Hidden Treasures

When my mom and I decided to have a quilt theme for our ladies weekend, my Gangy let us rummage through boxes of material left over from her quilting days. To my surprise, the boxes were filled with so much more than I had expected. I was in quilt heaven. There were tons of fabric scraps. Some brought back memories of handmade clothes sewn by Gangy and Granny. I recognized other materials that often filled the scrap box in their quilting room, materials my brother and I rummaged through to make our own quilted creations.

There were also beautiful buttons...

a box full of trim...an old Sucrets container with pins....

And then, I found quilt blocks...

a lot of them...

much more than these pictures show...

some pieced by my grandmother's grandmother...

some small and delicate...

some bright and bold....others waiting to be pieced together.

this box contains mine and my cousin's quilt...

and this is my dog, enjoying my quilt.

This quilt was the one adorning the table at our retreat. It was pieced by my great-great-grandmother.

It caught my eye. I love the colors, the bright reds, turquoise blues, hot pinks, and lime greens. I'm already redecorating Audrie's room (in my mind) around this quilt top, and it seems to be inspiring some of my latest pieces of art. (which will be showing up in my shop soon, by the way)

I'm by no means a quilter, but I have love for fabric and an appreciation for old quilts. All of the quilt blocks in these pictures were put together using the materials on hand at the time. They weren't purposefully pieced and planned out with designer materials. These were the "use what you got" kind of quilts. There's a lot of warmth in them. There's a lot of sentimental value. I do want to finish some of these quilts one day. (I'll have to get Gangy to teach me how!) I hope to be able to give a quilt to my daughter with her knowing it was pieced by multiple generations of women from this family. What a treasure that would be!

ND