The Angel Baby Quilt

One of the {many} perks of being me is that I come from a long line of quilt makers. I am the proud owner of a few precious quilts, lovingly made by the hands of my grandmothers and great-aunts.

 

Another perk of being me is that my Grandma Bessie's youngest sister, my great-aunt Jonnie, is on Facebook and she reads my blog {hi Aunt Jonnie!!!}. I love that we have reconnected through social media, and that she reads my words here and knows what I'm up to these days.

♥

I've had this little angel baby quilt since the beginning of my time, and I'd been wondering about its origins. I thought that my grandma had a hand in making it but I wasn't sure, so I sent a message to Aunt Jonnie and asked about it.

I’m so glad I asked! What I discovered from Aunt Jonnie was that my grandma hadn’t really helped with the quilt due to arthritic hands, but that it was a joint effort on behalf of her sisters - my three great aunts that I grew up with and adored as a child.

I learned that my great-aunt Floy, the eldest sister, “tore” the squares. And the middle sister, my great-aunt Mary, cut and sewed the angel shapes on. And the beautifully stitched embroidery that I had long admired? It was all done by Aunt Jonnie herself. It's so fun to know that they each had their own special part of the quilt making process!

Once the embroidery and applique work was done on each of the blocks, Aunt Floy sewed them together. The quilt tops were then assembled and quilted by all of my aunts during their weekly missionary meetings (quilting days) on Thursdays in the church basement. {I blogged about that here.}

Aunt Jonnie told me that they made these quilts to raise money for their church, and they also made them “for free” for each of their first grandchildren with the idea that they would be passed down and used by all of the kids.

She said they lost count of how many of these quilts they made over the years, and she guessed over 50 of them. They even made one for their grandchildren’s first children, and Carrie has this same quilt, done up in green and yellow and not nearly as worn, safely tucked in my cedar chest.

 

One of my very favorite things about this quilt is that my mom wrote my name in permanent marker in a corner on the back to identify it as mine when I took it to school. This quilt was also used by me in Kindergarten as a nap-mat. :o) ♥ 

 

I love knowing the sweet history behind this angel baby quilt! It has always been a treasure to me, and knowing all those sweet details makes it even more special.

♥

This week in my garden ~ and a story of good intentions

If I had to list my 10 favorite people on the planet, my Grandma Bessie would definitely make the cut! I was her firstborn grandchild and we shared a very special bond. I loved her something fierce.

My grandma loved gardening, and her flowerbeds were always overflowing with a random mix of flowers and plants. One time, when I was about 7 years old, I was hanging out in her front yard and noticed that the flowerbed that stretched the width of her house was filled with weeds. Wanting to surprise her with a little gardening favor, I went right to work!

I remember sitting on the cool grass in front of Grandma's flowerbed, wrapping my little hands around as many stems as I could at one time. I remember how the weeds pulled effortlessly from the soft dirt as I worked my way down the flowerbed. I was about two-thirds of the way across when my grandma came out and totally spoiled the surprise!

Imagine my surprise when the look on Grandma's face was not one of happy delight. Instead she was shocked and seemed very disappointed in my efforts to help her weed her garden. Turns out that what I thought were weeds were actually four o'clock flowers, still sleeping at that time of day.

Of course, my grandma didn't stay mad for long - when she realized that my intentions were good she hugged me and told me what I had done was ok. But I had to promise that I would never surprise her in her garden again, and I would always ask first before pulling something I thought was a weed.

That was oh-so-many years ago, and to this day I'm still leery about pulling things out of the dirt unless I'm absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt sure that it's a weed!

Looking back, I'm not sure I would have been as gracious. Thank goodness my grandma had a soft spot for me, and she embraced my good intentions in spite of the loss of her four o'clocks.

♥

A bit of family history, my nephew, and a giveaway.

We grew up in Dos Palos, California. Life was simple then, and I have so many fond memories of growing up in that small town - rich with agriculture, a strong sense of community, and Grandma Bessie's house.

♥

Ryne @ 3

My "baby" brother Tim loved Grandma Bessie like I did, and he spent a lot of time at Grandma’s house with our two cousins, the Jones boys. They were my grandma’s younger grandkids, and by the time they were old enough to make their way to Grandma’s on their own, she was well seasoned in the art of grand-parenting teenaged boys. They lovingly called her Bess and she ate it up. Oh how she loved having those three boys pay her visits.

My nephew Ryne grew up hearing stories of Grandma Bessie as told by his dad, my brother Tim. He loved those stories so much that while he was writing songs for his solo CD he wrote a song about his Great-grandma Bessie.

Last year while we were all in California saying our final farewells to my mom, my brothers had their guitars out and Ryne played “Ole Bessie” for us for the first time. We loved it! I asked him right away if he had plans to include it on his CD and we were all really happy when he said yes.

In the past year I’ve heard Ryne play “Ole Bessie” a few times, but it wasn’t until I heard his recording, with my brother Tim singing harmony in the chorus that it really hit me. It was so amazing to hear my brother’s voice, blended so beautifully with his son’s in a song about our awesome grandma.

I sent Ryne a text and thanked him for that song. I thanked him because it’s just the perfect tribute to a really cool ol’ gal like Bess. I think she would be crazy about that song, and probably very tickled that Ryne would write a song about little ol’ her.

Today I’m hosting a giveaway, and the prize is an autographed copy of Ryne’s new CD, This Tempered Tongue, including the song “Ole Bessie” for your listening pleasure. I know you’ll love the other songs too – I have a few other favorites myself.

To enter the drawing, just leave me a comment here on this post, or you can leave a comment and/or like my post about this giveaway on Facebook. I’ll randomly select a winner and announce it on my blog on Monday, October 21.

If you don’t want to wait until you see if you’ve won my giveaway, you can download This Tempered Tongue on iTunes as of today.

I’m so proud of you, Ryno!

And I know that Grandma Bessie would be too!

♥