A Birthday Heirloom

My grandmother abhorred sewing. To this day she brags that the only sewing she ever did was as a nurse stitching up patients. My mother, Ann, learned to sew from her grandmother, my namesake, Grace. I don’t know who taught Grace to sew, but if her sewing machine could speak, it would have tales to weave of the miles of fabric she pieced together to create magnificent quilts that she shared with her family, friends, and the community. Her love of quilting was a legacy that she knew she needed to pass on.

Grace lived larger than life. As I was named after her, the life she lived has always been ironic to me. Grace was born in March of 1906. She was due to be born two months later. Being so premature in a time before modern medicine and healthcare, Grace’s parents knew that she would die and reserved their favorite name, Harriet--after a grandmother--for a future daughter that would live. She was given a name that they didn’t love and that could be wasted. She filled more experiences and adventure in her 96 years than most would be able to if given two lifetimes. Sadly, Grace’s sister Harriet died at age 14 of complications after the removal of her appendix.

With a passion for sewing, Grace took it upon herself to teach her granddaughters to sew. My mom has four sisters. Out of the five girls, my mom is the one that took to sewing and gained a lifelong passion for the art of quilting. She learned to sew star and log cabin quilts and many hours were spent by Grace’s side learning how to piece quilts.

Learning from the master, Ann picked up on some of Grace’s quirky sewing behaviors. As one who lived through years of war and deprivation, Grace knew not to waste any bit of her fabric. After she trimmed the selvage edges off her fabric, she would tie the strips of fabric together and roll them into balls. She kept baskets of these balls and occasionally when my siblings and I would visit her we would receive a “fabric ball” from her. Being children, we would go to my brother’s bedrooms and create webs with our fabric strips and would throw our stuffed animals onto the webs to see what they could hold. I think if Grace knew how we desecrated her fabric she would stop giving us the balls… that or double knot it so it could hold more weight. I still have one of her balls in my cedar chest. I don’t plan to make a web out of it, it is too much of a treasure. As my mom removes the selvage edge from her fabric, she can often be seen tying the strips together and rolling them into a ball.

Ann also learned the value of creating a quilt that is truly art and can tell a story. As I look at quilts my great grandmother sewed, my mom points out pieces of fabric and tells me their story. In one quilt we have a piece of fabric that remained after Ann received a hand sewn, red polka dot dress for Christmas. To this day she still talks about that dress with such love. If we look in another quilt we see fabric that remained after Grace sewed my brother a baby quilt. Each quilt tells a story and I am grateful that I have been able to hear them.

Taking the lessons she learned, Ann became an accomplished seamstress. Mom went to college and studied home economic education so that she could teach teenagers how to cook and sew. Sewing became more than a hobby for her as it predominated her career. Despite the fact that sewing was a job to her, she didn’t let it dim the love for it. Ann spent countless hours sewing clothes, quilts, aprons, and pillowcases for those around her. I remember one magical Christmas morning when I received a beautiful doll I had been wanting as my main gift. Much to my surprise, I also received a magnificent bin of one of a kind doll clothes. I was so impressed that Mrs. Claus had hand sewed so many outfits for my doll because none of the outfits were ones I had seen in the magazine. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I realized that my doll’s clothes were not constructed in Santa’s workshop, but rather in my parent’s basement late at night after us children went to bed. The time and sacrifice that was spent to give my sister and I an unforgettable gift is something I will always treasure and remember about my mother.

While not in a formal setting, I have been blessed to have been taught by my mother. As a child and teenager she helped me sew doll quilts, bags, and pillowcases. I sewed my first real quilt when I was 12 years old as a gift for my newborn cousin. The rag quilt took me dozens of hours to cut out, sew, and trim the fringe. With the knowledge and skills I now have I’d be able to accomplish the project in an afternoon. I am grateful for the patience that was shown to me as I slowly learned from my mother, a master seamstress.

Throughout my teenage and younger adult years I enjoyed sewing but I generally only sewed out of necessity or to complete small projects for my own enjoyment. I didn’t push myself to create the masterpieces that my mom or great grandmother flawlessly made. I could sew and that is all there was to it. Little did I know the project that I would tackle would change everything.

About half a year before Mom’s 50th birthday my siblings, in-laws, and I started texting about what we could do for my mom’s birthday. I am not sure who suggested sewing a quilt for her, but it is what we settled on. As one who could sew and who was close to my mom, I took the lead on this project. My siblings and I made a list of things that my mom loved or was known for and we came up with a plan to turn her passions into 18 by 18 inch quilt blocks.

I designed the first block. As an avid reader, I thought it would be fun to add a bookshelf to the quilt. For as simple of a block it was, it sure took me a long time to design it. My sister-in-law, Jessica, offered to sew this first block. I remember going to her house one evening when she was working on it. Jessica had an old machine that she had set on the floor. I am not sure how she sewed the block on the floor but she did. She would sew two pieces of fabric together, cut the threads, and pass it to my sister to iron. One of the first lessons I taught Jessica was that you did not need to cut the threads between each piece of fabric sewn. The block had nearly 100 squares and rectangles that needed to be sewn together. It was quite an overwhelming task for Jessica.

My brother John (Jessica’s husband) was not too impressed with the blocks I designed and said that he could do a better job. If I am being honest, I was disappointed too. I envisioned that I would be able to flawlessly design blocks that realistically portrayed my mom’s passions. I was sorely wrong. When John said that he wanted to give designing blocks a try, I was more than happy to let him have a go at it, and I am so grateful I did! John is a natural with design. He was able to quickly and beautifully create images out of squares, rectangles, and triangles that gave life to our vision. While I still designed several blocks, I was more than happy to allow John to take on the role as our lead designer.

Over the several months leading up to the 50th birthday, hundreds of hours were spent on this quilt. Every evening after work I went home and spent at least a couple of hours on the quilt. One block in particular took me about 18 hours. I counted the number of pieces in the 18 inch block and there were roughly 300 small pieces of fabric sewn together to create the picture. Where we didn’t have a set pattern to follow, but rather geometric, digital images created on a grid we spent a lot of time cutting and recutting material to make our projects work. I definitely learned the importance of good sewing scissors during this time and still store them in a safe place where they will not get used on anything but fabric!

The experiences I had of spending excessive amounts of time and energy are not unique to me. Jessica sewed several blocks. She obviously got herself a better set up than sitting on the floor hunched over her machine. My younger sisters Katie and Emma also each sewed a block. Similar to my mom’s sisters, neither of my sisters share a passion for sewing. They have basic skills and know how to sew. Fortunately, it was enough to complete this project.

Katie took a block with a geometric pattern on it. She went to a fabric store and got black and white, turquoise-y green, and hot pink fabric. She also got a secret piece of dinosaur fabric. Katie sewed her block and was giddy as she showed us that she had cut out and sewn in a dinosaur block. Although it may not fit the aesthetic of the quilt, it seems like something that my great-grandma Grace would have approved of as she frequently included a small piece of the most random and mismatched fabric in her quilts.

Being a young teenager and living at home, Emma may have had the hardest challenge with her block. Fortunately, she was able to recruit my dad to help her. Emma took on the task of sewing the garden gnome block, with just over 30 pieces. Late one night after my mom had gone to bed, Emma snuck into her sewing area and chose several pieces of fabric. She gave the fabric to my dad who took it to work and spent his lunch breaks for a couple of days, scissors in hand cutting out the fabric. Once he had finished cutting out the pieces, he returned it to Emma who sewed it in secret after our parents went to bed, with my younger brother to keep her company.

My mom is well loved by all who know her. She is the favorite aunt to all of my cousins and the favorite sister of each of her sisters. I have a cousin who enjoys sewing that knew of our project and asked if she could sew a block. John gave her a heart block to sew. While visiting my grandma, my cousins and aunt completed their block in an afternoon. They let me know that their block had 135 pieces and took several hours to complete. It is lucky we did not give them a more difficult block!

With the time and effort it took each of us to complete this project, it was a sacrifice and gift from the heart.

In order to appropriately celebrate Ann’s birthday, I took the day off of work and traveled out of state home to celebrate her. She was so surprised when I arrived the night before her birthday. The next evening she was equally surprised when most of my remaining siblings arrived to join in the festivities. We presented my mother with one gift from us all and she was shocked as she opened it and started to unfold the quilt. She laughed with glee as she recognized some of the blocks. She thought the gnome was Santa Claus which made us all laugh at my youngest sister’s feeble attempts to sew. She admired the handiwork of scenes she loved come to life in fabric. It was an unforgettable birthday gift for her and for each of us.

This birthday quilt is perhaps the greatest passion project I have created to date. The countless hours spent planning, designing, and sewing taught me so much about how to effectively construct a quilt. I learned principles of design and creation. I learned sewing techniques and tricks to optimize time and fabric. I walked away with an arsenal of knowledge and strategies that I use every time I sew. Since this project, in the many quilts I have sewn I have not once followed a pattern but have rather redesigned and changed quilts to fit my personal taste and style. It is one of my hobbies to draw out quilts and to make the images come to life. John and Jessica are similar to me in this. John has designed several masterpieces for Jessica and Jessica has made John’s vision come alive. Jessica is without a doubt one of the most talented seamstresses I know. I love visiting fabric stores with John and Jessica because John often has stronger opinions about fabric choices than Jessica has. Katie still doesn’t sew often but she has gotten into the addictive habit of buying fabric. Emma is a functional seamstress who sews to satisfy a need. My cousin sews labor intensive quilts and has a passion for paper piecing and constructing images out of fabric. I firmly believe that the love of fabric, sewing, and creation, we each possess was enlarged by this grand endeavor. The completion of this project has changed my life in ways I never expected and is a thing that I am proud of. As I imagine the scene of Grace sitting side by side with my mother and teaching her how to sew, I don’t think she could have possibly known the impact that her passion would have for generations to come.

Blocks in Quilt (Starting at the top left and working across and down)

1. Recreation of my parents home (Designed by Grace, sewn by Grace)

2. Nativity scene… Ann’s birthday is December 1 and she collects nativity scenes from around the world (Designed by John, sewn by Jessica)

3. Colorful triangles (Designed by John, sewn by Grace)

4. Hearts (Designed by John, sewn by cousins Lauren & Emily, and aunt Barbara)

5. Cooking and Yoda (Designed by John, sewn by Grace)

6. Sewing Machine and favorite pieces of fabric (Designed by John, sewn by Grace)

7. 50th Birthday on German Chocolate Cake (Designed by John, sewn by Grace)

8. Barn (Designed by John, sewn by Jessica)

9. Basketball (Designed by John, sewn by Jessica)

10. Scene from movie Totoro (Designed by John, sewn by Grace)

11. Idaho Falls temple (Designed by Grace, sewn by Grace)

12. Gnome (Designed by John, sewn by Emma)

13. Harry Potter and Hogwarts Houses (Designed by John, sewn by Jessica)

14. Chickens and Ginger Cat (Designed by John, sewn by Jessica)

15. Abstract Dino (Designed by John, sewn by Katie)

16. Garden (Designed by John, sewn by Grace)

17. Idaho/Utah ‘88 Marriage (Designed by John & Katie, sewn by Grace)

18. RHS School (Designed by Grace, sewn by Grace)

19. Book shelf (Designed by Grace, sewn by Jessica)

20. Camp trailer and kayak (Designed by John, sewn by Grace)