Family Quilt

Patrick's great grandmother left behind a number of quilts. Over the past year and a half, we have worked to finish one we were given by Great Aunt Hazel. Ours is a scrap quilt made from many small scraps of fabric that was sewn in 1962. Every time I look at it, it seems I find another pattern. The quilt squares were sewn together but it did not have a back or batting nor was it quilted.

That's where the other side of the family comes in. My Aunt Roseann has her own quilting business, Cedar Creek Quilting. She has a ridiculously large long-arm quilting machine that can stitch a million designs on your quilt (well I don't know about a million but a lot!). Patrick and I chose a dogwood design because it fit with the southern roots of his maternal great-grandmother. We told Roseann we wanted the backing fabric to be blue and let her pick the pattern.

After the quilting and backing was finished, my parents picked up the quilt from Washington and drove it home on their summer vacation. Because Roseann knew I liked to sew, we decided Patrick and I would do the hand finishing of the binding. Because the quilt is queen-size, we invited some friends over to help. The Quilt Debate was born! A few friends came over for the Presidential Debate last fall and helped us sew over half the binding. Yay! for crafty friends! Pictured at right is David (not sewing), Katie, Marjorie, Patrick, Elizabeth and Anna.

The last piece of the project was created for us by Patrick's Aunt Debbie. She embroidered a really nice label for the back with all the details about Great-Grandma Florence. Four generations, two families and numerous friends  later we have a wonderful heirloom on our bed. It's beautiful and even more so for all the hard work and time spent on it. Thanks everyone!