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Let me start this post by telling you about my incredibly long-lived grandmothers! I had a great-great grandmother who lived to be 105 years old. She was born in 1890 and died in 1995. That was Willie Littlepage. Willie had a son named Lee. Lee married Aline. Aline is still living. She is my great-grandmother. She is ninety-six??? Lee and Aline had 4 children, including one girl, Janis Marie. Janis is my grandmother (and my little Chloe is named Chloe Marie after her).
After Willie passed away, the family went through her things. Well, she was quite the quilter in her day. And lucky me! Janis gave me her quilting fabrics! What a wonderful assortment of "depression-era" prints. These same prints have been reproduced by quilting fabric manufacturers and are all the rage. It's very neat that I have the originals.
Anyhoo, when our family held a name-drawing for Christmas 2000, I drew Grandmother (Aline) Littlepage's name. So I decided to make her a quilt from Grandmother Willie's fabric.
It's a Double Pinwheel. Every print in this quilt is from Willie's collection. The solids were bought to coordinate.
I was so excited when I visited Grandmother last week to discover that she still uses it on her bed! She said it's just the right weight for warmth!
When I look at quilt books and magazines, I am most often drawn to vintage patterns and fabrics that are similar to this quilt. I felt that this quilt might be something that Willie Littlepage would make if she had had more time.
By the way, Grandmother Aline is in fine health. She walks with a cane, and uses drops in her eyes, but other than that she is extremely fit. When we arrived at her retirement home, she was dressed very pretty, with a pearl necklace on and a touch of make up. She was sitting down in the lobby listening to a guest play some beautiful music on a grand piano.
I want to be just like her when I'm that age.
I love to make quilts in my "free" time. You can see the others here.
