Battle Axe

One of my go-to books is by Jinny Beyer. It was about $50.00 many years ago. It hs the names of the blocks and where they were first published. Many came out of the 1930s from newspapers. It's called: Quilters Album of Patchwork Patterns. It has over 4000 blocks.

patchwork

My grandmother always had a quilt in progress in her front room on her quilting frame (two sawhorses and 4 2x4's and 4 clamps) I am fortunate to have several of her quilts, some hand quilted and some tied. She was a great women and I hope I can be even half the person she was. I started sewing on a treadle machine at 7 on feed sacks. Never quilted until 15 years ago but I sewed all my clothes and did commercial sewing for a time. Now I am obsessed and make at least 3 quilts a month for charity plus more. What a great hobby and look at what you can accomplish and feel good.

Karamarie

Here is my story - when I was a senior in high school, my boyfriend went into the Navy and I wanted to stay true to him so I needed something to do when my friends were going out on weekends on dates. My Mom gave me scraps from her and my sewing (I was in 4-H and sewed dresses & skirts for myself and sisters) and gave me a a half square cardboard triangle pattern and told me to trace, cut and sew the half square triangles into squares. I did that and used a quilting frame borrowed from a neighbor and tied it. My first quilt. It was a scrappy but looked great (in my thinking)I have now been married 52 years to that same boyfriend and continue to quilt. What a life. I know some of you can relate to my story.

carolynjo

I come, thankfully, from a long line of quilters--try 1800's. I don't have any of those quilts, though. Probably worn out. When my mom died, some of my family raided the house and took all the best quilts. Imagine seeing one on a bed 600 miles away, at my nephew's house!!

SuziSew

Such a wonderful thread...

I learned to sew when I was younger and sewed sporadically into adulthood. My Grandma and Great Aunt used to quilt all of the time and in my 30's I started going to visit grandma and she taught me to hand quilt and basics for piecing. We would sit in one room and listen to Jeopardy and Wheel of Fourtune and try to guess answers. We had some of the best talks and I learned so much about her and her life that I didn't know as a child. She made mainly scrappies, and used all kinds of leftovers, even made a few of the polyester knit quilts. When she put her mind to it she made some lovely quilts.

When she had to go to a nursing home, I made sure the quilts she had made were given out fairly to all of the children and grandkids. She's been gone for several years know and I still have have a few tops that she made, I still tear up when I pull them out but hope to get them quilted in the next few years.

Deecee

What wonderful memories of grandmothers and quilting many of you have.

There are no quilters in my family except myself but my grandmother was a tailoress by profession and taught my mother to sew. Mum made most of our clothes growing up and never ventured away from garment sewing but she was a very artistic person and she passed that on to me in various ways. It was that love of colour and design that drew me to quilting and I so wish I still had that old Singer treadle that mum used to sew on.

DonnaPBradshaw

I only had one grandmother that I sewed with. She made clothes and baby quilts. She helped make some clothes for my wedding. She was so special and I dearly miss her. When she died as I stood next to her bed, she spoke to me and told me not to cry because she was so happy! How can I not feel close to her!

lindahharris

Both of my grandmothers made a lot of quilts. My maternal grandmother made quilts to use as pallets outside or on the floor. My paternal grandmother's quilts were pretty and perfect and on the bed only. I have lots of quilts from both. One quilt has the cotton bats with cotton seeds in a few places. Another quilt is made from old sock tops. I remember sitting under the quilt frame while my grandmother and several of my aunts and great aunts quilted. I loved the gossip. I think they forgot my cousin and I were there. My first experience helping with a quilt was to draw clam shell patterns on a quilt with a string attached to a piece of chalk. I miss my grandmothers so much. All of their quilts are put away in a wooden quilt box that belonged to a great aunt. It is over 100 years old.