Parasol Ladies Vintage Quilt Story

This quilt top has quite the long and traveled story.
It was made by my great-grandma, Gertrude Cooper, back before my parents were married in 1965. 





Grandma Cooper gave it to my mom as an unfinished top and big enough to be a bedspread.
She never did anything with it and then somehow I ended up with it. It sat in my cedar chest unfinished, and I hauled it around for who knows how long, before my sisters, mom and I were trying to decide what to do with it. Here we had kept it for 50+ years as just a quilt top and nothing had been done.


We contemplated cutting it up into pieces and quilting it as individual wall hangings and still no one was thrilled about it.  As a bedspread, for sure no one wanted it.  Finally our mom decided that she would use it as a quilt in one of her spare bedrooms.





We cut off all the excess border that would be the bedspread and Emily found some cute vintage sheet material and had our favorite Lynn quilt it for us.








I think that Emily bound it up and off it went to our mom.








Detail of the quilting.





Some up close and personal pictures of the parasol ladies.





Since it is so old Lynn quilted it pretty densely everywhere.
Also, Grandma Cooper had just done a topstitch zigzag that wasn't too tight and pretty small.  We didn't want anything to come apart.





Close detail of her embroidery and applique.





I had actually started to re-applique the ladies, but after one I stopped because I didn't like how it was turning out.  Unfortunately I also couldn't pick it out without wrecking her applique.


I'm glad that we got this quilt top completely put together as an actual quilt.
It is a fun little piece of our ancestry and heritage and probably one of the few things that we have that belonged to great-grandma Cooper.

Three Bestie Friends

 My youngest daughter is best friends with our two little neighbor girls, who happen to be sisters. Most days the three of them are inseparable.

This little project started way back in the spring of last year with these photos. As a recap: I was letting the girls play with my scraps while I was sewing bee blocks. After they were done "creating" I decided to be a fun mom and sew up their little creations into real quilts that they could use for their favorite stuffed animals. 

Well, a year later they are done!
 For starting out as a little playtime distraction I sure think they turned into cutie little quilts.

To finish off their blocks I raided my vintage sheet stash.
The girls were wanting anything pink or purple, so I found some scraps and worked them into a basic doll quilt size.  Each one has a little different flair, which I love. 

Here are the girls' favorite stuffed animals: Spotty, Horsey, and Dog enjoying their blankets.


The girls have been swaddling and cuddled their animals many times over in these little quilts.
It's been fun watching them turn into little moms.

As a side note, look at the cool design Lynn was able to add to the quilting!  Wouldn't that be cute in a big quilt as well?  

Happy Friday!

Emily