Grandmother’s Moniker
I have not decided if the IRS needs to know I received this quilt as “payment”. A thrifting girlfriend asked me recently if I could clean an old quilt she had found. Certainly, though I was a tad worried what a thrifted quilt purchased by the pound was going to look like. Honestly my heart stuttered a tad when I pulled this out of her bag. The quilt is pristine. Colors are bright. Binding was unfrayed. And while it needed to be washed to remove dust and brighten the yellowed tone of age, it was hardly used.
And no wonder. It is remarkable. The pattern is called Grandmother’s Flower Garden and is composed of hexagons. The pattern originated in England in the 1700s and was called “honeycomb” due to the design’s similarity to actual honeycomb. The yellow centers are a traditional choice, referring back to this origin. The pattern became popular in the United States in the 1930s during the Great Depression. As the pieces are quite small, this pattern helped utilize scraps of fabrics from clothing making. The entire quilt is hand done. Take a moment to look at the flowers. The artist used the traditional yellow piece in the center of every flower. The second “round” on each is done in a solid color fabric. And then she “fussy cut” fabrics to highlight an image and repeated that design around each flower’s third ring. It is hard to explain so here is a close up of two:
I have made virtually every type of quilt imaginable over the 35 years I have enjoyed quilting. But I have never tackled a crazy quilt (though now have 2 wonderful ones -see prior blog posts: https://www.ericasheirloomquilts.com/ericas-heirloom-treasures/wisconsin-crazy and https://www.ericasheirloomquilts.com/ericas-heirloom-treasures/jeannies-crazy-quilt). Nor have I tried to make a Grandmother’s Flower Garden. I am a grandmother now, but confess the idea of gardening is remarkably low on my to do list. Thus, my garden is not something to have as a moniker. Much more likely I would be “Grandmother’s Baking Treats”. Or “Grandmother’s Snuggly Quilts”. To say nothing of the daunting task of hand piecing a flower garden quilt. Each flower is composed of 19 pieces. On this quilt there are 248 blocks, meaning you need to cut and hand sew 4712 pieces to simply make the flowers. (Hubby wondered how I got that figure: math, dear lol). To say nothing of all the white “setting” blocks. I admire the perseverance. And in this case I also admire the workmanship.
As I lusted after the quilt, my girlfriend asked if I could repair another item she had that needed a hole darned. I joked that I could repair a pile of clothing (for her to resell) in exchange for the quilt. She thought that a fabulous idea!! So now I have a 1930s stunning Grandmother’s Flower Garden to admire while I nibble on chocolate chip cookies with my granddaughter.