BUT THERE WAS A SURPRISE!!
My faaavorite Grandma sent me a BEAUTIFUL new quilt!!
So the story of this quilt is as follows. Listening to my Grandma tell me her side of how this quilt got from Point A years ago to my house in Florida; Point B today lined up perfectly with what I remembered in my mind.
Years ago, this quilt...aptly named "A Bear in the Woods" was the very last quilt my Grandma and her good friend Ruth HAND QUILTED. Yes. That's right. They quilted it BY HAND. Listen, I'm trying to make a mini scrap quilt right now and it is more complicated than it looks. I'm looking forward to just having the pieces sewn together for mine (which has already taken a couple months of my spare time) so I can run it through my sewing machine to quilt over the top and be done with it just to say I've finished a quilt! However, I've been taking my time because I don't do anything unless I'm doing it to the best of my ability. I can't even imagine quilting it by hand. Its that kind of patience that makes Grandma's so amazing I think. Anyway, its incredible how much love and work went into this gorgeous quilt she sent me...and it definitely makes me want to start trucking along to finish up my quilt as well!
Back to the story though... we were up visiting my Grandma and they were having their Church Bazaar. I remember that Grandma didn't go that year but she put this quilt up for sale/auction at the Bazaar. I was watching people look at it, admire it, comment on how beautiful it was and I demanded that we buy the quilt, because it seemed like such a shame to sell it to someone after all that work went into it! Its always been a part of my life...watching her quilt. For years my relationship with my *Granny* centered around watching my Grandma & Granny quilting together. I know my Grandma doesn't keep every quilt she's made. I have 3 of her quilts (now 4), my brother has a couple, my Mom has several, etc. I wanted Grandma to be there to talk about her quilt to whoever planned on buying it. So in between stuffing my face with slices of delicious home baked cherry pie I managed to convince my parents to buy her quilt.
We brought it back to Grandma's house and according to her, *she was in such shock that we returned with it, she never said thank you.* I wish I could rewind back to that moment when she realized it wasn't sold to a stranger (which honestly, is unlikely anyway because in her small town everyone knows everyone and she'd undoubtedly hear about her quilt down the road). Regardless, we got it back for her & although she remembers not saying thank you, I never thought of it that way...I just remember bringing her quilt back and being happy to do so!
It doesn't matter to me what quilt(s) I end up with in the long run. This quilt brought back cherished childhood memories...of watching Grandma sew & quilt, helping her pick fabrics and pair them up for quilt squares, going to the church bazaar and enjoying pie and quilts and beautiful hand crafted items.
Blogging about the church bazaar also reminds me of my Grandpa and his jigsaw down in the basement. Its now collecting dust bunnies, and not saw dust anymore which makes me sad. I remember watching Grandpa from the stairs as he cut out teeny tiny intricate pieces of wood. Everything he made was beautiful! I'm holding out the hope that someday I'll be the very proud owner of one of his Lord's Prayer wall hangings. Nowadays he doesn't have the same energy he used to so he isn't able to do any woodworking...but it still makes me smile to sneak down into my Grandparents' basement for a soda whenever I'm home (even though I gave up soda pop a LONG time ago) where the smell of wood and sawdust still permeates the air.
I'm a sentimental person. My husband can tell you that, because I save the most random things in boxes piled up in our garage where he wants to park his precious motorcycle. He doesn't understand why I saved my old license plate or clothes from when Gav was a baby. Maybe it was because he moved around a lot when he was young. Who knows!? Regardless, I LOVE memories.
Needless to say, this quilt is such a blessing and an honor to have in my home.
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