Quilting

My Grandparents recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
They have 8 children, 32 grandchildren (not counting spouses) and 40 great-grandchildren (with many more on the way).  What a wonderful legacy.

As part of the gifts and festivities they were presented with a quilt.
There are 64 squares in eight different colors to represent each child.

I had the privilege of being able to piece the quilt.

We did a rag style quilt, where the seams were sewn inside out and chenilled.  Each square was first sewn together, with a  layer of thin cotton batting and a square of cotton flannel, then they were pieced together. 

Once the quilt was pieced, I made tiny little cuts in the exposed seams, that took forever, and made a huge mess on my white couch, I’m still picking up little pieces of thread.  

Then the whole quilt was washed, twice, and dried in the dryer, twice to fluff out the snipped seams and give it the chenilled look. 

As I was making this quilt, I thought a lot about the art of quilting.  It seems like there has been a renewed interest over the last several years.  Women create beautiful works of art using little pieces of fabric sewn very carefully into intricate patterns.  I thought about the origin of quilting, how it really came about by women, being frugal and provident in their homes.  Pieces of worn dresses, blankets, curtains, sheets, shirts all being cut into little patches and pieces, by hand, together to make warm blankets for their families.  I thought of how these women took a chore and made it beautiful, and I thought of how women daily take the mundane tasks around them and create beauty, they make homes, lovely homes filled with creativity, warmth and love.  I thought of how this is the special role of women and homemakers, and how empty our lives would be without it.