My Quilt that Grandma Made by Hand for Me when I was 12

Dear gentle readers,

I have so many memories of my grandma. She was soft spoken. She was always working in the kitchen or in the garden. How she had time to make quilts I will never know, but she did. There were six of us at home; mother, dad and the three boys and I. We all had at least one quilt that grandma had made just for us. I had two and the Dutch Girl was my favorite.

I used to look at it and wonder how she chose the particular piece of material for just that spot. I admired the various stitches she used on the quilt. The material and the stitches were random, as if she just chose one for the day and not for the next day.

Grandma always whispered, so you felt like what she was saying was very important and just for you. Just like the quilts, just for you. Once she let me come into her room in the first house she lived in and I knew I must have been very special because that room was like the inner sanctum of the house. She took me to a chair she had in there and beside the chair were her quilting materials.

Quilters back then used material they saved from old clothes, new material and flour sacks. They had every imaginable color of threads and used the colors to match or contrast with their special art piece. That is what a quilt is, an art creation just like a painting but the media is different.

I have the fondest memories of helping grandma can beets and sauerkraut. Everything she canned she grew in her garden. She would bring the beets in and she would let me stand on a chair and watch her put the beets in a pressure cooker. It did not take long and the beats were ready to cool and peal. I love pealing the beets, then she would put them back into the boiling water and then into the sterilized jars. I did not enjoy eating the beets but they certainly were pretty and I love pealing them, no knives required, you pealed them by hand.

Our family did not live in Kentucky where grandma lived, we lived in Texas so I did not get to see her as often as I liked but I did get to spend some summers with my grandma and grandpa when I got to the teen years. To have a conversation with grandma you had to be in the kitchen because that is where she almost always was, again I do not know how she had the time to make the quilts but she did. So you know they were made with love.

My Dutch Girl quilt was outlined in the color lavender and the girls all had their own color of dress and bonnets, no two were alike. It is a tradition in Kentucky to put a painting of a family quilt on your barn so after I grew up and moved to Kentucky I painted a square of the Dutch Girl and put on my barn/garage. I love traditions.

So gentle reader enjoy all the forms of art around you and especially the art made by friends and family members.