Quilts and Grandmas

I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandmas lately. (Grandpas too, but they need their own post.) No particular reason, I guess, except missing them. I’m sure it’s a common thing to wish for more time, but I have been trying to remember the time I did have with them.

I distinctly remember one Easter being alternately thrilled and worried that I had to call them by Grandma and their first names. I was probably about four or five maybe and we weren’t supposed to call adults by their first names! They seemed to be okay with it though. 🙂

My mom’s mom was named Florence and she was an accountant. I’m fairly sure she tried to instill a love of math and numbers, but it didn’t work. This picture of Fancy will illustrate how I feel about math.

Grandma Florence had a drawer for both my brother and I where she kept papers and blank account ledger pages for us to play with. We always played store and banking with these. She had the Sesame Street Alphabet books which we would read every time we saw this set of grandparents.

I will also forever associate green jello with her. She always served green jello, sometimes with shredded carrots in it, and we had apple juice out of cute plastic cups. They were colored translucent plastic and in my young child mind, were simply fabulous. She would also make us chocolate chip cookies, which she would bring on visits in Quaker Oats containers. Although I didn’t know it at the time, this was a big deal, as Grandma was not a baker!

I don’t have many things to remember her by, but do have a pie dish, the orange Depression glass bowl, and very fancy china. We haven’t used the china yet, mostly because we just now had enough space to store it safely. I do have lots of good memories though. 🙂

Grandma Florence worked in a radio factory in WWII and measured glass rods to a very tiny and exact measurement. She didn’t really talk about that part of her past though. I do know my Grandpa rode all the way across country standing up on the train, so they could get married.

My dad’s mom, Grandma Shirley, also was involved in WWII as a nurse. She was a little more open about her past, but I now realize, only really about the happier parts. Having been through the war, she was the grandma who would just look at you and laugh if you were being obnoxious.

My love of quilting came from spending time with Grandma Shirley for sure. We used to make quilts together for the church ladies to send to Lutheran World Relief. Let me tell you, church basement ladies can be scary when they are all together. There was always lots of laughter and a lot of jokes I probably wasn’t meant to understand just yet. 🙂

Grandma Shirley did like to bake, so one of the ways I had to remember her was her aprons. I ended up combining her aprons and my aprons from a summer job into a quilt. She made all the grandkids quilts, so I thought it would be appropriate. Now, keep in mind, this quilt was made right when I first started quilting and didn’t quite know what I was doing… (It’s also upside down, whoops.)

I don’t remember if I used a pattern or not. It’s backed with a green and white checkerboard flannel.

Here are some of my favorite squares.

The bottom flower square is actually a pocket! There’s another strip of mini pockets along the top.

After my Grandma Shirley passed away and my cousin Angie got married, I decided that I needed to make family quilts. It would have been something she would have done and I wanted to honor her memory.

I have pictures of most of them, but a few I can’t seem to find. I made a cool guitar one for my younger brother, which I think has fallen apart. Of course, it’s one I don’t have pictures of. Also, two for my dad and my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding quilt.

Here are my cousins’ wedding quilts though.

Split Nine Patch for Angie and Nate with a friendship braid border:

Crystal and Josh got a Friendship Braid Vegas themed quilt:

And cousin’s kids’ quilts too, of course!

Lilah’s quilt is called “Oodles of Owls,” officially. Unofficially, it was “the drunken owl quilt” as I accidentally set the pattern wrong and the owls went flying all different directions. I also got really mad at it and threw it in a box for three months until it could behave.  🙂

Her brother Ollie’s quilt: I can’t remember if I named it anything other than “The Monster Quilt.”

It’s four of these squares put together. It is still the most complicated quilt I have ever made because it has tiny pieces.

And my cousin Kaitlyn’s daughter Maylee’s quilt: A Pastel Friendship braid.

While thinking about this post, I realized I don’t have good digital pictures of either Grandma, just printed ones. I’ll have to scan them one day and post them.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of my family history!   I want to start keeping better track of what I’ve made to give away. Half the time, I forget to even sign them! Also, I am not allowed to start any new quilts until I have finished the very late wedding quilts that are sitting a box downstairs. Wish me luck with that!