Quilt themes and owners

My mother received a note from Aunt Marilyn today -- Uncle Kenneth, her husband and my father's oldest brother, died last month -- and she said she does have the quilt Nana Lord made for Kenneth, which was completed in 1972. The theme for this quilt is flowers. She said it's battered and worn but she will pass it on to my brother Matt, so I should have pictures of this at some point.

The article below mentions 10 quilts. This is what we know about the quilts and their owners so far:

Karen and Brenda, granddaughters who lived with Nana Lord, own the first two quilts. The first quilt, made in 1961, contained the names of children for whom Nana Lord babysat as well as events. The second, completed in 1964, is kind of a death quilt, marking the deaths of famous figures, including the assassination of JFK and, oh yeah, includes my parents' wedding among other happenings at the time.

Uncle Paul's quilt has a family theme, with events and groups important to his family.

Uncle Johnny's quilt had liquor and wine labels.

Bruce's quilt (that would be Dad) was made in 1972. The theme was holidays and it is currently in my possession. (Mine! Mine! Mine!)

Uncle Deanie's quilt was Spanish-themed, since he went to Spain on his honeymoon. Possibly my cousin Eric has this quilt; both Uncle Deanie and Aunt Bernie died a few years ago.

Uncle Kenneth's quilt was made in 1972 (after Dad's) with a flower theme.

Kathie's quilt has a Bicentennial theme.

Nancy's quilt has a symbol theme, with a book detailing the symbols.

Michael's quilt includes his graduation, wedding and the birth of his baby (Hi Chad!).

The article references "Sarah and Cindy" as receiving quilts, with unknown themes, according to the article. Possibly one of them was the "autograph" quilt, which the article says was of aquaintances, but I remember her collecting presidential and Declaration of Independence signatures as well. Who is Sarah? I'm guessing she's referring to Michael's wife.

There's also mention of another quilt, made for a grandson (Kevin would be my guess, since Robin didn't get one), with a "surprise theme."

This brings the quilt tally to at least 12!

A family of quilts by Ruth Lord

This is an undated article that I'm assuming is from the Ipswich Chronicle. A few years ago, my parents gave scrapbooks of family pictures and news clippings to my brother and me; this was in mine. The cutline indicates that she's holding the first quilt she made in 1961. I will refrain from my need to edit and re-write this.

Into each of the quilts that Mrs. Ruth Lord of Fellows Road has created since 1961 she waves a tapestry of contemporary events for her children and grandchildren that will evoke memories in the years to come.

Mrs. Lord said she was baby-sitting for a newly adopted child who arrived at Christmas at an Argilla Road home where a beautiful antique quilt decorated one wall. "Every time I went there I would look at that quilt with its appliques and different kinds of stitches and little embroidered things, such as a hand of cards. So I came home and I thought maybe I could make one. As I went different places to babysit I would make a square and the children's names on it."

Along with them she put her first quilt events of the year. One square has a stork embroidered on it with the lettering "Gable 1961." That is the year Clark Gable's baby was born.

Another square includes a crutch, marking the fact that her husband, the late Gordon Lord, broke his foot. There is a donkey with the initials "J.F.K." to mark the inauguration of John F. Kennedy as President. Wedding bells on the quilt are for the wedding of her brother Harold and Cindy Bowen.

Children's names of the various families for whom she baby-sat are included with their brothers and sisters on one block for each family. "These are the Sylvesters," Mrs. Lord says of one square. She is related to the Sylvesters and recently attended the wedding of their daughter, Joanne. "Dianne was murdered," she says of the local family which has moved to Maine. {Jenn's note: I can just hear the dry tone of voice in which she off-handedly shared this information} Dianne, a brilliant young nurse in California, was brutally murdered several years back in her apartment.

"Here are the Gene Robies," says Ruth, indicating another square with the names of children. "There is Erik Smith and this one is Martha Hayes. Here are Happy, Kim, Whiz and Crispy Potter. This one says Beth, Rob and Dede Brown. This one is for Brooks Jansen. Let's see, the children in this one lived on Mill Road."

One of the squares has the earth sewn on it and "John Glenn." Mrs. Lord explains: "That is for the three times he went around the world." Sewn into the quilt is a satin design sent to her by her son, Kenneth. Anther square is from a colorful necktie which has a yellow background and big red maple leaves. "I bought it for him in Boston," she says.

Among the many small squares there is one which reads: "Dad 1961." This marks the death of her father in that year.

Her second quilt was started in 1962 and completed in 1964. It contains several black squares with white lettering: "Dallas assassination 1963," "General Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964," "Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962," "Pope John, 1881-1963," "Cape Cod, April 10, 1963, Thresher, 129 men," and "Patrick Kennedy, Aug. 7-9, 1963." The square about the Kennedy baby includes the White House with the lettering "depicting death over the President's home."

One of the patches is of the state of Alaska and shows a crack across part of it, a reminder of the severe earthquake of 1964. There is a patch with Greek lettering representing the fraternity her son Bruce joined at the University of Massachusetts. {Jenn's note: Dad joined Lambda Chi Alpha, and I totally need to see this quilt.} A red-white-and-blue square reads "John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963." There is a wedding patch marking the marriage of Bruce and his wife Linda in 1964.

"Here are the Bamford kids and these are the Stanton kids down the way," says Ruth. "I put my mother on this and later put the last part, 1965, in different thread to mark when she died."

The quilt includes a square for the Vostak III in 1962, first Russian space ship, another for the 1962 blockade of Cuba, and a square which marks the 50th anniversary of the Girl Scouts in 1962. There is also one for the Telestar when it was launched in 1962 and one which marks the death of Robert Frost, 1874-1963. A reminder of the New York newspaper strike of 1963 says "114 days."

Mrs. Lord calls her quilts "crazy patchwork." Her first two were given to her grand-daughters, Karen and Brenda Lord. Her tenth quilt is made up with autographs of friends and aquaintances. The next one will be made for a grandson and will be with a surprise motif.

For her son Paul and his wife she made a quilt filled with squares about their family life, including such things as the Girl Scouts and Auxiliary Fire Department.

Mrs. Lord's son Johnny is a bartender at Maxwell's at the Andover Inn and his wife was formerly a waitress. "I made their quilt with various wine and liquor labels," she said. "I had the kids looking around the street for cans and I would go through them to find different things to copy."

Her son Dean and his wife honeymooned in Spain, and their quilt has items from their wedding trip on various squares.

And son Bruce's is a different kind of theme marking special days.

When grandson Michael Lord was married, his quilt included his graduation, the wedding and later the baby. Ruth has also given special quilts to granddaughters Sarah, Cathy and Cindy, but has more to do.

Mrs. Lord leads a life filled with activities, from being a member of the Conservation Commission of the State Grange to being an active Golden Ager and one of the hostesses in the Historial Society's Heard House. She has also helped bring up several of her grandchildren and enjoys having them live in her house.

But with her beautiful quilts, she is leaving each one something special to remember her by.

My cousin Nancy talks about her quilt

My mother sent out a package to my cousins with my original blog entry and a request for any information about Nana Lord's quilts. Here's the response from my cousin Nancy (Kathie's sister, see the post below):

Hi All,

I have been very negligent in responding about Nana's quilt. Thank you, Linda, for sending this great package.

Ok first after viewing the blog I have to say; (Sorry Kathie-but also Thank you I am not the only one with memory deficiency!) It was cousin Betty that died. Vicki, last I heard, had run off with her sister's boyfriend, leaving 2 Children, a Husband, her Mother, her Grandmother and Aunt on beautiful Walnut Drive. Jenny, now you know why we appreciate the Lord side of the family, as bossy and "know it all" as they all may be.

I have a great "Nana Lord quilt" of symbols. It is full of beautiful fabrics and lined in silk (surely it must be real silk!), very colorful. I received this when I graduated high school. I have heard the rumor it was with marriage that we received these quilts but if this were true (as I mentioned to your Dad and Mom at Kenneth's reception/collation), I would have received 2! I kept my quilt from 1978 to 1981 in a "HOPE" chest for when I married. I used it sparingly in the beginning of my marriage displaying it on a quilt-rack Dad made for me. (Also Kathie -unless my memory fails me-a pattern from Mrs. McCormick -made by her husband). But then I heard, I think from Linda, maybe Sara, that Nana wanted us to USE these quilts not to DISPLAY them. With this I brought it out to the couch and…probably best if I do not elaborate about the person who I would cover when they passed out each night...Anyway when I had Sami and Ben I used it as Jenny has talked about, when they were sick or not feeling well. It was great to bring it out and discuss what the symbols stood for. Nana gave me a booklet she had made to explain all the symbols. We would look over the quilt and guess the symbols and compare to the book. It was packed away when I moved in 1994. Brought out again when I had Elizabeth in 2000. I used it to lay her on after I saw all the vibrant and expensive "stimulation" mats for new babies at "BabiesRUs". It was, unfortunately, in another cedar chest when this discussion began. I brought it out to show my oldest 2 children to have them share their thoughts-OK I am still waiting for that. I will take some pics to send and copy my symbol book to share. I admit to being the bad granddaughter who threw her quilt in the washing machine. It is tightened in some spots and unraveled in others. What a wonderful way to connect to family, Nana Lord knew what she was doing.

Nancy

My cousin Kathie talks about Nana Lord's quilts

My father is the youngest of the Lord brothers and the last to have kids. As a result, most of my cousins are older than me, plus they mostly lived around Ipswich and Rowley, so they had a lot more contact with Nana Lord than I did. My mother passed on my email to cousins recently; here's the story of Kathie's quilt and her memories of Nana Lord's quilting.

Here's the bits and pieces that I remember -- correctly or not -- about the quilts:

Nana had finished making one for each of her sons and decided to make them for her grandchildren, starting with the oldest and moving on down. It seemed then to be important that she gift the quilts to the grand-daughters or to married grandkids only, because she didn't make one for Robin, skipping directly to Mike and Sara. I think that irritated my mother a bit and she's decided their quilt will go to Robin.

I thought all the sons' quilts were family quilts, ie anniversaries, children's birthdays, special events, but maybe not. I notice yours is holiday themed. My parent's quilt is a family quilt. I remember it also had our own special interests on it -- for example there was a square about my 4-H sewing years. I remember too that the fabric from one of my old dresses was used in the quilt.

I'd always thought she started the themes with the grandkids.

My own quilt is the bicentennial quilt from 1976.
There was a picture of Nana and the quilt, carefully posed with it spread out over her knees and onto the floor while she worked on it, in the Ipswich Chronicle. I wonder if they archived that kind of stuff. She finished it in time for the summer celebrations so it must've been on display someplace.
Oh, yes -- I remember it was at least on display in the Grange building at the Topsfield Fair that year.

So the primary reason for my quilt was the bicentennial; that it was for me was secondary. That was Nana Lord and you had to love her for it.

I sewed a strip along the back of one edge and displayed it as a wall hanging for several years when Chuck and I were first together. Very 70s that kind of thing was back then, but I still hung it up in the bedroom when we moved into our current house, taking it down probably mid 80s when I noticed the weight of it was making it rip at the top. I had it dry cleaned and store it now in a cedar chest.

I'll take some pictures of it and email them to you when our digital camera comes back from being repaired.

Some other things I remember:

The quilts were entirely handmade except for the machine stitching the back to the front. Nana prided herself on that. She always carried a square or two of her current quilt with her to work on wherever she was. She learned most of the embroidered stitches from her schooling at Essex Aggie. There are names for them. She gave me her 'file' of stitch cards that she'd made at school when she was cleaning out her apt. at the Plantation in Rowley.

She told me the story of how she started making the quilts. I'm a little vague on it but IIRC, crazy quilts from cotton clothing were of course pretty common, but she saw one once while visiting someone made of satins and velours and thought it was beautiful. She said she decided right then and there that she would make one herself and began stockpiling old clothes made of interesting fabric.

I have the last quilt Nana was working on. I don't know who it was for but there were only a couple of squares finished. It was in the jumble of things nobody wanted, still stored at my parents house.
You're welcome to it, if you'd like.

Odd, little aside that has little to do with Nana Lord's quilts. They fascinated me and she showed me how they were made. Square of muslin with the pieces tacked on, then embroidered, then the squares sewed together. I decided to make one myself. I can't remember how old I was but I'd been working on it off and on for months. I was sewing it, all the scraps dumped around me on the living room floor, watching TV with Nancy one day, when my other grandmother -- Nana Johnson -- came running into the house, sobbing that my little cousin Vicki had just died on the operating table during open heart surgery. I dropped the quilt and never picked it up again. Superstition of a young girl, I guess. Funny what comes back when you start to remember ...

I grew up listening to the uncles (and my Dad) complain and poke fun of Nana, albeit with affection, but she was an amazingly independent woman. Loved that she couldn't be bothered with housework and that she would rather be creating something -- sewing, wedding cakes, gardening. I like to think creating is the legacy she's passed on to me. I thought it was in the sewing, but I haven't opened the sewing machine in years. Instead it's the writing.

Anyhow, I keep my house dirty in her memory. :)

A visit to the quilt museum

I had an assignment at the New England Quilt Museum on Tuesday, my first day back from vacation. I brought Nana Lord's quilt along for the ride with the hope of getting an opinion on how to clean the darn thing.

So I walked through the Paul Pilgrim exhibit and got terribly intimidated. Nice quilts. He was an antiques dealer who collected quilts; he became enamoured of "orphan blocks," the quilt blocks he'd just find lying around, uncompleted and unloved. He'd buy them, but they really didn't have a market, and then he decided to take up quilting himself and he used the blocks to make all kinds of cool quilts. There were quilts with different size blocks, quilts with applique, quilts with really bad blocks, and they were all just awesome.

Anita, the museum's curator, told me Pilgrim had been from a drycleaning family and was meticulous when it came to cleaning and pressing his blocks (ironing, of course, is a big part of quilting or any sewing for that matter). Unfortunately, Paul Pilgrim died of a rare family cancer, so the perfect person to ask about how to clean my grandmother's quilt is dead. I wonder if I'll have to resort to the Ouija board, like Mark Arsenault and I did back at The Gardner News when the mayor wouldn't comment on the status of the police department? (I wonder if Manca still holds a grudge for that? Against Mark, of course, because I'm the good reporter in the good reporter/bad reporter game)

But anyway, I took the quilt into the library and talked with the awesome library ladies, who unfolded the thing and then oohed and aahed. They said they'd never seen one quite like it, with the holidays and seasons, and were intrigued when I told them it was one in a series she'd made. They gave me the contact info for the MassQuilt documentation project, which is looking for much older quilts, but they thought because of the nature of Nana Lord's quilts, they might be interested.

Their verdict on the cleaning: don't even try. There are just too many fabrics in it, and too many silks, and too many fabrics in bad condition, and I might be making things worse. Spot cleaning may be possible, though.

One of the women (great reporter that I am, I didn't take notes or get names) wondered about the significance and source material of the white and gold thread patches, since they appear in several places. They're probably not from a tie; were they from a party dress? Something significant? Or was Nana Lord just being thrifty with a fabric she'd found?

As far as displaying it, hanging is definitely out. I wasn't keen on hanging it anyway -- where do you hang a worn, multicolored crazy quilt anyway? -- but I would like to have it out, somewhere. They suggested a quilt rack, and said I should make sure to refold it, in quarters, every so often so it wouldn't get creased. Which leads to another quilt mystery -- the thing does not crease. It has no batting inside, it's made from all these silks, you'd think it would be a mass of wrinkles, but no, it's always been iron-straight (except around the edges, where Nana Lord wasn't quite so careful sewing the new back on but, I repeat, the woman was in her 80s, cut her some slack).

My father thinks there was at least one quilt made per brother, and my mother believes Uncle John's was on a Spanish theme, since he and his wife went to Spain on their honeymoon. I have to dig up my scrapbook; the Ipswich Chronicle wrote about her quilts at one point and I have a copy of the article.

And now, for something completely un-quilt related

Because it's fun to experiment with html!

The story of the quilt

Whenever I was sick, my mother would take out "Grammy's quilt" and I would lose myself in the patches. It was backed in black satin, slippery and cool to the touch, and no two patches were alike. Oh sure, some of the fabric repeated, but the shapes were always different -- and there's really not a straight line to be found.

Grammy is what we called her, to differentiate her from Nana, my other grandmother. But all the other cousins called her Nana, so eventually we just started calling her Nana Lord.

Ruth Lord lived to be 98 years old. She raised five sons, then turned around and raised a batch of my cousins as well. And her hands were always busy.

Nana Lord would always come to our house with something to sew. She made an entire series of crazy quilts, one for each son, and ours arrived in 1971. Each quilt celebrated something different -- ours had patches for each holiday and family occasions, but her other quilts had different themes. I remember her working on one with presidential signatures. These went to other cousins, family members, friends. I don't know how many she ended up creating -- she never kept track.

Family lore has it that she started making quilts as a way to use the fabric from my great-grandfather's tie collection. It certainly explains some of the ugly fabrics. Silks, satins, polyesters -- you'll find them all here. Over the years, she'd throw in scraps from old clothes and other projects. She claimed at one point there's even a tie from John Updike's family, who she used to babysit, but she never could remember which patch it was, or if it was in our quilt at all.

Our family quilt wasn't carefully put away and preserved for future generations. It was made to be used, and used it certainly was. By day, it would hang on the back of my mother's rocking chair in the living room, with the sun from the picture window slowly bleaching patches. By night, especially in winter, it would move to the couch where we'd fight over who got to sit on the sides with the special patches. And we'd rub the velvet mitten or poke at the stuffed heart for Valentine's Day or admire the sparkles in the gloriously rainbow striped patches or look for our names on the birthday cake. We'd spread it on the floor. When our friends slept over, it was usually what went over their sleeping bags when they slept on the mattress on the floor -- and the quilt, more than likely, would ride with us the next morning when, over and over again, we'd ride that mattress down the stairs before putting it back on the bench in my father's office.

My parents gave me the quilt for my 39th birthday this week. It's a delicate shadow of itself. My grandmother did repair it sometime in the late-80s, early-90s, replacing patches and adding an entirely new backing (and, it should be noted, she had to have been in her 80s when she did it -- through her mid-80s, she used to talk about going to "help out the old people" at senior housing), but it still shows signs of wear. And why not? It's a respectable 35 years old.

I could put it away in a box. But what fun is a quilt if you can't look at it? So I spread it out on the bed and invited my children to climb on. And we looked at all the patches. They counted the stars in the Flag Day flag. They cooed over the duck in the spring patch, fought over which patches were "theirs," touched and felt and asked questions.

So here's my challenge: can this quilt be fixed, again, for a new generation? Can it be cleaned, re-patched with vintage fabrics -- I'm not talking cotton prints from Wal-Mart here -- preserved?

And is this the only Ruth Lord quilt that still exists?

The whole quilt and nothing but the quilt.

Here's what it looks like all spread out. Individually, some of the fabric is really ugly -- it's made from old ties! -- but all together, it's really wonderful.

Square 1

We have a lot of winter in New England -- or at least it seems that way. And it looks like Nana Lord felt the same way, too. She certainly saved one of the biggest patches in the quilt for it -- ice! snow! cold! Don't forget your mittens and boots and here -- take this shovel! I bet if she made this post-1978, she would have thrown in some canned goods, too.

Square 2

Always sign your quilts! It makes it so much easier 35 years down the line, when your granddaughter gets ahold of the quilt, decides to put it on the Internet and wonders "just how old is this quilt, anyway?" I don't remember when this quilt was NOT in our family. This puts it just a year after my brother Matt was born, so I would have been 4 when she gave it to us.

Square 3

Of course my birthday is a national holiday. It's on my grandmother's quilt! Through the dirt, you can barely make out the names on the cake -- Linda, Bruce, Jenni, Matthew. There are a couple new patches next to it, the orange and pink prints.

Square 4

I look at this flag and marvel at the sheer patience my grandmother had in embroidering it. And yes, there are 50 stars -- my kids counted them.

Square 5

What do you mean, you've never celebrated Circus Day? I have a feeling Nana Lord just needed an excuse to show she could make a killer lion.

Square 6

Look at this scene! Just look at it! There's a duck, a nice pond for a backdrop, some cattails -- I never noticed her working from a sketch on the fabric, but I can't believe she did this freehand.

Square 7

Holy sun damage! Thanksgiving used to be pumpkin orange. The patch below it with the pink spots used to be BROWN -- you can see it elsewhere in the quilt. And it looks like she took out an entire patch when she repaired the quilt, as you can see by the zig-zags she usually used to mark of squares.

Square 8

One square's coming apart, another is stained with god-only-knows what, yet this candlestick is totally pristine and white. Eternal flame, eternal mystery.

Square 9

Oh god. Where to begin here? Mom and Dad's wedding bells are a MESS -- this is white velour fabric, very soft and fluffy. It was a great piece to stroke when you were home with the flu. It's FILTHY. The embroidery in the area is coming apart as well.

Square 10

Mother's Day, with lots of staining and fading. I think the pastel floral patch might be a new one -- the texture feels wrong to me.

Square 11

Easter is really dirty. How do you wash white fabric without causing the dye of the embroidery thread to run?

I remember in high school, a friend who was Catholic slept over and we were using the quilt. She remarked that it was a good thing Nana Lord wasn't Catholic, or I'd have a cruxifiction on my quilt. The mind boggles at the idea. How would Nana Lord have depicted Jesus?

Square 12

A few new patches in this area, and I definitely need to clean the baby blue with polka dots. Happy New Year 1971!

So what happened in 1971? Hang on while I Google -- OK, Nixon was president, the Pentagon Papers were published, the U.S. ping-pong team visited China, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" won the Grammy for Simon and Garfunkel, and if Nana Lord went to the movies, she probably did NOT see "A Clockwork Orange." The mind is now going to an odd place where she's wearing a bowler hat and speaking in a thick Cockney accent about ultraviolence. Dear Lord, no!

Square 13

Happy Valentine's Day! This patch received lots of love -- the velvet in the heart is all but worn away. This was a patch she stuffed to make plump, and little fingers constantly sought it out, wearing away the heart as well as the surrounding red velvet.

She did a bunch of repairs in this area -- the Valentine section used to be larger and the red, white and blue patch is a new one. Again, here's some of the lovely metallic I'll have to fix, somehow. I loved this fabric as a child and secretly still want a dress made out of it. You know, just to wear around the house. Because I can.

Square 14

Heavy repair job in this area. The patch with the sheep is new -- there was something long and skinny that was replaced.

Aren't the cards neat? Did Nana Lord gamble?

Square 15

Lots of damage here. Most of the embroidery on the yellow patch is gone -- it was some kind of symbol, two stars with a heart in the center inside two circles. I don't know what it represented.
The pink patch with the carnations is for Mother's Day. Lovely detail on the flowers. It's faded quite a bit here.

Square 16

I love the flowers against the brown velvet. And when I was little, I always used to look for that tiny patch with the pansy. The pink piece may be one of the newer pieces.

Square 17

One patch is all but worn away -- a pity, since the embroidery here was very nice.

Labor Day is the only holiday that repeats in the quilt. I don't know if it's because she added the second patch in the repair, or didn't like that patch to begin with, or maybe it was her way of making sure her grandchildren were totally pro-labor (was Nana Lord a secret union activist?), but I love this version. Her model was obviously the Arm and Hammer on the baking soda box.

Square 18

Lots of damage here, and you can see it's been repaired once before. First of all, I LOVE THIS MITTEN! It's red velvet, and she stuffed it, with a leopard cuff. You can see the velvet's all worn away and the stuffing's flattened from my brother and me constantly stroking it every time the quilt was out.

And where am I ever going to find a metallic fabric as cool as this striped patch, which is all but reduced to threads? And the soft black velour with the cool flowers?

Square 19

When Nana Lord put in the new backing, she lost about an inch around on the quilt, as you can see here with the Christmas patch. Also, this looks like another Labor Day patch, which is seen elsewhere in the quilt. I don't remember it -- was it a re-patch? There are new pieces in the area, so it might have been.

Square 20

The brown-pink-and-yellow fabric was repeated elsewhere in the quilt on an edge and was faded dreadfully by sun. This one is pretty true to the original color.

I love the lace flower. It's so delicate. I guess she ran out of holidays and just threw it in.

Square 21

What can I say? I absolutely adore the Fourth of July patch. How can you not love a firecracker? It's another one that was frequently rubbed, but the corduroy held up well.

Square 22

I'm pretty sure the stains on this one was from spilling hot chocolate on it the Christmas that Mr. Hurley dressed up as Santa and went door-to-door with presents. I got a Dawn doll with a white and gold dress who had her hair up. The dress matched the patch with the stains. This is probably why I remember it so vividly.

There are a few new patches here -- definitely the maroon one with spots and the white one with vivid pink flowers.

The May Day basket has always been one of my favorites. I love the detail. Maybe it subconsciously influenced my choice of wedding date, May 1, 1994.

Square 23

This holiday patch amuses me. I can just picture her thinking "April Fool's Day, April Fool's Day -- what the heck am I going to put for April Fool's Day? Screw it, I'll just write down the day. April Fool's, you don't get a picture!" Whenever the quilt was folded up, this invariably was the square that showed.

Square 24

This part of the quilt needed heavy repairs. Nana Lord replaced the first St. Patrick's Day, which was a green satin with a shamrock applique, with this print. It's not as elaborate, but cut the woman a break -- she was in her 80s when she repaired it!

Square 25

Look at how pretty spring is! I especially love the dragonfly.

Square 26

This is one of the areas where Nana Lord did some repairs -- and I need to continue the work in one of the patches right over Memorial Day. This black patch matched the original backing of the quilt, a very shiny satin.

Square 27

I love the Father's Day profile -- did anyone in our family ever smoke a pipe? You can see from the difference in color fade on the patch that some of the patches around it have been replaced and repaired. The maroon piece with dots is new, as is the blue print and the teal floral.

Square 28

Here, you can see where she added some pieces -- the bright orange flowers and the blue print replaced other patches when she repaired it.

This is the only patch that celebrates a month instead of a holiday or season. I think she may have just blanked and embroidered "August" instead of "Summer." (Summer, of course, already has the patch with the cool duck, so she may have just said "whatever, here's a boat.") Nice boat, though. And here's where I learned that two curved lines can make it look like there are birds in the sky when you draw. Hey, it was pretty impressive to the rest of the first graders.

Square 29

Square 30

Final square, a bit of fraying on one patch and a loss of stitch on the autumn patch. My daughter loves the squirrel.