Great-Grandma's Quilts

Quilting runs deep in my family, on both sides. My dad's great grandma made quilts, his grandma made quilts, and even a step-great grandma made quilts. A couple weeks ago my cousins, brother & sis-in-law, and my mom cleaned out the upstairs at my grandma's house. My brother rescued two boxes of quilts. The first box contained a couple quilt tops that my dad's great-grandma had made. They are the most worn and I didn't get pictures.
It also contained this crazy quilt made out of wools and polyester knits. It's really heavy! The "batting" was a checkered blanket as you can see the black/white check in the light spots of the quilt. We found another top just like it, but it's not finished. It needs binding.

Then we found a quilt his grandma made with butterflies. His grandma was known for making these butterfly quilts. They were all pieced by hand and then later sewn with a diagonal quilting line on the machine. My dad and his brothers each got one when they got married. My dad waited so long to get married, she made him one, then when he got married, she made him another. We also found a set of butterfly blocks that were completely made, just need to be made into a quilt.

This was another quilt that was hand pieced and then machine quilted on the diagonal.

This quilt was marked log cabin, but it's obviously not. It's more of a rail fence. It was made by my dad's step great grandma.

This one was also made by my dad's great grandma. It's all hand pieced and machine quilted. We have one similar made to it, that looks like poinsettia's and we consider it a Christmas quilt. They are made with the same green fabric.

This one is an Irish chain made by dad's great grandma.

The next couple are just tops, but are all hand pieced. It looks to me like great grandma pieced them all by hand and was starting to quilt them all by machine, but just never got these done. If I was to finish them, I'd probably just do a plain white straight stitch on the diagonal across them all.

This one is also hand pieced and needs to be quilted.


The same goes for this one, although it's got a lot more open area. They used a lot of green and aqua colored fabrics for the borders in many of the quilts.

We're not sure what we'll do with the quilts, but I'm just excited they were saved from going to the dump. They are so intricate and the hand piecing so amazing, that I'm just enamored by them! Since I didn't do any quilting this weekend, this was as close as I came.

Carter's Baby Quilt

My friends Cory and Angie had a little boy in Nov. of 2006 and I made this baby quilt for him. I embroidered his name on it and fussy cut the blocks from a panel. Their room theme was barn yard, so when I saw the panel I immediately thought of them. I finished it in Jan. 2007.

Mom's Friendship Braid Christmas Quilt

In Feb. 2006 mom wanted to take a Friendship Braid Class from one of our favorite instructors, but she had broke her leg and couldn't take the class. I didn't want to pay for the class or buy the fabric, since it was a scrap class and I had none, so we made a deal. I would take the class and do all the sewing during the class. She would provide the scraps, help with the homework sewing, and pay for the class. We got the entire top done by the end of the class. So I told her I would quilt it if she would pin baste. So I quilted it on my 6600 and it turned the machine red!


This was the first quilt I tried using a stensil and FMQin on. It was definately a learning experience and I'm not real great at it, but I knew mom would understand. As I did more, they did get better.

I echo quilted around the braids and then did the stencil in the red.

Dad's Barn Wall Hanging

Another barn pattern I found was this paper pieced one. I made it for my dad in 2006 for Christmas. It has pictures of the barn before it was moved, and after it was put into place.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Jane's Wall Hangings

I made a wall hanging with pictures for my aunt Jane for Christmas with family pictures.

I made Uncle Tom a firefighter wall hanging because he was a fire chief.

Paul's Pillow Case

I made something for everyone for Christmas 06. Paul wanted a pillowcase, so I got this fun cars fabric and made him one. It's for his TV pillow and Missy claims it pretty often. I love making pillowcases with the serger because they are super fast.

Coasters

For Christmas 2006 I made coasters using Carol Doak paper pieced patterns, timtex, and a satin stitch. I made about 10 co-workers each one. They were super fast and some I even fussy cut centers. I used scraps from other projects.

Tool Caddy

I made this tool caddy using the Carol Doak online instructions. It turned out super cute and it holds all my quick turn tubes. I made it in two days in Oct. 06.

Carol Doak Quilt Group Postcard Swap

In Fall of 2006, I participated in a postcard swap on the CDOQG. I made these two Halloween themed ones from her 300 paper pieced blocks book. It was a lot of fun. In 2007 Jen and I had a bad experience with a postcard swap and I haven't done one since, but luckily that's how we became friends and I'm so happy we were able to get to know each other through that ordeal.

Carol Doak Quilt Group

Back in Fall 2006 I was pretty active in the Carol Doak Online Quilt Group. I really learned to paper piece and actually fell in love with it for a time. This is the 1000 member block which turned into a trivet for a relative of Paul's.

I used this beginners block to learn and then gave it away as a trivet to another relative.

I started the row by row quilt and got two rows done and quit. I wasn't interested in finishing, but it was a good learning experience.


I'm glad I learned to paper piece and I really do enjoy it, but at this time in my life it's not at the top of my priority list.

Cousin's Christmas Presents

I made this wall hanging for my cousin Tommy and his wife Alice. The barn is the one they are redoing. I should take a new picture now as the roof is new and it's been painted and has their brands on the front.

Since I made everyone else something I couldn't leave out Chan & Vicki. I made a tablerunner for them using more of the barn fabric I had collected.

Co-Workers Christmas Gifts

In '06 I made each of my co-workers a little quilted gift. I made this wall hanging for my boss Marcie. It was the miniature challenge on the Carol Doak group and I used a gold lame that I put black interfacing on. I added letters from her 300 paper pieced blocks book.

I made this for my other boss Ann. She loves stars, so I used a star background fabric.

Then I made my co-workers little paper pieced coasters and used timtex in the center and satin stitched around them.

Uncle Tom & Aunt Helen's Barn Wall Hanging

Back in April '06 when mom and I were on our quilty road trip, I saw all kinds of beautiful old red barns in MN, SD, IA, and NE. I think they are absolutely gorgeous. My cousin Tommy had bought an old barn and had it moved to my Uncle Tom's ranch that year and they were in the process of fixing it up and I was always taking pictures of it. I bought 3 or 4 patterns with barns and lots of barn fabrics on our trip. In the bottom picture you an kind of see that the red fabric was printed like red painted wood. It was so cool and I found the green grass which I loved too. This barn was paper pieced and it was a pain in the neck to match all the "red wood" and get the right angles. I fussy cut the horses next to the barn too. The pattern was horrible, but thankfully I had learned the Carol Doak way and was easily able to figure out how to do the paper piecing. I didn't want to do the corners the way they said because they were half square triangles, but I was at Sit and Sew and mom "made" me do them. They actually made this turn out really cool, so I'm glad she did. I gave it to my Uncle Tom and Aunt Helen for Christmas in 2006.

Dad's Christmas Quilt

For Christmas 2006 I made everyone on my gift list something. This is the rag quilt I made for my dad out of his old jeans and a pheasant fabric. I used 8 1/2" squares and did an X through them with a verigated brown thread. I ran out of three spools before buying the large cone. My dad did get a new chair that year, so this quilt stays on the back of the chair as it matched.