MOTHER AND QUILTS, THE VIEW FROM BELOW~!

In honor of the season here in Paducah I will be talking about quilts in this post. My niece, Samantha, has evidently become quite the seamstress and has been making a lot of quilts lately. I also have a friend here in Paducah, Aynex, that is a quilt artist. She does commissions, has an Etsy store and shows her work at several galleries here in the arts district. Some of you that read this blog probably don't know about the quilt show here in Paducah. For almost one week, our population almost doubles! People from all over the world attend this quilt show and we also have a museum here dedicated to the quilter! I have been there a couple of times and it's pretty cool. I don't attend the quilt show though. I have never been to the quilt show! I have been to some of the smaller ones, but never the really big one to see the quilts that are entered each year. The prize money for the winning quilt is above 10 grand. The winner has a choice as to whether or not to take the quilt or the money. So, on with my story about Mother and quilts.

When I was growing up, it seemed, always in the winter time, Mother would put a quilt on. She would piece them all with her sewing machine, get out the big old quilting frames and it was a pretty big deal. It was pretty cool to me, because, once the quilting frames were set up in the living room, the TV was never in view from the couch or any of the furniture that we had to sit on to watch TV. I would always lay under the quilt to watch TV. It was almost like I was in a cave or something because depending on the color of the quilt it would get really dark under there. Then one day while Mother was quilting I realized how cool it was to watch her as she was stitching away with what ever design she was making. I would trace, from below, every line that she had made. If she was tying a quilt, some people here call it "tacking", I would just stick my finger up to the indentation and it entertained me for quite a few minutes. Dad would get aggravated because he couldn't see TV after a hard days work, and sometimes he would crawl under the quilt with me and my little brother. I still have a lot of quilts that Mother has made for me and they are my treasures. I will now share some pictures with you.

This is a baby quilt that my Mother made for me to give to one of my grandsons, but I just don't have the heart to give it away. The top is a crib sheet that she had saved for YEARS, one of mine matter of fact, so that tells you how old it is. Then she put the blue backing on it and then tied the quilt.
This one is a collaboration between my Mother and my sister. My sister did all of the cross-stitch work on 12 blocks, then she sent it to my mother to piece it together and quilt it. It's one of my favorites and the one that I use most often.
This is one of my favorites! I don't use it that often because it is so precious to me. Each block is done with what is called "candlewicking". Little tiny french knots every where. There is a different design on each block. It's absolutely unbelievable. Mother put MANY painstaking hours in on this one, and I am so lucky to have it.

This one is probably one of my favorite treasures. It's from my Grandmother. I will never forget the day when she asked me if I wanted this quilt whey she died. Mother and I went to visit my grandmother. We started going through her cedar chest for some reason, just looking at things that she had in there I guess, and I saw this quilt and made the comment as to how neat it was. I can't remember the story exactly, but I am thinking that HER mother had helped her make it and it had been in her cedar chest all these years. She looked at me and asked me right then if I wanted the quilt and I told her yes. It has been in MY cedar chest since it's been in my possession.

I know that my quilts aren't fancy or anything, but they really mean a lot to me. Seems like everything is so rushed these days, but every stitch made on these quilts were done by hand. Quilting has evolved into a special art and there are so many different designs and ways to do things, but these are something special!

5 MORE DAYS!