If this quilt was discovered at a Goodwill shop most people would walk by, if it even made it onto the sales floor. It is over 50 years old, lots of stains, and even a small hole or two, but if I could only keep one quilt from my vast collection, this would be THE ONE. It came to me from my dear Aunt Mary Daugherty. Aunt Mary was the person who took the time to teach me to sew by letting me operate the petal on her petal powered machine before I was big enough to see the top of the machine if I stood on the floor. This taught me how to control the petal to keep the machine going smoothly. She would sit me in her lap to watch how she would feed the fabric through and eventually let me actually sew scraps together under her close supervision.
Aunt Mary was a very accomplished seamstress. She would let me pick out a dress I liked from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog and she would make it for me, usually out of beautiful flour sack fabrics. Back then flour and feed came in calico or gingham cotton fabrics that I thought was the prettiest fabric ever made.
As much as Aunt Mary loved her sewing machine all of her quilting was done by hand. When her only child married and was pregnant she made all the layette including many quilts as the old houses in East Tennessee were cold and drafty in the winter. One of the quilts was the tulip quilt pictured above. She was so proud of it because it was the first quilt she had ever quilted on the sewing machine. When I had my first son, John, in 1968 she gave the quilt to me and as you can see it was well used and loved by all three of my children. When they outgrew it I boxed it up and kept it through many moves, even from Tennessee to Florida in 1981.
I will complete the ‘rest of the story’ as Paul Harvey used to say, in tomorrow’s post.
Thank you all for reading my long story.
Beautiful quilt and beautiful memories.
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Thank you for reading my story Bella. I can never remember a time when sewing was not part of my life.
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What a blessing your dear Aunt Mary Daugherty. Thank you for sharing such sweet memories . Quilt stories are important in many ways.~cheers
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Thank you so much for reading my story Mona. As I get older my memory fades more and I wanted to share before they were gone.
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Oh Peggy! What a wonderful treasure, both your Aunt Mary and the quilt. I love hearing about how much influence she had in your future hobby. She would love to know that you saved this quilt all these years – one of your grands will be wrapped in her love soon. {{Hugs}} Priceless. ~smile~ Roseanne
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Thank you so much for reading my story Roseanne. The quilt is too delicate to use but I have made a copy of my blog post to place in the box with the quilt. I do not want its history to be lost.
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Now I am sad because I never met Aunt Mary! She sounds like a treasure, just as her quilt is. Thanks for sharing with us Peggy!
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Thank you Kathy. Aunt Mary was a great woman that taught me so much about life. I was very lucky to have her in my life.
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What a special memory and quilt you shared!
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Thank you Tierney
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Beautiful story, and a quilt to cherish 💕
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Thank you.
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I think these old, much-loved quilts are the best, even though they show their age. If I don’t know the story behind a quilt, I am always happy to make one up . . .
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Me too! I make up stories about old houses also. Thanks for reading.
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