# Family heirlooms



## Hillbilly stalker (Mar 6, 2021)

Someone was asking about quilts in another thread and it got me to thinking. I remember back in the hills there were a lot of old traditions and folks always helped each other with big chores. Womenfolk would get together several times a year and cook apple butter, can cabbage and make quilts. Then menfolk would get together for hog killings, barn raisings or digging a well. Neighbors helping neighbors. My maw maw kept a quilting loom in their spare living room and that’s where all the ladies seemed to gather. My maw maw had a habit of everytime a grandkid was getting married....she quilted and gave them a quilt. All hand sewn. There was 17 of us, so she stayed fairly busy I reckon. Here are 3 homemade quilts, the first 2 were sewn and gifted to me by my maw maw. They mean the world to me, I wouldn’t take nothing for them. There is love sewn in every stitch.

The first one is called a “Little Dutch Girl” pattern, to me it’s beautiful. 
I don’t know the name of the second quilt, but when I see it, it takes me way back to where I was just a chap. I remember almost every piece of cloth being a dress or apron or skirt from one of her garments. Kinda like Dollys coat of many colors.

   The 3rd quilt was made by my aunt , now 89 years old. It is partially machine sewn. It holds a special place with me because she only made 3 and I was offered first pick, she is fading fast. Most people do not understand how much work and time go into a handmade quilt. These have never been slept on or washed.


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## stonecreek (Mar 6, 2021)

Good stuff. It’s a forgotten craft for the most part. My wife’s got a wooden box of family quilts that date back many generations. My mom and her friends would get together and crochet all the time.


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## Shadow11 (Mar 6, 2021)

I don't know the 1st thing about making a quilt, but those are some of purtiest I think I've ever seen.


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## Railroader (Mar 6, 2021)

One thing is for sure. 

 There is nothing else like sleepin' on a for-real feather bed, under a handmade quilt.

My Granny in the Kentucky hills had both, and they are in the Top 5 I'd say, of childhood memories.

Thanks for bringing it back, those quilts are beauties...


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## JustUs4All (Mar 6, 2021)

I live in the house that was built for my grandparents back in the 30s.  When I was a kid there were 4 eye-bolts in the center of the kitchen ceiling above the kitchen table.  The ladies in the neighborhood would gather periodically to visit and quilt.  A quilting frame was suspended from those eye-bolts and the ladies would sit as if at the table to do their quilting.

Not infrequently I or another of the grandkids would be used as a butter churn motor nearby.  LOL


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## Hooked On Quack (Mar 6, 2021)

My wife occasionally quilts, taught by her granny.  We probably have a dozen hand made quilts passed down to us, sleep under one every night !


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## blood on the ground (Mar 6, 2021)

I have always liked old hand made quilts. Yours are very nice also.


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## Havana Dude (Mar 6, 2021)

Good stuff. I have a hand made quilt that my mawmaw made my wife and I for our wedding gift. The pattern is intertwined rings to symbolize wedding rings. It hangs in our bedroom, a nice reminder of a sweeter time. My mother, who just turned 80, crochets probably every single day, for many hours. It would not surprise me if she has baby blankets made, and labeled, for generations to come, beyond her time on earth.


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## Hillbilly stalker (Mar 6, 2021)

Older people used to say “Idle minds make idle hands and idle hands are tools of the devil”. They stayed busy, knitting, darning, quilting, crocheting and canning. Men stayed busy making hoe and axe handles. All of them were thin people and tough as whit leather.


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## trad bow (Mar 6, 2021)

I went thru a divorce in the early eighties and I gave my mother a quilt made by her grandmother that was made for me when I was born back in the fifties to safe guard it. Somehow my brothers wife ended up with it and won’t return it even with my initials in the center of it. If I ever catch her passed out somewhere I’ll personally tattoo my initials on her forehead.


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## JustUs4All (Mar 6, 2021)

I would help ya with that tattoo.


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## Milkman (Mar 6, 2021)

Hillbilly stalker said:


> Someone was asking about quilts in another thread and it got me to thinking. I remember back in the hills there were a lot of old traditions and folks always helped each other with big chores. Womenfolk would get together several times a year and cook apple butter, can cabbage and make quilts. Then menfolk would get together for hog killings, barn raisings or digging a well. Neighbors helping neighbors. My maw maw kept a quilting loom in their spare living room and that’s where all the ladies seemed to gather. My maw maw had a habit of everytime a grandkid was getting married....she quilted and gave them a quilt. All hand sewn. There was 17 of us, so she stayed fairly busy I reckon. Here are 3 homemade quilts, the first 2 were sewn and gifted to me by my maw maw. They mean the world to me, I wouldn’t take nothing for them. There is love sewn in every stitch.
> 
> The first one is called a “Little Dutch Girl” pattern, to me it’s beautiful.
> I don’t know the name of the second quilt, but when I see it, it takes me way back to where I was just a chap. I remember almost every piece of cloth being a dress or apron or skirt from one of her garments. Kinda like Dollys coat of many colors.
> ...



You have true treasure there. These are as priceless and as valuable as expensive artwork.


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## trad bow (Mar 6, 2021)

Hillbilly stalker said:


> Older people used to say “Idle minds make idle hands and idle hands are tools of the devil”. They stayed busy, knitting, darning, quilting, crocheting and canning. Men stayed busy making hoe and axe handles. All of them were thin people and tough as whit leather.


No truer words have been spoken.


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## fireman32 (Mar 6, 2021)

Those are very nice.  We have two my wife’s grandmother made.


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## wvdawg (Mar 6, 2021)

Super nice!  We have a couple that have been handed down.   Treasures.


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## Anvil Head (Mar 7, 2021)

Dadgummit Hillbilly, my wife walked by when I opened this thread ....... I just now got back control of my laptop. Had time to eat breakfast, wash dishes and take care of the dog while she oggled the quilts. 
Those are really nice. We probably have 20+ and swap out using them. All hand me downs except maybe 5. Nothing like the feel of a good quilt on a cold night.


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## Hillbilly stalker (Mar 7, 2021)

The first 2 were given to me around 1988, so I reckon they are at least 33 years old... give or take. The last one is newer, but cant say when they were started, lots of times those were wintertime projects cause the weather was too bad outside to do much.


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## mrs. hornet22 (Mar 8, 2021)

Beautiful quilts. They have been VERY well taken care of. We have a Little Dutch girl almost exactly like yours. The only difference is where you have a yellow boarder ours is pink.


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## Nicodemus (Mar 8, 2021)

As I`ve said before, when I moved away from home, Mama gave me one of her homemade quilts, and a very old, well seasoned 10 inch cast iron frying pan. Her reasoning, I would always sleep warm, and have something to cook with. I still have both, and use them, along with several more of her quilts that she made and gave me over the years. One in particular she made for me is a tobacco leaf pattern, in remembrance of all the years I worked the field and barn.


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## EAGLE EYE 444 (Mar 8, 2021)

trad bow said:


> I went thru a divorce in the early eighties and I gave my mother a quilt made by her grandmother that was made for me when I was born back in the fifties to safe guard it. Somehow my brothers wife ended up with it and won’t return it even with my initials in the center of it. If I ever catch her passed out somewhere I’ll personally tattoo my initials on her forehead.






JustUs4All said:


> I would help ya with that tattoo.




FIRST OF ALL, THERE ARE SOME ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL QUILTS PREVIOUSLY SHOWN IN THIS THREAD.  The overall talent, wisdom and overall skills of these ladies were fantastic.  When I was just a small kid, I remember that my Mother would invite several of her lady friends over and do quilting on Mother's (cedar) quilting frame and I still remember several holes in each of the 4 long boards for making different size quilts.  Those cedar 3-4" wide boards were always stored in the loft of the barn when not in use and I bet that these boards were probably made to the original specifications by my Grandmother and Grandfather back in the really early 1900's.  This thread surely brings back some wonderful memories of being a young kid.


Trad, 

I agree with JustUs4All, as I would take a couple of days off to also help make sure that TATTOO would cover her face, forehead and lots of other places of her body because I just don't understand how somebody could be so cruel.


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## trad bow (Mar 8, 2021)

Thank you Mike. That means a lot. I don’t have nothing to do with her. I have no use for greedy spiteful people


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## specialk (Mar 12, 2021)

lord don't get me started on quilts!, between both my grannies and my mama i got more quilts than i know what to do with.  i took some pics of a few that stay in my living room.  the two most special ones here are the fred flintstone and the one on the rack that has babys clothes sewn in.  the flintstone belongs to my wife but i have taken it from her....her granny made it for her when she was a little girl, we've had it re-backed a few years ago...it's 50 years old.....my mom took my sons old baby clothes and made the one hanging on the rack....she's made me , my wife, and my son a bunch over the years....my fav is a dale earnhardt black 3 that i keep in vacuumed sealed bag .....i'll try and go through some and post some more pics.....we probably have close to 50 between here and VA that were handed down or made for us.....


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## Hillbilly stalker (Mar 12, 2021)

Man those are awesome ! What treasures.


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## Deerhead (Mar 12, 2021)

My grandmother made me one.  It is on display in my living room.


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## au7126 (Mar 12, 2021)

Have several that were from my mother. Favorite is made from her fathers overalls. Blue denim with several different wear patterns.


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## trad bow (Mar 12, 2021)

Y’all putting me in a scalping mood.


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## Son (Mar 14, 2021)

Beautiful quilts, always loved hand made quilts. My Anderson Grandmother made quilts, and had Navy wool blankets in the middle of them, that Dad brought home from WWII.


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## mrs. hornet22 (Mar 15, 2021)

Son said:


> Beautiful quilts, always loved hand made quilts. My Anderson Grandmother made quilts, and had Navy wool blankets in the middle of them, that Dad brought home from WWII.


I have one of those wool blue with grey trim blankets that was my Diddy's. Small, but so warm.


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## wildcats (Mar 18, 2021)

Nothing like an old quilt.  My mom still does it.  I have several of hers and a couple from my ma-maw.  My sister has one that mom made that's almost identical to the first pic.
Becoming a lost art for sure.


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