Old Quilts

I was lucky enough to spend last week
at my Mema and Papa's house.

Mema has the craft gene. She was kind enough to pass it on to me. She taught me to crochet at a young age. I learned to appreciate sewing, crafting, and all forms of hand-work by watching her. I could go on and on about her. She is one of my idols.

While at their house I began snooping through one of the closets. Imagine my surprise when I found, stacked neatly on one of the shelves, a pile of quilts. Quilts that I had never seen.

I called to Mema to tell me about these treasures.

"You've never seen these, Podunk? They are so old. They are ugly. They don't even match."

What?! Ugly?! No. Not even. And no, I did not know that they were in existence.

She began pulling quilt after quilt out of the closet. There must have been at least ten of them. Most of them not only hand quilted, but hand pieced. Hand pieced!

Some she had made.

Others had been passed down
through the generations.

This one was made by my great-great-grandfather.

It is his own design.

It was made with scrap fabric. Assembled without the convenience of a rotary cutter or other quilting gadgetry.

This is my favorite. It was made by Mema's mother...Ma Maggie. It is hand pieced and hand quilted.

Here are a few of my favorite blocks:

I could have taken many more...

My heart still races when looking at these pictures.

After looking through each quilt I quickly turned to Mema...

"You realize that these have to be mine, right? That needs to be in writing somewhere."