Loving Quilts

If you’ve ever owned a handmade quilt you will understand firsthand the nurture and comfort it can bring. Regardless what color or pattern it is, if someone you love took the time to make something to keep you warm, it becomes much more than just a “blanket” to you.  Our good chum, (who happens to be my cousin), Sandy, happens to be the best quilt maker I know.  Her home is filled with lovely quilts, all made with love and with a story behind the reason she made them.

But as many quilts as grace her home, there are countless others that are treasures in other people’s homes….people like me who are fortunate enough to have received one of her gifts of love.  Several years ago when my husband was first diagnosed with cancer, a package arrived one day in the mail.  It was a beautiful quilt she had made that I had admired.  She knew there could be some difficult days ahead and she was sending us her love via fabric sewn together in a beautiful quilt.  There have been many naps taken, and sleepless, prayerful nights spent wrapped in that quilt.  Gratefully, Randy is healthy and fine now, but the quilt continues to be a cozy friend we can retreat to.

My grandchildren have also been the fortunate recipients of Sandy’s handiwork.  They have adorable baby quilts that are “decorated” with calico kitties.

Sandy recently wrote a piece describing her history with, and love of, quilts.  We thought you would enjoy reading it along with some photos of some of her recent masterpieces:

“Quilts are not just pieces of cloth sewn together to keep you warm or look pretty draped over a chair, but a lifestyle of patterns of beauty that come together with a labor of love. I see quilts in everything I do and everywhere I go, from the wooden floors as I walked through the Palace of Versailles to the tiled floors of the old church we used to attend in Los Angeles.

I first began my love affair with quilts when I was about nine or ten and I went on vacation with my grandparents in their trailer to Yosemite so my grandfather could fish. Every afternoon he would take his rod and reel and go to the river and sit there waiting for a fish to jump on his line while I would have to lie down and take a nap with my grandmother. I was never very sleepy so as my grandmother would drift to sleep I would look at the patterns on the quilt she put on the bed. Papaw was a Baptist minister in Texas before coming to California. When they left the ladies of the church had everyone in the church sign their names and a short message on fabric and then embroidered each piece with loving care.

Each afternoon at naptime I would trace the names on each square and look at how the fabric was carefully pieced together. There were so many colors and designs and I loved the way they all came together. I didn’t realize it then but it was the beginning of a life long love affair with fabric, quilts, and sewing.

Fast forward about twenty years and I put together my first quilt. It was the quilt top stitched together by my husband’s grandmother. I think his mother gave it to me because she knew how much I loved to sew. I had no idea what I was doing so I laid it on the floor on top of a sheet and took yarn and tied them together. The edges needed to be finished so I just overlapped the sheet and stitched it down. Voila, I had my first quilt and I still have it today. My next effort was actually sewing pieces of flannel together and using an old baby blanket that belonged to my son that I just couldn’t bring myself to throw out. Again I tied the front and back and sewed up the sides. Not fancy but warm.

The first real quilt I made was while I was attending Fresno State and it was time for finals so instead of studying I was browsing books in the Student Store. I found a quilt sampler book on sale and really thought hard before finally giving in to temptation. After reading the book and realizing there was an order to putting the blocks together I pulled out all my old scraps and began putting them together. This was before rotary cutters so I transferred all the cereal in the kitchen cupboards into containers and cut templates out of the cardboard boxes. Then I carefully traced and cut the pieces sewing them into twelve large blocks. When I put the top together I found a large piece of red and white fabric and used it for the backing. I didn’t realize I would need batting to go between the top and bottom so I just used an old flannel sheet to give it body. It didn’t take any time for me to quilt it together because I used big stitches. Having never had lessons I just knew I should sew around the patterns to hold it together. My mother-in-law later told me that the stitches should be very tiny. That would have been useful but it did hold together and my son used it on his bed until he finally returned it to me a couple years ago in tatters from lots of love.

My love of quilting and fabric has lasted over sixty years and I have made more than 100 quilts. I still like to piece and appliqué but I have a very nice man who does my quilting. I have made quilts for all my nieces, my nephew, all my grandchildren, my cousins, my mother, my sister, and my brother. Right now I am working on a flower appliqué quilt and yesterday a friend asked me who it was for. I had to think and then told her I think I will keep it.

Quilts are like friends, they keep you warm, surround you in love, and bring back wonderful memories.”

Quilts tell stories, there always seems to be one attached to why someone made it.  The best story that each of them tells, is that the person who made it put it together not just with thread, but with so much love!