A special quilt for my parents
07-18-2017, 11:27 AM
#61
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Location: Oregon
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[ATTACH=CONFIG]576754[/ATTACH]
The 9 patch cat block is the "opposite" of the one on the first page. I forgot to note that my SIL made the two cat 9 patch blocks.
The horse blocks are for my dad. He grew up not having his own horse, but riding his neighbor's and those of friends. As sheriff, he brought back the Sheriff's Posse, doing parades and search and rescue.
When I was in Jr. High, my older brother had just finished boot camp. He was home for a few weeks in the summer, so dad, older brother, younger brother and I all went camping, with horses. Dad had his own horse that he boarded with friends, along with an older, smaller horse he had for my little brother. We borrowed to more from a friend of his for the week-long trip. Campfires, horseback riding on mountain trails, cooking over the fire with a dutch oven, an bathing in the ice cold White River. My brothers and I were often at odds (one was 7 years older, one 5 years younger), but we all got along great on this trip, the better relationship with older brother growing after he went to boot camp. My dad thinks of this trip often, and I'm glad I was part of it (Mom and sisters chose not to go).
Dad also loves "Westerns", both books and movies.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576756[/ATTACH]
More dogs for dad, and garden tools for mom. The coffee is a "both" block. They are both big coffee drinkers, and there was always a pot in the kitchen growing up. For the most part, us kids left the boiling hot coffee alone, but there was one bad incident where my brother got to mom's coffee, and he still has scars from the third degree burn.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576755[/ATTACH]
More horses for dad, and more insects for mom.
Horse block is a bit of a "both", as mom was the one to drive cattle as a kid/teen.
When my son was little, she got him a magnifying glass cup, so they could catch bugs and look at them.
The 9 patch cat block is the "opposite" of the one on the first page. I forgot to note that my SIL made the two cat 9 patch blocks.
The horse blocks are for my dad. He grew up not having his own horse, but riding his neighbor's and those of friends. As sheriff, he brought back the Sheriff's Posse, doing parades and search and rescue.
When I was in Jr. High, my older brother had just finished boot camp. He was home for a few weeks in the summer, so dad, older brother, younger brother and I all went camping, with horses. Dad had his own horse that he boarded with friends, along with an older, smaller horse he had for my little brother. We borrowed to more from a friend of his for the week-long trip. Campfires, horseback riding on mountain trails, cooking over the fire with a dutch oven, an bathing in the ice cold White River. My brothers and I were often at odds (one was 7 years older, one 5 years younger), but we all got along great on this trip, the better relationship with older brother growing after he went to boot camp. My dad thinks of this trip often, and I'm glad I was part of it (Mom and sisters chose not to go).
Dad also loves "Westerns", both books and movies.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576756[/ATTACH]
More dogs for dad, and garden tools for mom. The coffee is a "both" block. They are both big coffee drinkers, and there was always a pot in the kitchen growing up. For the most part, us kids left the boiling hot coffee alone, but there was one bad incident where my brother got to mom's coffee, and he still has scars from the third degree burn.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576755[/ATTACH]
More horses for dad, and more insects for mom.
Horse block is a bit of a "both", as mom was the one to drive cattle as a kid/teen.
When my son was little, she got him a magnifying glass cup, so they could catch bugs and look at them.
Last edited by Sleepy Hollow; 07-18-2017 at 11:34 AM.
07-18-2017, 11:53 AM
#62
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Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Central California
Posts: 1,270
This quilt is amazing! Love the stories and agree with a post from above to somehow put these stories in a journal to be kept with the quilt. Love all the blocks & cant wait to see the finished quilt.
07-18-2017, 04:45 PM
#63
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Oregon
Posts: 890
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576783[/ATTACH]
The red 4 patch has birds and bird houses. They usually have at least one birdhouse around the yard. More garden tools, and I wanted to have a pair of garden gloves somewhere in the quilt. Over the years my mom has probably gone through hundreds of pairs, and she always keeps extra around for us to use when we come to help her, in case we forgot our own.
The grill block is for my dad (I got the block in an I-spy swap on the boards, and it was perfect!) During the summer, it wasn't unusual to have steak for dinner every other night. Somehow they got it cheap enough.
The ice cream block... When we would go to "the big city", we would sometimes stop at an ice cream stand on the way home. They would have swirled ice cream about a foot high in the cone. The ice cream stand is still there, but they don't do the ice cream as big as they used to. When we got ice cream for home (rare), we often got Tin Roof Sundae.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576784[/ATTACH]
Another sewing related 4 patch for mom.
The little barn fabric was used as a "filler" since all my blocks were different sizes. When we would go to gramma and grampa's house, we'd play games in the barn (when there wasn't a big wasp nest). My grampa built the barn and the house.
The house fabric is another filler fabric, but more dressed up. We always had a dog and a clothesline, both of which are in the fabric.
The camera fabric (also an I-spy fabric) is for my dad. He's been into photography as long as I can remember, and it's one of his hobbies that I share with him. I bought my first camera in fifth grade, with money from my paper route. As adults, we all pitched in to buy him a nice digital camera and send him to a class. When he's feeling better, I need to get him out more so he can use it.
The red 4 patch has birds and bird houses. They usually have at least one birdhouse around the yard. More garden tools, and I wanted to have a pair of garden gloves somewhere in the quilt. Over the years my mom has probably gone through hundreds of pairs, and she always keeps extra around for us to use when we come to help her, in case we forgot our own.
The grill block is for my dad (I got the block in an I-spy swap on the boards, and it was perfect!) During the summer, it wasn't unusual to have steak for dinner every other night. Somehow they got it cheap enough.
The ice cream block... When we would go to "the big city", we would sometimes stop at an ice cream stand on the way home. They would have swirled ice cream about a foot high in the cone. The ice cream stand is still there, but they don't do the ice cream as big as they used to. When we got ice cream for home (rare), we often got Tin Roof Sundae.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576784[/ATTACH]
Another sewing related 4 patch for mom.
The little barn fabric was used as a "filler" since all my blocks were different sizes. When we would go to gramma and grampa's house, we'd play games in the barn (when there wasn't a big wasp nest). My grampa built the barn and the house.
The house fabric is another filler fabric, but more dressed up. We always had a dog and a clothesline, both of which are in the fabric.
The camera fabric (also an I-spy fabric) is for my dad. He's been into photography as long as I can remember, and it's one of his hobbies that I share with him. I bought my first camera in fifth grade, with money from my paper route. As adults, we all pitched in to buy him a nice digital camera and send him to a class. When he's feeling better, I need to get him out more so he can use it.
07-18-2017, 05:00 PM
#64
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Oregon
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[ATTACH=CONFIG]576785[/ATTACH]
My sister made this one for my mom. They've always had cats. Strays, ones that "adopted" my mom, etc. I can only remember getting kittens a couple times (that were planned, we did have an "oops" batch from a shelter cat).
When I was either in fifth or sixth grade, I was delivering the newspaper early on a Sunday morning and I had a very pregnant cat start following me. I knew it belonged to one of the neighbors, and just figured it would go home. It didn't. A couple blocks later, it kept laying in the middle of the street. Very little traffic that early in the morning, but I knew it would get hit if I left it. So, I put it in the back of my newspaper bag (the style that goes over your shoulders and has bags in the front and the back). Five blocks later, I'm crossing the street and hear a big meow, and a tiny meow. Fortunately I was right next to a house where I knew the family well--my mom babysat their two kids. I knocked on their door and left the mom and kitten with her family so I could finish my route (she was excited, as she had wanted her kids to see a cat give birth, but didn't want to contribute to the cat population).
We found the right neighbor and later delivered her cat and kittens to her in a box. I could tell "my" kitten from the others because it had a white tip on its tail. The local newspaper did a story on me, holding "my" kitten (it was their paper I had been delivering). My mom saw me holding the kitten, and said "NO". A few weeks later though, we found out the kittens were all leaving, so if I wanted to see it I had one last chance. Guess who came home with me! As she was born while I was crossing Bridge street, I named her Bridgette. We also had a cat named Kelly at that time, named for Kelly Street (we got him from the vet, he had been hit by a car on that street and later that cat adopted our dog, so we came home from vacation with our dog and a new cat...)
My mom was very strict, but she's a pushover for a good cat
My sister made this one for my mom. They've always had cats. Strays, ones that "adopted" my mom, etc. I can only remember getting kittens a couple times (that were planned, we did have an "oops" batch from a shelter cat).
When I was either in fifth or sixth grade, I was delivering the newspaper early on a Sunday morning and I had a very pregnant cat start following me. I knew it belonged to one of the neighbors, and just figured it would go home. It didn't. A couple blocks later, it kept laying in the middle of the street. Very little traffic that early in the morning, but I knew it would get hit if I left it. So, I put it in the back of my newspaper bag (the style that goes over your shoulders and has bags in the front and the back). Five blocks later, I'm crossing the street and hear a big meow, and a tiny meow. Fortunately I was right next to a house where I knew the family well--my mom babysat their two kids. I knocked on their door and left the mom and kitten with her family so I could finish my route (she was excited, as she had wanted her kids to see a cat give birth, but didn't want to contribute to the cat population).
We found the right neighbor and later delivered her cat and kittens to her in a box. I could tell "my" kitten from the others because it had a white tip on its tail. The local newspaper did a story on me, holding "my" kitten (it was their paper I had been delivering). My mom saw me holding the kitten, and said "NO". A few weeks later though, we found out the kittens were all leaving, so if I wanted to see it I had one last chance. Guess who came home with me! As she was born while I was crossing Bridge street, I named her Bridgette. We also had a cat named Kelly at that time, named for Kelly Street (we got him from the vet, he had been hit by a car on that street and later that cat adopted our dog, so we came home from vacation with our dog and a new cat...)
My mom was very strict, but she's a pushover for a good cat
07-18-2017, 08:07 PM
#66
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Oregon
Posts: 890
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576789[/ATTACH]
This block is for both parents. Around the time of the 150 year anniversary of the Oregon Trail, my mom made my dad quite a few period costumes (vests and shirts). A friend of theirs built replica wagons, and we'd ride in that for a parade. For a church dinner, they built little wagons using a scroll saw and small slats of wood (I believe some were paint stir sticks). They put in a lot of work, even had some of us kids making mini quilts to go inside the wagon (so, I guess a 6" nine block quilt was officially my first quilt I ever made...)
I used a pattern to applique the wagon, using a satin stitch for the straps on the barrel. I wasn't confident enough to try that for the spokes of the wheel, so I painted them instead. Not a bad deal though, when I was a teen, my mom and I painted a lot of pillow cases, mini statues, etc, so it reminded me of that time.
This block is for both parents. Around the time of the 150 year anniversary of the Oregon Trail, my mom made my dad quite a few period costumes (vests and shirts). A friend of theirs built replica wagons, and we'd ride in that for a parade. For a church dinner, they built little wagons using a scroll saw and small slats of wood (I believe some were paint stir sticks). They put in a lot of work, even had some of us kids making mini quilts to go inside the wagon (so, I guess a 6" nine block quilt was officially my first quilt I ever made...)
I used a pattern to applique the wagon, using a satin stitch for the straps on the barrel. I wasn't confident enough to try that for the spokes of the wheel, so I painted them instead. Not a bad deal though, when I was a teen, my mom and I painted a lot of pillow cases, mini statues, etc, so it reminded me of that time.
07-18-2017, 08:10 PM
#67
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Oregon
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[ATTACH=CONFIG]576790[/ATTACH]
My aunt, my mom's sister, made this block years ago and gave it to my brother. He wasn't going to use it, so he donated it to our quilt. Mom grew up in a house with a view of the Three Sisters mountains. Ever since moving out of Central Oregon, she's missed "her mountains".
The Star Wars fabric is part of the border. It's one of the movies we watched often as a family.
ETA-- the fabric on the bottom with purple flowers was a fabric my mom used in several projects. I remember she made a period dress and parasol for the Judge's wife to use during various Oregon Trail celebrations. She found a child's umbrella and covered that with the fabric. She offered to open it back up and cover the Minnie Mouse that just barely showed through in the sunlight, but the woman had her keep it. She loved showing off the parasol and pointing out the Minnie Mouse to people
My aunt, my mom's sister, made this block years ago and gave it to my brother. He wasn't going to use it, so he donated it to our quilt. Mom grew up in a house with a view of the Three Sisters mountains. Ever since moving out of Central Oregon, she's missed "her mountains".
The Star Wars fabric is part of the border. It's one of the movies we watched often as a family.
ETA-- the fabric on the bottom with purple flowers was a fabric my mom used in several projects. I remember she made a period dress and parasol for the Judge's wife to use during various Oregon Trail celebrations. She found a child's umbrella and covered that with the fabric. She offered to open it back up and cover the Minnie Mouse that just barely showed through in the sunlight, but the woman had her keep it. She loved showing off the parasol and pointing out the Minnie Mouse to people
Last edited by Sleepy Hollow; 07-18-2017 at 08:14 PM.
07-18-2017, 10:06 PM
#68
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Oregon
Posts: 890
Last one for tonight...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576792[/ATTACH]
As I mentioned earlier, I was one of five kids.
Every Christmas, my parents would disappear into their room for a while and wrap Christmas presents. They'd spread this out over several nights.
We'd wait in the living room, and they would call us to their door and hand over a few presents. Somewhere on the wrapping paper, my dad would hide a name. If there was a tree with ornaments, the name might be hidden with a letter in each ornament. Or it might be along the runner of Santa's sleigh, or inside a snowflake... The oldest would get to look first, and then pass it to the next oldest without saying the name they found. Or, if there were enough presents handed out at once, we'd each get to start with a present. Once we had all found a name, we compared the name. More than once we had to send a present back because we had found two different names-- because mom and dad reused the wrapping paper every year!
Once we all agreed that we had found just one name, the present went under the tree until Christmas morning. We weren't allowed to "sort" the presents, so the search for names would happen again on Christmas, until we each had a present to open, one at a time.
They didn't worry about making sure we all had the same number of presents, but they would try to get them somewhat close.
It made for a fun Christmas morning of opening presents, even when there weren't many, and then dad would make omelets for everyone.
I hid each of the five kids' names on the present (although I blocked them out for posting online). I even have one ornament where the name is scribbled out, because of course it's used wrapping paper!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576792[/ATTACH]
As I mentioned earlier, I was one of five kids.
Every Christmas, my parents would disappear into their room for a while and wrap Christmas presents. They'd spread this out over several nights.
We'd wait in the living room, and they would call us to their door and hand over a few presents. Somewhere on the wrapping paper, my dad would hide a name. If there was a tree with ornaments, the name might be hidden with a letter in each ornament. Or it might be along the runner of Santa's sleigh, or inside a snowflake... The oldest would get to look first, and then pass it to the next oldest without saying the name they found. Or, if there were enough presents handed out at once, we'd each get to start with a present. Once we had all found a name, we compared the name. More than once we had to send a present back because we had found two different names-- because mom and dad reused the wrapping paper every year!
Once we all agreed that we had found just one name, the present went under the tree until Christmas morning. We weren't allowed to "sort" the presents, so the search for names would happen again on Christmas, until we each had a present to open, one at a time.
They didn't worry about making sure we all had the same number of presents, but they would try to get them somewhat close.
It made for a fun Christmas morning of opening presents, even when there weren't many, and then dad would make omelets for everyone.
I hid each of the five kids' names on the present (although I blocked them out for posting online). I even have one ornament where the name is scribbled out, because of course it's used wrapping paper!
07-20-2017, 08:04 AM
#69
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Oregon
Posts: 890
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576851[/ATTACH]
Another block that's just a panel, mostly in there because of the barn. Gramma and Grampa did grow corn, but not this much!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576852[/ATTACH]
My SIL pieced four small leaf blocks together, and I scattered them throughout the quilt. My dad's favorite season is fall, and mom has done a lot of decorations with leaves. She often didn't just do flower arrangements at the church, but would decorate the foyer as well. Someone asked her how she got her leaves to look placed so "naturally". She told them she just grabbed a handful and threw them...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576853[/ATTACH]
The thimble fabric on the side is a "filler fabric".
The cuckoo clock-- my parents had always wanted a cuckoo clock. Mom even bought a really cheap plastic one years ago (it now hangs on the porch). In 2015, my son and I went on a five week trip to Europe. The trip had been a dream of mine, but we had one problem-- my dog. I couldn't find a neighbor kid to come feed her/walk her a couple times a day, and the trip was long so boarding her would be expensive (and not ideal for her). She was a sweet dog, but had been a shelter dog, and I didn't want her feeling abandoned and in a cage for that long. My parents offered to keep her for me. She was just a doll, but man she was a character, stubborn, etc. And she didn't move around things, she was so solid that she would walk into something and it would just move out of her way. She loved to chew on plastic and rubber, but even with all her toys, my parents lost a flip-flop and a fly swatter to her!
As a "thank you" for taking care of her, I bought a cuckoo clock from Germany for them. I was even able to find one without beer (they don't drink). I put it up for them when it arrived, and they "wind" it every day. They definitely earned that clock!
Another block that's just a panel, mostly in there because of the barn. Gramma and Grampa did grow corn, but not this much!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576852[/ATTACH]
My SIL pieced four small leaf blocks together, and I scattered them throughout the quilt. My dad's favorite season is fall, and mom has done a lot of decorations with leaves. She often didn't just do flower arrangements at the church, but would decorate the foyer as well. Someone asked her how she got her leaves to look placed so "naturally". She told them she just grabbed a handful and threw them...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]576853[/ATTACH]
The thimble fabric on the side is a "filler fabric".
The cuckoo clock-- my parents had always wanted a cuckoo clock. Mom even bought a really cheap plastic one years ago (it now hangs on the porch). In 2015, my son and I went on a five week trip to Europe. The trip had been a dream of mine, but we had one problem-- my dog. I couldn't find a neighbor kid to come feed her/walk her a couple times a day, and the trip was long so boarding her would be expensive (and not ideal for her). She was a sweet dog, but had been a shelter dog, and I didn't want her feeling abandoned and in a cage for that long. My parents offered to keep her for me. She was just a doll, but man she was a character, stubborn, etc. And she didn't move around things, she was so solid that she would walk into something and it would just move out of her way. She loved to chew on plastic and rubber, but even with all her toys, my parents lost a flip-flop and a fly swatter to her!
As a "thank you" for taking care of her, I bought a cuckoo clock from Germany for them. I was even able to find one without beer (they don't drink). I put it up for them when it arrived, and they "wind" it every day. They definitely earned that clock!
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