Old Quilts

My mom came down to visit me and gave me the rest of the quilt tops that my Granny and Granny Parker made.  I just love looking at them because they are beautiful and amazing.  I think all but two are hand stitched.  These days we are so in a hurry to get something done.  I can't imagine how long it took Granny Parker to stitch a whole quilt top by hand!  They are really pretty too.  I hope to make one or two into another quilt. 

Granny may have made this one.

Hand stitched!

We think Granny made this one out of flour sacks by machine.  It has a few stains on it.

Barumba Quilt

Zane got his belated birthday present today!  I finally finished his John Deere quilt.  I want to do his new room in tractors, but this may be the extent of it for awhile.  Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out especially since it's owner won't be too critical!  I tried something new-praire points edging.  I've done praire points within two quilts before but never for the edge.  I think it would have worked better if my measurements were a little more accurate!  I also feel like this was sort of a cheating quilt, because I didn't piece it.  I just bought the fabric and kept it whole.  I didn't want to cut Zane's barumbas apart.

Down, down, down!

Up, up, up!

 

My Great-Grandmother's Quilt

My mom gave me a quilt top awhile ago that my great grandmother, Ysabel Amy Holmes Parker, pieced together.  As she got older, people would give her fabric and she would make a quilt top and give it to people.  I decided to give it a go and finish it.  It had been washed and several of pieces of fabric had torn and pulled apart, so it was in need of repair. 
I was pretty amazed looking at the pattern and color design.  If you look, she put the orange in the corners, and the greens, reds, and yellows are all placed in a certain way. Even the little pieces were placed in a certain way.  Each fabric from the circle had the same fabric opposite of it.  If she didn't have a piece big enough, she would piece the little pieces together to make one.  She made every piece count.

The colorful quilt top.

A quilt square in pretty bad shape.

The fabric that had pulled apart and ripped, I replaced.  I made a pattern and pieced some new red pieces together.

Replaced red fabric on the block.

Zane checking out the quilt top with the border on.  I thought peacock green brought out some of the green/blue colors that Granny Parker used in the quilt.

I decided to stipple the top after I attached the batting and quilt back with a million safety pins.  It took about 6 hours to quilt.  After that, I did the binding.
Here is the finished results!

I never knew Granny Parker, but she sure stitched a great quilt!  I was concerned when I started the project because I felt bad using a sewing machine, but there was no way I was going to hand stitch it!  :)  Then, when I looked further, she used a machine on the straight part, and hand-stitched the curved parts.  I also thought it was neat because it was something old and new coming together.

Amy Parker, 1880-1969.

 

We had a birthday boy at our house!

We celebrated Jeff's birthday last week!  Unfortunately, he was gone on his birthday with work, but we did get to meet for dinner at a seafood restaurant, and then we celebrated with roast and the fixings and chocolate meringue pie when he got home! 

For his present, I decided it was time that he had his own quilt!  I'm embarrassed that we've been married 2 1/2 years and I hadn't made him one yet.  I've been wanting to make him one for Christmas, but I would think of it too late and not have enough time to make it.  So, I believe with this one I started in March and only would work on it when he was out of town.  I found the online pattern here. 

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Hexagon Park pattern