrics that had been used. The little girls were appliqued on white squares and had pretty yellow borders.

It's funny, I'm the only grandchild that quilts but am also the only one who did not receive a quilt from my grandmother - guess she thought I did'nt need one of her's since I could make my own - boy was she wrong! - I came across a UFO of her's not too long ago (a red and yellow drunkard's path) that I need to complete so that I will have one of her's even though it will be partly mine.

I am lucky enough to have a quilt (a plain roman stripe) that my paternal grandmother made (she died when I was a year old so I never knew her) and just recently my dml gave me a quilt that was a gift from her sister. The quilt had been made by Aunt Margaret's mil not too long after they were married (1930's) and is a star pattern that I had never seen before. It had been in her cedar chest for years before she decided to get rid of it and I am so glad that she thought of me! it is beautiful and I am so thrilled to have it!

As for my earliest memory, I can't remember not being around quilts - used to set under the quilting frames watching the needles move in and out of the fabric. was always fasinated by that. made my first quilt when I was a senior in high school - a well loved nine patch (ugly - ugly) but am very happy to still have it - have thought about cutting it up and making teddy bears of it but just haven't gotten up the nerve to do so - it currently waits my pleasure in our extra room - maybe I'll cut it down and give a twin blanket to new dgs - that would be a way to pass it on - just thought of that

I remember when my mom would be sewing a quilt or we were covered with one she had made us, we would look at the fabric and remeber, hey I had a dress with this fabric, I had shorts with this one, oh I loved this skirt. It was fun. And of course the many times we would thread the needles for her. Now I ask my son, can you thread this needle for me?

When I was 13 I went with to my sister and brother in law's parents home. It was winter they lived in upper Minnesota in an old farm house with only a wood cooking stove no other heat. His mother spent most of her time up stairs sewing quilts just to keep them warm at night. They were dirt poor and wouldn't take any help not even from their own son. All of her quilts were made from men's ties and were beautiful. I have a few of her quilt tops that my brother in law asked me to finish for him. The tops are very heavy as she sewed the ties on to muslin squares when sewed the squares together. Oh they did later have better heating for the house.

How wonderful all the stories! We are truly making memories as well as quilts. Hopefully someday there will be stories of our quilts & the love & joy they gave to our descendants. Keep on quilting! LOL As if any of us could stop!

When I slept at my paternal grandparents there were hexagon quilts on the bed. On occasions she would have me draw round old cardboard templates onto newspaper and cut them out. When I was older, about 7, I was allowed to tack the fabric onto them. I spent hours with my Grandma doing this while she was sewing the hexagons together with the minutest of stitches and telling me tales of when she was young (in the Roaring 20s she was a "flapper" and danced on the stage.) This was all I knew of patchwork and never attempted it myself. I came to patchwork afer being talked into attending an evening class in September 1997 by a friend who wanted to make a hexagon quilt. However the class was all about rotary cutting and fast machine piecing which appealed to me and my friend didn't return the following week!

Earliest quilt memory. That was as a child in the '50s while taking a "drive" with my family. We had driven into the country, and I spotted what I thought was the most beautiful sight in the world. It was only for a few seconds, but I got my head out the window of that '54 Chevy to see appliqued and pieced quilts hanging on a clothes line with a "Quilts for Sale" sign stuck in the ground beneath them. My mother gave a disparaging remark, and my father continued driving. I gathered that I shouldn't care for handmade quilts. When I met my husband in the '60s I had another reason to celebrate...not only did he loved me, but he had two grandmothers that quilted.

no, I'm the same and o/here not many quilted, they made rag rugs from old clothes but we slept under wool blankets and cozy eiderdowns, first saw quilts wholecloth at a house sale and loved them.

PS we also had a feather filled "duvet" laid on top of mattress that was so comforting to snuggle in , downside was that it had to be shook daily to straighten it and level it out.

Making a doll quilt at girl scout doll camp, i think i was 11 at the time

My earliest memory is of playing under the quilt that my grandmother, mom and other ladies were quilting in her living room. She always had a quilt on a frame hanging from the ceiling. I "got" to thread needles onto a spool of thread for her since she struggled to see the needle eyes. I'd thread about 10-12 needles onto one spool, and she'd use them all by week's end. The quilts were all utility quilts--heavy, rough quilts that weren't necessarily pretty. They were made of large blocks of fabric and quilted to last. My grandmother had an old wringer-type washing machine and it had a load with a quilt went in. Of course, they were probably washed only once each year during late summer to get the musty smells and dust out. She hung a few on the line and beat them with a small broom in the spring before putting them away. We'd play under the quilts while they aired out, pretending they were tents.

My mother and her sisters would exchange quilt patterns. They were traced out on newspaper. At my grandmother's house there would be a quilt frame hanging from the ceiling (let down during the day/evening for quilting and pulled up at night) In our rural homes quilts were always a part of of lives. They kept us warm!!!! My mother was not really fond of the need to make quilts and when double blankets came out we got several of those. Also no one even thought of piecing these quilts by machine, they were all hand pieced. Feed sacks were used to make our clothes and the scraps were always saved for quilts. No one I know ever had a stash of anything but scraps from clothing.

There was just one quilt at our house while my sister and I were growing up. We think it was made by our Great Aunt. My mother kept it with the rollaway bed in case we had company, but also if we were sick we would be covered with that. That quilt became synonomous with "comfort" to me along with tea from Mom's best cups or other comfort measures offered. My Mom wasn't a sewer but I have always applauded her willingness to get supplies my Sister or I needed for sewing or art projects we dreamed up. Because it meant so much to me that she did that I tried to do the same for my children. I started quilting because I wanted quilts in my home and couldn't afford to buy antique ones. Since I've been in our current house I reproduced the quilt from my childhood...30's baskets on point with sashings and bright blue setting blocks. It's still a top right now. I want to copy the quilting in it as well. Now there's a UFO that needs finishing! I like to think my Aunt smiles down on us for reproducing her quilt. My sister made one too! I'll post pictures if I see how that can be done.

I was 5 and my grandma put a hand tied scrap quilt on me along with a feather bed quilt she made. I was so warm and cozy and felt so loved.

One night my grandmother came in from the town she lived in in East Texas. Since the bus got in about 9pm, it was probably close to 10pm when she got to our house. They woke me up to give me the new quilt she had made (a mini Dresden Plate). I was so thrilled. Next morning, we pointed out each fabric and where it had come from... Papa's shirt, her dress, my father's shirt, my cousin Linda's piano recital dress, etc. I still have that quilt - a bit tattered and smelling of mothballs, but present. :) Also, her house didn't have central heat, so in the winter, we had to use up to five quilts, and I was very particular about which patterns were in "my" quilts. Picky-picky. But how I loved those quilts.

I love these quilt stories. :thumbup: Keep em coming :P