Heritage Quilt

Reunions or family get together's are a lot of fun.  Let me tell you about one of our family reunions that was in the year of 2001.  When the whole family gets together they usually spend the reunion at one of the hometowns.  This particular one was held in my hometown, Hesston.  The family members that live in that town take care of all the  arrangements.  This reunion is usually held on a Friday until Sunday afternoon.

The reason I'm bringing up family reunions is because this particular reunion I decided I was going to make a "special" quilt" a "A Heritage Quilt".  A little background when this family gets together they have an action to help with the costs.  This turns into a highlight of the weekend.  Sometimes a family member would bring something old that had memories when they were kids.  This would usually end up in a bidding war if one wanted it really bad.  A lot of good fun and lots of laughter was during this time.

Back to the quilt!  I made a special quilt for the auction that year.  I started with pictures of the parents, which on the quilt was the center, this was Abe Willems.  I ask the brothers and sisters to give me photographs of each one of them now and there wedding pictures.  Any pictures of the family while they were growing up, pictures of the house, farming, church, anything that would make this quilt have history.  I ran the pictures off on muslin through my printer.  I surrounded the picture with a log cabin design.  As you can see I had the names of the siblings machine embroidered between the now picture and the wedding picture.  The first name on the block would have been the siblings name followed by the spouse and last name.  I hand quilted around each block and on the border I quilted connecting hearts.

This was really a fun project and I learned about the family history through this process.  It was fun gathering all these pictures and figuring out how to put it all together in a quilt and make it very interesting.   The quilt was auctioned off and bought by a son for his father and mother and headed to Portland, Oregon.  A lot of memories were hashed that weekend, laughter was plentiful, and a good time by all.

So does this inspire you to try a Heritage Quilt?  It's a lot of fun and the history you learn about your family tree. Try it!  Have fun with it!  See what you can come up with.

Keep learning and stitching,
Till next time,
Connie