The Golden Wedding Anniversary Quilt

My Aunt Mayme taught me to quilt when I was 13 years old. By the time I was 15, I was hooked. I did not have a sewing machine of my own back then. I learned how to operate my Mom’s old Necchi machine. The big talk of the summer was the upcoming Golden Wedding Anniversary of my Grandma Gert and Grandpa Nick. There was going to be a big party with music and dancing. How excited I was! I wanted to make them something special, so I decided on a quilt.

I chose an eight point star pattern. Now remember I was just entering my 2^nd year of quilting. I did not even think about the difficulty level of the project at hand. I saw a picture of this pattern and it only had one template. I thought this must be an easy pattern…..  Just one template! I had a small brown paper bag at the time that was filled with my fabric stash. This bag was like a treasure chest to me. I had never heard of the color wheel, and gave no thought to which colors went well with another. All I knew was that this quilt had to be beautiful.

I went thru the fabric bag and selected a few fabrics for each star block. I then cut several diamond templates from cardboard cereal boxes for my pattern. I started tracing my templates with a number 2 pencil and cutting the diamonds by hand. No rotary cutter for me back then. I put my little stacks of diamonds together in plastic baggies, so as not to mix them up. When I had all nine blocks cut out, I put them in a cardboard shoebox with a spool of white thread, a needle and a small scissors. This was my sewing kit for the project and I was so happy I could finally start to sew. The diamonds were very small, so I decided I had better sew them together by hand. I had seen Mayme do it a million times. How hard could it be??

I worked all summer on that quilt and when I finally had the stars assembled, I had to figure out how to put in the white corner squares and triangles. This part was more difficult than sewing the diamonds. When it came to adding the sashing and border I used the sewing machine, and then I really made progress. My Dad was overseeing the quilt project from the start. He kept telling me that I will never get it done in time for the big day. Once the top was done, I then stretched it into my large wooden floor frame and hand quilted it. The quilt was still in the frame the night before the party. My dad told me I would never get it done. I worked all night and even hand sewed the binding. By morning it was on the kitchen table, all wrapped up in shiny gold paper tied with a big bow. There is a sad part to this story. The big day flew by and by evening all the gifts were taken to the farm and I didn’t get to see them open their gift. I never saw my beautiful quilt again. I didn’t even take a picture of it when it was finished. When Grandma and Grandpa passed away, everything was divided between the children. One day while I was talking to my oldest daughter April, I brought up the quilt. Thirty-five years had gone by and I had no idea where the quilt was. The last time I had actually seen the quilt was that night so long ago when I wrapped it up for their party. I told April that of all the quilts I have given away over the years, this is one I would like to see again. Well, it didn’t take long for her to call the youngest aunt, Alice, and ask her about the quilt. We found out that the quilt was given to one of the aunts who had asked for it when Grandma passed away. April asked if she could see the quilt, and take some pictures. She didn’t tell me she had located the quilt. Imagine my surprise when she handed me a packet of pictures and there was my quilt. I cried, and was so touched that she had done such a wonderful thing for me. I pondered over those pictures and was amazed I could still identify all those wonderful fabrics I had so long ago. The quilt was still in perfect condition. I just thought I would share my quilt with you, and my little story. And remember to ALWAYS take pictures of everything you make!

Appliquéd Heart Quilt

Just a little memory out of the past. I created this hand appliquéd quilt and it was published in the Winter 1991 issue of Quilt Magazine. Although I have made hundreds of quilts, of which most of them I gave away this is one of those that I was always found of.

As I was submitting this to a magazine for publication, I had to take the quilt to a professional photographer. This was something totally new to me. I chose Roger and Becky Ottman, a couple that I would come to just love over the years. Learning how to stage props when photographing an item was a learning process that started with this quilt. When Roger said we should go outside and hang the quilt across the branch of the tree, I thought he was crazy. The photos came out just beautiful with the different backgrounds we used and the additional props we incorporated into the photos.   

 

This is a full size bed quilt.  When I made this quilt I was a stay at home mother of six very active small children, it was a miracle that I was even able to finish this project. The hearts were hand appliquéd on a cream colored block and then I alternated them with pieced blocks of the Ohio Star pattern. To make the quilt more feminine I added a generous double fold ruffle around the edge.  After I finished the quilt, I decided to submit some photos to Quilt Magazine. I did not know they were going to use it until one day I was in my favorite fabric store add I glanced at the magazines, and there it was on the cover. Wow, what a thrill.