Spring is time for pansies

Picked up a nice antique quilt for $35 at a local flea market. One corner is stained but the rest looks very fresh. We will just hide the bad spot (although it is not too bad). As always, I wonder who the quilter was and who the recipient was. What did they mean to each other and how did they get separated from their story? There was beautiful gold and pale yellow postage stamp quilt that I really, REALLY wanted but it was $110 and I am currently on a budget. Oh well, my girlfriend Phyllis bought it instead so I can enjoy it at her house. Here are pictures of my pretty pansy quilt find:

Where in Western Pennsylvania are all the quilts?

Every once in awhile in your life, you get the opportunity to take inventory. And that opportunity can come to you from the most unlikely places. I have been on quilt making hiatus for about two months now (time to get going again) and had just sent off the quilt entries for ROAD TO CALIFORNIA for the AQS Grand Rapids, Michigan and Des Moines Iowa shows when a friend at the Museum brought me a post card last Monday morning. Addressed to no one in particular, it was entitled "Quilt Documentation Days." A group of textile historians from the Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation and Saint Vincent College's Foster and Muriel McCarl Coverlet Gallery are sponsoring a two day event, asking the owners and makers of quilts in the region to bring their quilts to the gallery on June 1 & 2, 2012, to have them documented and added to the National Quilt Index (www.quiltindex.org). Of course, I immediately went to the web and checked out the quilt index. Yep, you betcha. I want my quilts as part of this source. So, before calling and making an appointment, I thought I should make a list of all the quilts I have made and I currently own, all the quilts I have made but given to others who live in the area, and all the quilts of my foremothers that I did not make but have the privilege to own for now, all which reside in our old house on Tremont Avenue. Here is the list: Quilts at home (my own): 1. Halloween cross stitch 2. Christmas cross stitch 3. Benny’s quilt 4. Watermelon quilt 5. Crown of thorns wall hanging 6. Ramona’s first quilt 7. Mom Long’s first quilt 8. Small Christmas quilt 9. Fall wall hangings (1) 10. Fall wall hangings (2) 11. Thanksgiving cross stitch quilt top 12. Ati’s star and log cabin quilt 13. Three hearts wall hanging (small) Quilts in the area (my own): 14. Phyllis Knupp Ligonier Valley Historical Society 2007 15. Vera Hisker Gramma’s quilt 16. Josh Parker pet quilt 17. Sara Parker spring quilt Family quilts: 18. Great Gramma White’s flower garden 19. Gramma Taylor’s maple leaf 20. Ruth’s mother's Texas star Collected quilts: 21. Yellow and purple pansies (bought in Adamsburg, PA) 22. Small pink Dresden plate (bought in Greensburg, PA) 23. Hand pieced quilt top 1 (bought in Greensburg, PA) 24. Hand pieced quilt top 2 (bought in Greensburg, PA) 25. Hand pieced quilt top 3 (bought in Greensburg, PA) 26. Hand appliquéd quilt top (bought in Ligonier, PA) 27. Birds in Flight w/black (bought in Pleasanton,CA) 28. Men’s shirt quilt (bought in Pleasanton, CA) 29. Blue yo-yo quilt (bought in Pleasanton, CA) 30. Monkey wrench in aqua and white (bought in Monterey, CA) 31. Sunbonnet Sue on pink (bought in Greensburg, PA) 32. Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam (bought in Greensburg, PA) 33. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul (bought in Greensburg, PA) 34. Brightly colored quilt (bought in Greensburg, PA) 35. Boston Commons Arch quilt (bought in Latrobe, PA) 36. Cross stitch rose quilt (bought in Greensburg, PA) 37. Whole cloth blue quilts 1987 (bought in Greensburg, PA) 38. Half square quilt (bought in Greensburg, PA) 39. Leaves appliqué quilt (bought in Greensburg, PA) 40. Flowers appliqué quilt (bought in Greensburg, PA) 41. Rustic log cabin quilt (bought in Latrobe, PA) 42. Rustic patchwork quilt (bought in Latrobe, PA) 43. Double wedding ring with swastika fabric (bought in Latrobe, PA) 44. Flower basket quilt (bought in Greensburg, PA) 45. Cross stitched flower quilt (bought in Greensburg, PA) 46. Triangles puff quilt (bought in Greensburg, PA) 47. Pastel Dresden plate (bought in Greensburg, PA) 48. Pastel patchwork (bought in Greensburg, PA) 49. Wool nine patch (bought in Youngwood, PA) 50. Red and yellow patchwork (bought in Latrobe, PA) 51. Sunflower quilt/tied throw (bought in Greensburg, PA) 52. Tiny blue patchwork wall hanging (bought in Greensburg, PA) 53. Amish wall hanging (bought on ebay) 54. Small green and wine wall hanging (bought on ebay) 55. Purple mountains majesty wall hanging (bought on ebay) Yikes! 55 quilts, quilt tops or quilted wall hangings. Far to many to haul to Saint Vincent so I called my friend, historian and fellow quilter, Karen Kehoe, to ask for some advise. She came up with a brilliant suggestion, call the historians and see if they will come to me! So I made a call to the Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation and met a historian named Brenda Applegate who told me their goal is to document every, EVERY quilt they can find in Western Pennsylvania! Audacious, I said. I want to help you out, I said. I can show you 55 quilts in one day, I said. Will you come to me? So, yes, they are coming, not sure when, and we will make a day of it. They measure, describe, photograph and identify patterns when looking at these quilts so it will be great to learn the names of some of my beauties. I will set up the table extender on the dining room table (they asked if I had a space big enough) and open all the shutters (they asked if there was light enough) and feed them lunch to boot! My friend, Phyllis, also wants to bring her quilts so I am wondering, how long does it take per quilt? 5 minutes, 10 minutes? This could be a very long day. I have started calling local folks who have some of my quilts here in Pennsylvania and their quilts have started returning home. This weekend, Josh and Sarah Parker's kids quilts arrived. See my next post for pictures and info on them. I am expecting a quilt from my friend Vera and have to go pick up one from an acquaintance in Ligonier who received the 2007 Ligonier Valley Historical Society quilt in a silent auction. It is so cool to see these children of mine again and amazing how much I forget about them! Are we having fun yet?

The third quilt and the nephew arrives

As promised, here is the third quilt. I think it is some version of a compass quilt and the material is men's shirts. It is pretty big, a full or twin size and it is in excellent shape, only a few spots and worn fabric. I love it!

Also, Nic has arrived for his visit with us. We had a wonderful barbeque chicken dinner and then a great night together - many more to come!

We are back from California, one quilt lighter then three quilts richer

A word to the wise. After the age of 55, never take a redeye home from the West Coast that includes three different flights. I am and was exhausted with our 18 hour trek home. But now we are back again and I find myself at loose ends with no urgent quilt project going. I will take a short hiatus and then dive into Jamie and Jeff's wedding quilt with a goal to finish it by Christmas when we head out to California again!

One of the great things I did get to do in California was visit "Paris Flea Market" with Jamie's mother-in-law, Pat, one of Wyatt's other grammas (he has three) and there I lucked upon three beautiful quilts, which I bought, of course. In this post, I have shown you two of them. The third one (and the best of the bunch) I will photograph tomorrow and post. It is in the washer getting cleaned up. The first one above is a version of Birds in Flight and it looks slightly Amish. Very small, measures about one yard square. I bought this one for $28 at Pat's booth.

The second one, pictured below is a yo-yo quilt about 5 foot by 4 foot in blues and white, for which I paid $33. What a steal! I had packed Wyatt's quilt in my carry on luggage as I did not want to risk the airlines losing it so since I had given away that quilt, I had plenty of room to take home these beauties.

They came in very handy during that night of too many flights to come home. We left San Jose at 7 PM, arrived in Phoenix at 9:30 PM, had to hang around the airport for the next flight to Charlotte, NC that did not leave until 1:00 AM. About 10:30, I pulled out the quilts, make a pillow out of the two smaller ones and covered myself up with the larger one (not shown here yet). I then slept on the airport row of seats, wrapped in my quilt until midnight or so. Packed the smaller ones away with my handbag in the carry on luggage and took the big quilt onto the plane where I wrapped both George and I up for the 4 hour flight to NC. Slept pretty well, all things considered!

We arrived home about 1:30. George went right up to bed and I put our lives back in order which took most of the afternoon. He picked up the cats and we were in bed pretty early for us (11 PM) but I was still too keyed up to sleep. Finally crashed about 1 AM. Today was hectic at work and I am ready for bed now.

Stayed tuned for pictures of the 3rd (and bestest!) quilt. G'night, little man Wyatt. Gramma loves you here so very far away....

Another little gem from the thrift store

Some pictures of a vintage Sunbonnet Sue Overall Sam quilt I picked up at our local Goodwill store for $49! It looks to be about 1930-1940, in pretty good shape with only a few stains, no rips. A real find which I was very happy to give a new home.

Another great Goodwill find

Roaming through the thrift stores as I am wont to do, I discovered this gorgeous little flower basket quilt, waiting for someone to take it home. Of course I obliged!

Glad I went to the Goodwill today!

The neighborhood Goodwill Store and I have a sympatico relationship. I drive thru and donate stuff at the side doors and then park and walk in and buy more stuff! oy vey! I am trying to make this house less full but sometimes, you just need to go treasure hunting and I made out like a bandit today.

I found a lounge chair, brand new for my back porch or backyard. Now I will have something to sleep in and on on those close summer nights when it just isn't gonna happen in my bed. I found a marble pear, no kidding, really. Reminds me of the marble fruit in the shops near Trevi Fountain in Rome. Some stone coasters for the back porch with fish on them, some lotions (I love different smelling stuff - pomegranate? SURE!) And this beauty:







Very obviously made from a kit (you can still see the tiny blue dots) but hand cross stitched and hand quilted. It did not look this nice when I picked it up. It had some very serious rust colored stains (don't want to think about what that might have been!) on the flowers in the center but I had absolute faith in Oxyclean! After one long soak and two washings, here it is, good as new! So I immediately put it on my bed. Love it! Not an expertly done quilt by any means but someone's hard work and it should be appreciated. I am happy to fulfill that role!

Note added 4/17/2010: Date and signature on the back of the quilt. How did I miss this earlier? It says: "1968 Grace A. Molygraf"

A disturbing discovery that helps me date a quilt

Spring has come so as I am wont to do, I change all the rugs and bed linens in our old, old house to reflect the season. I placed a very old wedding ring quilt on our bed this weekend and have been enjoying its presence. However, last night when my sweetie was changing his clothes, he noticed a very disturbing thing about the quilt. Here is a picture of it on our bed.


Moving in closer, here is a close up of the ring itself. I had always thought it was a 1930's flour sack quilt and now I have proof (I think)positive.

Moving in tight for a picture of the blue fabric, what do we see? A swastika! And here is the really weird part, it is next to a snowman face! Now, I know the swastika was an American Indian symbol long before the Nazi's got their paws on it. The quilt was probably made pre-1940's because I doubt a fabric manufacturer would have used that symbol after WWII and the Holocaust.


Kinda weird but kinda neat too! Here's another question - how long did I own the quilt before it was noticed (and I am not the one that noticed it, my husband did!)

Gramma Taylor's maple leaf quilt

Ever notice how family life can be complicated? Well, my life is not any different than most people's in that respect but I like to think it is complicated in a positive way. For instance, I am one of those lucky people to have two mothers who both love me and I love them both very much. With having multiple mothers comes multiple other relatives and this post is about my Gramma Emma Darlene Taylor who became mine when my dad married my Mom, Marian Louise.

I had a very special relationship with Gramma Taylor for a variety of reasons. First off, I acquired her when I was almost four so I was aware that I was getting new grandparents. This is not the case of most kids whose grandparents always were around so you kinda took them for granted as permanent fixtures! Gramma Taylor always looked like a Gramma when I knew her and she looked the same at 40 as she did 80 so I guess that's a good thing if you are 80, but not so hot if you are 40! She always wore sensible shoes and she was a sewer!

When my sister Bev and I would get the usual childhood illnesses - mumps, measles, chicken pox - we got shipped to Gramma Taylor's house for the duration so that my baby sister, Denise, did not catch whatever we had brought home from our peers at school. We even went to Gramma's when we had bad colds and she was a great believer in VICKS VAPORUB. She would smear it all over our chests and throats and our chapped little noses. She even had us swallow a gob of it. Yuck!

We had the best Christmases at Gramma Taylor's house - lots of aunts, uncles and cousins and of course, Grampa whose words to us grandkids were "rub my feet" or "I'm not sleeping, I'm just resting my eyes." Grampa worked his whole life on the Rock Island Lines Railroad and in his retirement, collected junk, fixed it up and sold things at a twice a year yard sale. Bicycles, lawn mowers, chairs, you name it, he fixed it. He also was a champion tomato grower!

So, once I was sewing myself, and it was my mom Marian who taught me, I started making my own clothes, even my prom dress in the old picture here of my first husband Mark and I. I made my wedding dress for that marriage and all of my bridesmaids' gowns (they were really ugly, all of the dresses - think Little House on the Prairie). I made my sister Bev's bridesmaids dresses and my sister Denise's bridesmaids' dresses and her veil. I was a busy little beaver. I made clothes for my kids as well. Sometimes matching outfits.... which they will never forgive me for.

But somewhere along the way, I quit making clothes and started on quilts. Gramma Taylor made quilts too, mostly as donations through her church ladies group. When I would finish a quilt, the first person I wanted to share it with was Gramma Taylor. Gramma's quilts were machine pieced and hand quilted. They were lovely and she always showed them to me as well. The last quilt I showed her was one I made for my friend Nancy's 25th wedding anniversary. Gramma said to me, "I wish I could create the quilts you do." I was so stunned. I thought hers were much better than mine!

Mom had three of her mother's quilts which she received when Gramma died sometime in the 90's. When Mom and Dad moved into a retirement community in May 2008, they needed to downsize and I received one of my Gramma Taylor's quilts, this Maple Leaf which I treasure greatly and place on our bed every fall.

One of my Gramma Taylor's favorite expressions to say when we grandkids did something stupid or silly was, "You're Dutch!" I remember hearing her say this once and I was so eager to fit into this newly acquired family of mine, I said to her, "I'm Dutch too!" Gramma looked right at me and said, "No, you're not Dutch." To this day, I do not know what she meant by this reply. Was the family Dutch by ancestry and being of German/English/Scottish heritage, she was correcting me? Did she mean I was not silly or stupid? Did she mean I was not one of hers (this I sincerely doubt as I KNEW my Gramma Taylor loved me very much!) Gramma was not too long on words so maybe she was telling me in her own abbreviated way to be myself, not what everyone else around me was or what I thought I needed to be to fit it. I like that explanation best!

Thank you, Gramma. I love you and always think of you when I am making a quilt, your hands always busy. And I sure wish I had your homemade hot fudge sauce recipe!

My oldest quilt

I am an active, avid quilter but I am also a collector and have the privilege of owning some lovely old and new quilts. The oldest quilt I own was made by my great-grandmother, Della White, whom I knew as "Little Gramma." Little Gramma lived with my mother's parents for as long as I knew her. She was about 4 feet 10 inches tall, maybe weighed 90 pounds, wrinkled as an old apple and she never spoke. Of course, by the time I knew her, she was in her 90's and maybe she had already said everything there was to say! She lived in a back bedroom of my Grandparents house in Moline, Illinois and didn't come out much. She was my Grampa White's mother and he was the apple of her eye! My mother tells me that in Little Gramma's eyes, her son Edgar could do no wrong. I am pretty sure she made my grandmother's life (her daughter-in-law) a living hell. This is the grandfather who would quiz us on what we were learning in Sunday School and scared us to death when he told us (regularly) that the next time we came for a visit, there would be a new gramma, he was trading our gramma (here pictured with my mother, Ramona) in for a younger model. We believed him...

Recently, I have started the process to get my quilts appraised, both the ones I have made and the ones I have collected. This is a good idea, folks, because if you lose your quilts in a house fire, for instance, if you do not have an appraisal of their worth, you are reimbursed $7 under the category of "old blanket." Now, let's be honest, there is probably no amount of money to make up for the loss of an old quilt but if you wish to protect the investment you have made in these art objects, get them appraised. When I ship a quilt to the new owner and the clerk asks me, "value?" for the forms he is filling out, I tell him, "priceless." Just like the VISA commercial. Sometime later I will tell you my quilt shipping stories.... Here's a hint: Use UPS.

So, back to Little Gramma's quilt. It is a Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern made with flour sack, I believe. It is very fragile and I have not washed it for this reason. I think it was made in the 1930's because of the fabric but I am no expert. My mother gave it to me after my Gramma (her mother), Ila Marie White died in the 1980's. The very sad part of this story is that I never knew my great grandmother was a quilter until recently. Of course, she was long dead before I started quilting so it really does not matter.

I used to be part of a speakers' bureau at Black Hawk College in Moline, Illinois where I worked for 18 years. The college would provide to area meetings, speakers at no charge, as a community service. So for several years, I packed up all my quilts and drove around to various Jaycee or church group meetings, retirement homes and Ladies' groups giving my speech, "Every Quilt tells a Story." The gist of this speech was to find out the story of the quilts you are lucky enough to own. Who made the quilt? Who was it made for? What was the special occasion, if any, that caused its creation? Where was it made? What was the relationship of the quilter to the recipient? If you are a quilter, put the story on the quilt or make sure it goes with the quilt to its new home. One of the most important life lessons I ever learned was from these years as a quilt presenter and it was this: at the retirement home, never speak after the lunch. Everyone falls asleep and you end up talking to yourself!

Many times, I see lovely quilts in auctions and thrift stores, yard sales and on ebay with no story attached. I can't help but think of the hard working woman (and a few men) who gave so many hours to make a quilt to probably say, "I love you" but their story is lost. Maybe it doesn't matter. Just seems very sad to me.

So Little Gramma, I have told your story as best I know it. Your quilt was once new and beautiful. Today, more than 80 years later, I still find it a thing of beauty. Thank you.