Quilted Memories

After looking at the antique quilt on Lucy's blog http://lucyquilting.blogspot.com/ and seeing all the wonderful old pieces of fabric used in the quilt, my mind was imagining little girls dresses made from this or that fabric in the quilt and thinking that maybe that fabric was a mans shirt etc. After letting my imagination run wild for a moment or two I went to my cedar chest, so lovingly made by my great grandfather and opened the lid. There under some treasures of my past lay the quilt top my Great Grandmother made. Its not perfect but its a treasure all the same, time has made the mistakes seem insignificant. Each stitch lovingly hand made. No machine touched the quilt top. Even though there is no batting and its just a top, it is nicely finished off and I remember having it on my bed in summer time as a coverlet. In this quilt is a history. A history of clothing worn by family members. There are pieces from the pajamas Nana made for my sister Sandy when she was a baby. There are pieces from aprons and nightgowns my mother and grandmother wore. There are pieces tied to family members now gone. Each time I look at the quilt I think of them. Not too many years ago I found a quilt top at Goodwill for $3. Its one of the pictures here. The one with squares of unbleached cotton and many prints. Its old for sure, the fabrics tell that. I can imagine it too has a family history. Some fruit fabric that may have been from an apron or kitchen curtains. Little calicos that may have been from a dress. My daughter made a pieced pillow case when she was about 10. Its so sweet to look at now as I can see her long brown braids dancing off her shoulders wearing the dress made of the dusty rose fabric. (back a few entries you can see her in that dress blowing bubbles) And there are pieces of another navy blue and pink dress in there too that I made for her. Memories. Now when we make a quilt we go to the store and buy the fabric or look in our stash of fabrics purchased at some point in time, to see what we have on hand. No history there. But if you look at the modern closet it would be hard pressed to find suitable fabrics for a quilt. Tee shirts and jeans would not work too well and would be rather boring. We sleep in cotton knit sleep shirts, much like over grown tee shirts. Hardly anyone wears aprons any more. No cotton dresses made of interesting calicos hang in our closets. Its sad really. We are missing something by not having remnants of our past lovingly put together in a quilt.I remember as a child hearing about this fabric or that fabric being a dress or whatever when I would be snuggled under Nana's quilt. Mennonites and Amish still make quilts from worn out or out grown clothing. I like that. When we dressed plain, we had all cotton dresses, plain colors or tiny calico prints. The boys shirts had lots of good fabric left to them on the back part when they out grew them. We made fun pajamas and night gowns using pretty prints we would not wear for day clothes. I wish I had cut some of them up for quilt use or saved the left over scraps of fabric from making them. It would have been nice to have pieces from their childhood to snuggle under and remember....yes, remember moments that have flown by.