Another Mom Quote

                          

                              Big Grandma's Homemade Quilt

                         

                             Mom's Homemade Quilt

Not long ago I wrote a post about a quote that my mother had jotted down on the inside of a memo book about wasted time. Now I'd like to share another quote she had written down on that same inside memo book cover.

"The best kind of sleep beneath Heaven above is under a quilt handmade with love."

I remember as a child going to big grandma's house for a visit about once a year. She was an old time quilter. She quilted by hand and usually had a quilt on her quilt stand all the time. Her quilts were beautiful and well constructed. Her hand stitching added so much character and quality to them. I have many memories of going to her and granddad's house. It was a small farm and granddad usually had potatoes, berries and other things growing in the fields. I remember helping pick up potatoes after he plowed and remember picking strawberries and blackberries during the heat of summer. He also had a decorative pond in the front yard which consisted of a clawfoot bathtub buried in the yard and filled with water. It was an awesome water feature to a young child. They also had an old metal pedal tractor as about the only toy to play with at the place.

Inside the house was a cuckoo clock on the wall and the little cuckoo bird would come out every hour. My grandma usually had a pot of red beans cooking on the stove, one of granddads favorites. In the winter, the house was always cold and drafty. One of my fondest memories of that house was going to bed in their guest bedroom. My parents would put me and my two sisters in a large bed covered in grandma's quilts. They would pull the stack of quilts back and we would crawl in and then they would fold the stack of quilts back over us. There must have been at least 6 to 10 heavy quilts on that bed. They were so heavy we could barely move. It was like getting a giant hug from that stack of quilts. That was some of the best sleep I had as a kid. I would lie there, warm and snug with the sound of the cuckoo clock in the distant living room. That experience fits the above quote perfectly. Those handmade quilts were awesome. 

My grandma gave us one of her handmade quilts many years ago as a wedding gift and I cherish it to this day. My mother also did a little quilting. She didn't put as much work into her quilts as grandma did. My mother didn't do as much hand stitching and did more tacking and machine sewing. Regardless of her method, she also made some beautiful quilts. One of her quilts sits on our bed right now. I often tease my wife when I wrap up in it saying "I'm under the quilt my mother made me with love!". It is another example of the truthfulness of the quote above. 

Sometime simple things bring us great comfort and joy. As I've said before, just seeing this sheet of mom's handwritten quotes brings a smile to my face. 

Do you have a handmade quilt that has been passed to you from someone? Do you make quilts yourself and share them with others? What other handmade items bring you great joy?