Memory Monday: The Quilt

THE QUILT

Our house has become the repository of much of our family’s historical memorabilia on both mine and my husband’s sides of the family.  It all started shortly after we were married when my grandmother-in-law showed me an old quilt top (basically a one-layer piece of patch-work material) that had been made by her mother and asked me if I wanted it. 

As I looked at it with my oh-so sophisticated 20-year old eye and promptly (and of course, kindly) said, “No thank you,” my new husband quickly said, “Yes, we really do want it!”  I looked at him and let my eyes speak silently.  “What in the world are we going to do with THAT?!”

            Mawmaw (my husband’s name for his grandmother) looked at us sweetly and said, “I will take it to the senior citizens center here in town, and we will quilt it for you.” 

It wasn’t until we got it back that I truly looked at the quilt top, and even then, to my “youthful” eye, I could see that we had received not only a thing of beauty, but also the quilt held a wealth of family history.  That kind of quilt is known as a “friendship quilt”.  It was very popular in the early 1900s to exchange fabric blocks and leaf patterns with friends and family.  A woman would then make leaves from whatever material she had, sew them in the four corner of the block, embroider her name (along with her husband, if she had one) in the center of the block, and then, return the completed block. The happy friend could then sew the blocks all together and quilt it (when she had the time, which of course, she didn’t always have). 

            This brings us to how I now have a Friendship Quilt from 1934.  I know that it was from that year because my mother-in-law, who was born in 1920, sewed a block for the quilt and embroidered “Opal Sutton, age 14” on it.  Also, on that quilt are the names of my husband’s aunts, uncles, and cousins, along with “greats” and “great-greats,” many of whom I have come to know and love through the years we have been married.  This quilt top was sewn together by my husband’s great-grandmother and will be passed down to our daughter (and hopefully, to one of her children). Five (or six) generations--not a bad trip for a handmade quilt.