50 years of Baby Quilts

As you’ve no doubt guessed, we love babies at our house. We also love babies at other people’s houses. For the last 20 years we have had the tradition of giving a homemade baby quilt to each and every baby born in our neighborhood. This neighborhood extends to teachers and friends at school, work, or church. I wish I could take the credit for all of these beautiful quilts over the years, but I must confess that my grandma has been the quilt-maker. 

Some of these quilts are pieced and tied, some are hand-quilted panels, and some are a combination of both. They have come in every color of the rainbow, in flannel and in cotton. All were beautiful and unique, and most importantly, they were made with love. 

Grandma has always made quilts. I remember sitting under the big quilts as a child, playing cards or Yahtzee with my brothers and sisters, listening to the gossip of Grandma and her friends. We’d watch the needles push in and out, in and out. Grandma’s was always the fastest and most accurate. She was so careful with the yarn! There were rarely any pieces left on the floor when she was done. She was raised during the Depression and she knew the value of even the tiniest piece. She would take two small ends and thread them both on her needle and tie just one more knot. 

When I got a little older, Grandma taught me how to tie a quilt. Then I joined the group sitting at the quilt instead of playing underneath it. When I was in high school, Grandma taught me to make the tops and then together we tied them. These were for my "hope chest." Grandma shared stories about her life as she shared her quilting skills and hope for my future. 

Grandma will be 93 next month. She has slowed down considerably. She still crochets, but when I saw her at Christmas she told me she wanted me to have the quilt frames. It has been almost a year since she put on her last quilt. The frames are too heavy for her to lift and she tires easily. Last week my sweetie visited her with the truck and he loaded those precious frames and brought them here. I knew they were coming, but I wasn’t prepared to see them in my home. 

More than 50 years of quilts had come together on those frames. The boards held thousands of tiny holes placed there by careful hands to keep the quilts tight and square while each knot was tied. Hundreds of babies were snuggled in those quilts. Now the legacy is mine. The quilt-making must continue because I learned more than quilt-making from Grandma. I learned that love and friendship bind us all together and nothing does that better than a quilt made with Grandma’s love.

 For a fun blog with quilting projects check out p.s. I quilt.