It’s Not Your Grandmothers Quilts Anymore

Go back in time when you were little. Did you visit your grandmother who had all those wonderful quilts on her bed? When you took a nap you crawled under those quilts and everything seemed right with the world.

I have the privilege of owning two quilts that my great aunt made. These quilts are made from recycled wool garments. The wool one is extremely heavy, I can see how that kept you warm in the Ohio winter nights. My father told me these are the quilts that he used when he was little. When I look at these quilts I takes me back to a much simpler time, where the women hand cut and sewn their projects. These women did not have the modern sewing machines, the long arm quilting machines, nor did they have rotary cutters, mats and rulers. Even without all the modern day quilting gadgets (that we just can’t live without), their quilts were very beautiful and functional. The two quilts I own have been tied to keep the standard three layers together. The binding is a whipstitch around the whole quilt. Nothing extremely fancy but functional. I’m sure my father appreciated his quilts growing up.

As the quilting movement has progressed, quilts have graduated from the bed to the walls, tables, and pillows to name a few. I have several pieces hanging on my walls. These wall hangings add warmth and depth to any room. Mine are smaller versions of classic quilting patterns, or appliqué. There are also beautiful art quilts, which are landscapes, ocean scenes, mountain scenes and even portraits.. These quilts will match or surpass any painting in my book.

If you’re looking to decorate with quilts, it is easy to do. I have made bed quilts and than made a few extra blocks and made a wall hanging to match. You could even make extra twelve to sixteen inch blocks and make pillow covers. One of my favorite wall hangings was a log cabin Christmas tree I had made. My sister and brother-in-law sometimes puts up a tree and sometimes not. As the kids are older now the sometimes not is usually the norm. So I made this wall hanging and gave it to my sister. I told her on the years they don/’t put a tree up she is to hang the wall hanging, that way there will always be a Christmas tree in her house.

I hope that this has inspired you to look around you house and see where you could decorate with quilts. Happy quilting everyone.