copycat

When I was a teenager, a lady went door to door selling her quilts. I was heading off to college and needed a bedspread.
I saw a blue jean quilt and purchased it for $30. (1970's). It became my dorm quilt, and later after getting married, it became a play mat for the kids and later kept us warm at high school football games.

WMUTeach

In the 1950's my grandmother lived in a home reminiscent of a turn of the century farm house. No electricity, no indoor plumbing, and a wood stove for cooking and heating. I was entranced by her way of life and learned skills from her that more modern grandmas would not have known. For instance I know how to clean the chimneys of kerosene lamps. I learned the value education, she was a college graduate in 1907. She saved what could be reused, sewed by kerosene light, baked bread and I watched her sew by treadle machine. When I got to spend the night with her, I slept under a quilt she had made. It was all triangles that I now believe to be dresses, shirts and feed sack fabric. I have one diamond of an unfinished pair of triangles found in her sewing. It is a cherished piece of my family history. One of my cousins recently showed me a quilt that belonged to our grandmother that also included old linen toweling and in very poor condition. She asked me to repair the quilt. After discussion, she saw the value in protecting the quilt but not making attempts to repair it. The quilt was so fragile and weak that repair really is not an option.

juliasb

My oldest sister was 21 years my senior as a kid when we would go to visit her she had some of the most beautiful quilts on her beds imaginable. Since here home was back deep in the hills of MO there were more than a couple quilts on each bed. I loved to go through them and just look at the different patterns. I also would watch her cutting up pieces on newspaper. The fabrics were always feed sacks. I craved learning at her feet. We were never there long enough for me to learn much by observation. It wasn't until I was in my 30's that I started to learn to do patchwork quilting. After she got older she sent to me many of her pattern books and I cherish them and have used them for a number of quilts. Using a rotary cutter made the process much easier that how I watched her cut with scissors. As a teen ager she sent to me for Christmas my first completed quilt top. It took me a couple years before I sewed it together for use. It finally wore out. I only wish I still had it.. My earliest memories of course were of my oldest sister.

bkay

I have several memories of quilts and quilting from my childhood. My paternal grandmother lived in an old farm house that was heating with a wood stove in the living room only. When you went to bed, they put all of us cousins in a big bed with a ton of quilts on us. It was so cold, that when you made a warm spot, you didn't move as the sheets were were freezing cold. You just stayed in one position all night.

I remember going to my maternal grandmother's house which was a small cottage. The cousins slept on pallets made from quilts, as she had tons of quilts.

I also remember going to her house when she had a quilt hanging on a frame in the living room. I remember all the older cousins and aunts all sitting around the frame quilting and talking.

It was a long time ago.

bkay

Iceblossom

I didn't grow up in a family with quilts, more about the goose down comforters and such.

But I was crafty and a Camp Fire Girl and a Girl Scout and when I was a Senior in High School I decided I wanted to make a quilt to take with me to college. That was 1977 (fall), before the rotary revolution, and I bought the fabric for something less than $20 (because that was my budget) from the Montgomery Wards Catalog

I learned a lot from that project and have quilted ever since, in the dorms at school, a sewing machine was one of my first major purchases. Its been fun seeing new tools and techniques, and I feel I was on the best part of the wave -- so far anway.

Sheri.a

There were 9 children in our family and money was very tight. Mom took a few old blankets with holes in them and used them as batting for a quilt. The top and bottom were not pieced - just a calico fabric. She tied the quilt. It was used for years. I remember her on the floor tying the quilt. I suspect it was a pain to do since that was the last quilt she made.

madamekelly

I saw a very old quilt that the owner had encased in tulle, front and back so she could display it one her guest bed and cause no further damage. She used tulle that matched the main color. It was still truly beautiful. Maybe you could do this?

Claire123

I was given a Dresden plate in third grade. I still have it. It really gave me an interest in quilts.

Battle Axe

I don't think my Granny made this quilt, but it is the most memorable one. It was a scrap postage stamp with the rectangles being 1/2 by 3/4 inches: so tiny. She would put me down for a nap and tell me that there were only three pairs of squares in the quilt that were alike. It was my job to find a pair. Of course I would fall asleep before long any were found.

IceLeopard

Mine is sleeping under a Trip Around The World quilt my maternal grandmother made. My sister has it now. It's well-worn, and the batting (cotton, I presume) has all wadded up into little pills. Hand-sewn and hand-quilted, of course, because Granny was an old-school quilter. If every stitch wasn't done by hand it wasn't a real quilt. I remember being fascinated by the border fabric. It was black with . . . pairs of gloves? Hands? In bright colors. It has to date from the 1950s or earlier.