A Remembered Treasure

When I was sleeping in Jon & Lexie’s guest room over the weekend, Lexie had a quilt on the bed that was made by Grandma Johnson.  It looks like this one and it reminded me that Grandma Johnson made me one too, when I got married.  I have kept it tucked away safely in the linen closet b/c I didn’t want it to get ruined.  But, after seeing Lexie’s this weekend I decided that Grandma Johnson would much rather have me get that quilt out and use it than have it sitting in a closet collecting dust.

I don’t think most people realize just how much work goes into these quilts.  Mom said this pattern is called a Dresden Plate.  Grandma had to cut out each petal of the flower and sew them together.  Then she had to hand appliqué the blue circle in the middle to the flowers, and then hand appliqué the finished flower to the white square.  Then she had to sew the blue sashing fabric in between each white square.  Lexie’s quilt was HAND QUILTED, which is soooo time consuming.  My quilt was quilted by Mom b/c by the time I got married, it was just too hard for Grandma to hand stitch them.  And just in case you are wondering, Mom used variegated thread on the blue border, which is why some of it looks like part of it is white and other parts don’t.  I really love the hand stitching on Lexie’s quilt, but I also like the fact that Mom quilted mine.  Both are special and unique in their own way. 

The neat thing is that Grandma Johnson made a quilt for every one of her grandkids that was married before she got sick and couldn’t do them anymore.  She also tried to get as many of the squares done that she could for the grandkids that weren’t married yet.  I am going to use and treasure mine and think of Grandma and what a talented and incredible lady she was every time I look at my quilt.  I can just hear her saying, “Now sister (she called everyone brother or sister) you know that this quilt took a lot of time to make and it’s made with love.  I want you take good care of it, but I also want you to use it and love it.”  I am going to honor her memory by cherishing the quilt she made w/ her incredible talent.  I also have a couple of aprons and pillow cases that she made, which I am going to use more often.

I know the picture above isn’t of a pieced quilt and that we’re just doing ties.  But, I loved spending time doing things like this with Grandma b/c we were able to sit and talk while still being productive and working.  This picture means so much to me b/c Lexie & I were both going to BYU at the same time for just one semester and then Tara was there, too.  What great and wonderful and powerful women.  I’m so blessed.

Anyways, Mom made roast w/ mashed potatoes, gravy, and yellow squash and zucchini for dinner.  Dad was at work, so it was just her and me and Autumn that ate dinner.  We were joking about how it was like old times where we would have to eat w/out Dad b/c he was always at work.  I felt bad, b/c I had to eat and run.

I went and worked for Christine, and Mom was an angel and kept Autumn for me, so I could get a lot of work done at Christine’s.  Then Mom brought Autumn over to my house at 9:00 so she could go to bed.  I got done at Christine’s at 9:20 and came home and we all laid in bed and talked for a while.  Then Mom went home, I put Autumn to bed (and made her stay there b/c she kept wanting to come out and play), and then I watched the last 1/2 of Parenthood and went to bed.