It's so exciting to share this project as it's very near and dear to my heart. My Granny was a special woman. Truly a one of a kind. She was a quilter, among many other things, and the one that brought quilting into my life and into my heart. At age 18 I decided I wanted to make a quilt to take with me to college for my dorm bed so Granny offered to teach me how to quilt. I'll save that story for another post at another time, so back to the flower garden.
Granny passed away a few years ago now and I think of her every single time I quilt. About a year after she passed, my mom showed up at my house with an envelope for me from the last sifting thru Granny's house. To my surprise, inside the envelope were Granny's quilt templates, her pattern books, and a handful of precious fabric scraps from the last few quilts she made. The quilting templates were cut out of old magazines, sand paper, you name it. There were a few tried and true patterns that she stuck with when she was quilting. Lone Star, Double Wedding Ring, Rail Fence were among her favorites. As I carefully flipped thru her templates and patterns as to not damage a one, I found random notes written in her handwriting. It brought such joy to see her messy handwriting again and to feel the love she put into every one of her quilts thru these pieces of paper.
The stack of scraps was truly tiny. Just a handful of pieces, but I remembered each of the quilts they came from. My double wedding ring she made for hubby and I when we married. A scrap double wedding ring she made for my cousin Katy. A lone star made for another cousin. They were absolutely precious to me but such a small amount was left, what would I ever be able to do with these pieces? Every few days I would pull the fabric out, look at it, think about it, then put it away. I would lay templates on the pieces to see what I could get out of them, then put it away. After months of this, I decided the only thing that made sense was a Grandmother's Flower Garden. This is one of the patterns from her stash that she never made but it just felt right. Several of the scraps were just big enough to get 6 hexagons from them. Of course, there wasn't enough to make much so out came my scrap bins.
Slowly I have been cutting hexagons and piecing them on the bus, in the car, wherever I have just a few minutes to do something. I keep a small ziplock bag in my purse with a few flowers ready to piece so they are always handy.
As I watch the pile of completed flowers grow, I think of her and all the beauty she brought to this world and especially to our family. I think about all the quilts I've made since that first Rail Fence I took to college. Each scrap holding a special memory of the person, birthday, birth, wedding in which it was made. This quilt is truly a work of love, holding special memories I will cherish for my lifetime, and hope it will continue to hold special memories for my boys long after I'm gone.
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