"I Remember Laura" Blog-a-thon

"On Sundays Mary and Laura must not run or shout or be noisy in their play. Mary could not sew on her nine-patch quilt, and Laura could not knit on the tiny mittens she was making for Baby Carrie. They might look quietly at their paper dolls, but they must not make anything new for them. They were not allowed to sew on doll clothes, even with pins."

~Little House in the Big Woods, Chapter 5, Sundays~

~Laura Ingalls Wilder~

Welcome to week one of the "I Remember Laura" Blog-a-thon! This weeks theme is Quilted Memories. Laura and her sister, Mary, were started in the needle arts at a very young age. They learned to sew, quilt, knit, and stitch samplers. A simple quilt pattern they first learned to make was a pattern called the nine patch. This week we will share our own quilted memories by telling our stories and sharing pictures of our special quilts or quilt related items.

While I have never done a 9-patch quilt, I have begun a shoo-fly (and variations) quilt. We also own quilts my grandmother and Jim's grandmother made.

Here is my grandmother's quilt. As I understand it, she pieced this quilt and asked her sister-in-law Gertrude to quilt it. My grandmother's vision was very poor as she had cataracts. She was blind for the first 3 years of my father's life. When her vision finally returned, she had to wear "Coke-bottle" glasses just to see a very blurry image.



There is a story I was told about how my Grandma Ashcroft's home was always spotless. She was so concerned that she would be heavily criticized if her home was not clean that she would literally go over every inch of her living room with her hands to make sure nothing was out of place and that it was dust free. Back in those days, quilts were made out of leftover fabric from other sewing so there would have been a story behind every fabric. Unfortunately, I do not know the stories, but the care and love is obvious.

My husband's grandmother made the next quilt for him when he was married. I think it went everywhere with him! I need to repair some places where the stitching is torn, but even those are indicative of the comfort it brought him in hard times.



Do you or someone in your family quilt? Do you have a special quilt story? Then share it by linking up here. Perhaps your quilt is not hand made but special to you none the less, then share it too.