I see and touch a lot of quilts. With my work through The Linus Connection, literally hundreds of quilts will go through the hands of myself and the other volunteers when we distribute quilts each month. With that many quilts, it can sometimes slip my mind how special every quilt really is. It’s the time, the thought, and the effort that makes a quilt a quilt.
This quilt is very special, indeed. My mom unearthed it from a trunk in my grandmother’s house after Grannie passed away. It started out in my hands as an awkward UFO made of hand-cut (and perfectly proportioned!) flour sack blocks. These are not reproductions, these are the real deal, some of which still showed stitching marks from where the bags of flour were originally stitched closed.
It was very long, about eight blocks longer than you see in the photo here. It was narrow, too, just a long, skinny quilt top, with the occasional hole from being folded for 40 years (give or take a few). My mom estimates the fabrics themselves are much older because the original sacks were used as pillowcases before they were cut up for quilting.
The first thing I did was remove the extra length. Then, I very carefully removed the damaged blocks, most of which were across the middle, replacing them with some of the ones I removed from the length. All the blocks left over became new rows to make the top wider.
And then it sat in a bag in my sewing room for over a year.
It was my amazing friend Linda that inspired me to finish. She co-owns a long-arm quilt machine and was nudging our friends to share thing with her to quilt. I pulled out the border-less top and what remained of a bolt of muslin I bought several years ago. There was the perfect amount for borders and backing. Poking around my supplies, I realized I had batting, too! Obviously, the quilt needed to be complete.
Yesterday, Linda returned the quilt to me, which I have named “Grannie’s Trunk Quilt.” I added binding and washed the quilt – the first time this fabric has been washed in ~40 years! It washed up beautifully, crinkling just the way an old quilt should.
What will I do with it now that it’s done? I think it’s going back to the farm house where it began. It’s journey would be full circle then, and that feels right to me.
So, Mom, this quilt will be coming home soon. I hope you like it.
A close up of the beautiful fabrics and the scrunchilicious quilting.
Linda added flowers in the border, such a wonderful touch!
(L-R) Grannie, my sister Stephanie, Pa, me, and towering over us in the back, my “little” brother, Nathan. March 1994.
Thanks once again to Amy for hosting another wonderful Blogger’s Quilt Festival. I hope you’ll join in, too!
Happy Quilting!
Sewhooked 
love it. what a great story and i love how you broke down for us how exactly you spruced it up so that we can be inspired to fix up someones hand made unfinished work if we ever come across a quilt top that in need of some loving stitchery
There’s something really special to me about taking an old unfinished project and giving it new life. Knowing where the project came from makes it even more special, but I like finishing quilts I’ve found at thrift stores and such, too. Just thinking about who touched it last is pretty amazing.
thank you so much for sharing this story with us
It was a genuine pleasure. 🙂
Simply beautiful
Thank you!
Beautiful! What a labor of love. I love when we can see the circles in our lives. Your Mother is very lucky to have you and her new quilt.
Thanks, hon, I can’t wait to take it to my mom.
What a wonderful story. Which reminds me I have a quilt top left by a great-grandmother that I have done nothing with. I think that by finishing tops like this in a way we are continuing the “threads” between generations. Love this story.
You should definitely pick up your great-grandmother’s top sometime and finish it for her. It’s a wonderful thing to have. 🙂
What a great heirloom! Very beautiful quilt and so full of family. Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure, thank you for reading!
This is one of my favorite kinds of quilts..It is lovely.
Mine, too, and thank you!
love this quilt, you did a wonderful job of finishing it!
Thanks so much! It was a pleasure to finish.
Very beautiful quilt work !
It was a pleasure to work on. 🙂
An amazing treasure. It will bring wonderful memories of days gone by every time it is touched
I surely hope so. 🙂
this is amazing. what a fantastic story. you did such a great job
Thanks, Leslie, it was a joy to work on and I’m thrilled to have it completed.
wonderful old materials–you did a great job on this and so did your friend quilting it. it inspires me to work on an old quilt top from my great great (maybe another great) aunt mary.
Thank you! It was a real pleasure to get to work on something that has been in my family for so long, and even more to know I can now share it with my Mom. I hope you do get to work on your old quilt top. It’s a really special experience.
what a fantastic quilt! with a great story. thanks for sharing!
My pleasure! And thank you for commenting.
What a beautiful quilt, and a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
It’s my pleasure to share. 🙂