My Favorite Quilt

My mother-in-law's family has quilted forever.
 When you had a large family in early Texas,
homemade quilts were a necessity.

Here is my favorite quilt, made by her side of the

family. Perhaps you remember she comes from a
very large family...10 girls and 2 boys.

 

 Depending on how I fold it up, the quilt can be
quite soft or quite dramatic, but always colorful!

  Taking center stage is the square made by
"Mother" Mattie Savage, who lived to be
almost 100 years old despite having 12 kids.

My mother-in-law has agreed to tell me the
story of each person who created a square as
soon as she's had a chance to recover from
her latest hospital adventure.

 In the meantime, I keep the quilt tucked away
in my sitting room with the chicken pillow to
keep it company.

I know some of the ladies who made the squares,
and some I've never heard of. 

 There are a few people I can't wait to hear the
story of...bold AUNT TILDA and MITTIE are
at the top of that list!

Those are some pretty bold colors they
chose, considering it was probably early
1940's when this quilt was done.
 

I know that because my mother-in-law and
her sisters signed their quilt squares with
their maiden name Savage.
All except for Aunt Nola that is...who used only
her first name. She was as flashy as the bold
red material she picked out!

 Nola was a hairdresser with her own shop.
She liked makeup and jewelry. Lots of jewelry.
Could you tell by the square she made?

 I'm looking forward to hearing about soft Grace

 ...and sturdy Opal. 
Looks like Opal wanted her signature to last...

 When my mother-in-law gave me this quilt,
I struggled with how to clean it. It had been
packed away for a while and stored. I'm very
allergic to dust mites, so clean it I must.



I was going to have it dry-cleaned, but then thought of
the horror stories I'd heard about old wedding gowns.
 Who wants to be known as the family's quilt killer?



There's a quilt shop in another small town close by.
I planned to talk to the shop owner to get a ton
of instructions on the do's and don'ts.

 Then one day, while reading the signatures, it came
to me that these ladies used rugged stitches and
cloth of their day, and they had wringer-type washers
back then that must've crushed the hell out of stuff...
 
they were probably laughing at my panic and
indecision right now, from their sewing circle on high!



So I got out the Woolite, set the modern machine
on delicate, and said a prayer.



I'm happy to say we both survived.



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