A Quilty Family Reunion

  

Every quilt tells a story, but there is nothing like a quilt that tells a story of family, and the caring that is stitched into a quilt by your loved ones. If you have followed our blog for a few years, you may remember my (Teri's) posts about our reunion quilts, made by a group of my extended family each year to be given to a reunion attendee. There is always one bed-sized quilt, several smaller quilts for the children in various age groups, and a traveling quilt with blocks made by each family unit. It is wonderful to sit and visit with family, but it is equally enjoyable to see who wins the quilt each year.

A cousin had put together a photo album of the reunion quilts over the years, and it was fun to look through it and see the great times the quilting group has had preparing these quilts. If I just lived closer, I would so love to be able to join in the fun! I enjoyed looking through it with my two great-aunts and hearing some of their tales and memories.

Here are a few of the pages:

The first page included a photo of my grandmother, not long before she died, and her sister, who just died last summer at about 97 years of age. They were helping their sister,  Leona—who spearheaded this project over the years—to tie a Christmas quilt she'd made for her family. Never having seen my grandma quilt, it was a thrill to see this photo. The photo on the right shows two of the very first quilts made: the wall-hanging on the left was won by my parents and now hangs in my bedroom, and the original traveling family quilt on the right, with photo transfers of old family photos.

The first bed-sized quilt to be given away at the reunion

This Postage Stamp quilt, from 2003, was one of my favorites. Such an enormous amount of work went into this quilt! The heart quilt, above right, was one of the first quilts to be made to raise a donation for the American Heart Association: a small donation gets your name in the drawing for this quilt. 

This was the only quilt I ever helped to work on, and I only made it for the first session to help cut out the fabric. This one was made from men's shirts from family members. I was thrilled to have been a tiny part of the venture. Even the men contribute (not counting their shirts!)—you can see the "expert needle-threaders" on the bottom right. 

I loved that the close-up of that quilt included scraps from two of my husband's shirts and one of my dad's. Here it is basted and ready to be hand-quilted.

My Great-Aunt Leona, the youngest of my grandmother's siblings, shared that these blocks were based on photos from their family farm. She says she still has the bells from the sleigh pictured above. I think I must have missed that year; sadly, I don't remember seeing these beautiful appliqué blocks to study closely. What a great way to preserve family history!!

After lunch, the fun begins, and names are pulled for the lucky winners. I love how the entire group gathers to see who is going to win these cherished mementos of our family reunions. The children's age groups all received "quillows" this year—quilts that can fold into pillows. My own son won one of these one year, and I still have it for my grandchildren to use.

  

 

The Traveling Quilt lives with a different family each year and is returned to the reunion for the drawing the following year. It comes complete with the quilt stand!

The big reveal: opening up the big quilt for all to see. Aunt Leona is telling the story of this quilt, while the other quilters are holding it up for all to see. (A couple of the quilters were unable to attend.)

One of my favorite parts of each quilt is the 

heart-shaped label, documenting the story of the quilt. 

Don't they look proud of their work? This is truly a labor of love!!

This year's winner was my Great-Uncle Clark; here, he is studying his prize...

...and here, he's surrounded by his wife, Bonnie, on the left; his daughter, Nancy, behind him; and his sister, Leona, on the right. Aunt Bonnie told me that they always thought it was interesting that none of the quilters had ever won a quilt. Happily, this one will go home with her; it was won by one of the master needle-threaders!

I am still waiting to take one of these gems home with me, but I have many memories of past reunions in the treasures that I have acquired. To realize that this cake stand wall-hanging was one of the first gives me cause to cherish it all the more. (Thanks, Mom and Dad for passing it on to me!) 

Each year, I am inspired by the love that these women put into their stitching, and I know that we all hold dear the fruits of their labors. They share their passion for quilts by planning time to stitch together, but with the selfless motivation to give their work to others. What better treasure than to wrap up in a quilt stitched with love by your family?

If you are interested in reading more about this tradition and seeing other quilts from past reunions, check out the following posts:

Reunion Quilts

Reunion Quilts, Revisited 

Reunion Quilts

Most people probably don't think "quilts" when they think of family reunions. But I (Teri) have the privilege of belonging to a family where quilts play an integral role in that event. Each year on the last Sunday in June, my father's family meets at a small park in Pennsylvania for our annual family reunion. Many generations of various branches of my great great grandparents' family gather to share good food, visiting, and fun—a 34-year tradition. My Great Aunt Leona, my grandmother's youngest sister, is the major organizer of the reunion, and she puts a great deal of love and effort into making the day a special one for all of us.

The family, over 80 years ago, whose descendants meet at our annual family reunion. My grandmother is pictured in the back on the far left.

About thirty years ago, a small group of women in the family started to gather each year to make a full-size quilt for a door prize at the reunion. There are also smaller quilts for different age groups. Everyone who attends the reunion can sign their name on the list for the appropriate age group, and later in the afternoon, names are drawn and the quilts awarded. There is also an opportunity to donate to the American Heart Association and enter a drawing for a wall-hanging. I think it is wonderful to see the whole extended family, including the children, excited about receiving these quilts stitched with love.

One year, I thought I would like to try to join the group to work on the quilts. They meet every week beginning in August to plan, piece, and quilt. I made it once and had a wonderful time stitching with great aunts, second cousins, and even meeting a few cousins I'd not met before. Unfortunately, due to the distance and a too-busy schedule, I was unable to continue to work with them. Would that I lived closer! I admire the work that they do and the way they stitch their love around our family.

Here are some highlights from this year:

This year's quilt for young boys...

...and the winner.

A pink puff rag quilt for the young girls.

Fifty dollars was raised to donate to the American Heart Association this year. Donors were eligible to win this wall-hanging with heart-shaped flowers.

This beauty was loved by the young...

...and old alike!

The drawing for the teenagers was a bit different this year. (I'm afraid I neglected to take a photo of it.) One of my second cousins made a cornhole set to go with a collection of hand made corn bags. What a treat!

But the moment everyone looks forward to is the unveiling of The Quilt.

Everyone waits in eager anticipation to see the finished quilt, opened up just before the drawing. Note the label in the top left corner, which includes great detail and explanation about the quilt and is signed by all the makers.

close up

I have yet to win The Quilt, but I am the proud owner of several smaller pieces that my family has received over the years. The "cake stand" mini-quilt on the left hangs in my dining room, and the flag below flies at the bottom of our basement stairs. Some are hand quilted, some by machine. All are a testament to the love that these ladies have for their family. This year, my brother and I took turns being the "winner of the hour;" I won the patriotic table runner, and he got place mats. 

So what do quilts have to do with reunions? In our family, everything!

More Wedding Collaborations...

Making a group quilt for someone who is getting married in your church is a lovely idea. That's what I (Kara) thought after we had done Teri's quilt and then found out that there would be another wedding in our church the following year. The lady who had done Teri's quilt wasn't able to work on this one, so I took the reins. I chose some lovely companion fabrics, set the parameters for the blocks, and sent the information out along with deadlines as to when I needed the blocks in hand. Let's just say the deadlines were interpreted as guidelines, and collecting the blocks was a little more difficult than I had anticipated. I finally received all the blocks and was able to assemble the quilt top. A few friends came over, and we tied and bound the quilt. The quilt was given to a wonderful young woman at her wedding shower, and she was thrilled. And with the second collaboration quilt, a tradition was started within the church.

Not too long after this quilt was presented, we found out that another couple in our church was getting married. At this point, three of us decided that less hands involved with making the quilt might make the process a bit easier, so we each decided to do several feature blocks and then make up the rest of the quilt with signature blocks. The groom was in the Army, and the bride was musical and loved Hawaii, so that gave us some inspiration. We had the blocks available to sign at the shower and did our best to guide the signers away from the seam allowances. Thankfully the couple lives locally, so we were able to see the quilt again and get lots of pictures. We appreciate the loan of the quilt!

Our friend Pat's beautiful wedding ring block made an appearance in several wedding quilts! See Wedding Collaborations for another.

 

Of course the following year there was another wedding, and it was just Teri and I working on this one. For this quilt we decided to go with the signature quilt style and have a center picture block. The bride and groom were big beach fans, and since I was in my "landscape quilt phase," it worked perfectly to have an ocean and beach vista for the  center block. Teri worked the math for the surrounding signature blocks.

Many thanks to the bride for the photos of her quilt!

We were a bit terrified of having a finished quilt that people would sign as opposed to having people just sign individual blocks and then put the quilt together. Thankfully no one got too crazy with the pens, (we might have taken turns standing guard,) and the quilt was a hit.

By this time we had begun to get a reputation for making wedding quilts. It was a lot of work but we enjoyed it, especially because we had only done one per year. We still thought it was a special thing to do for a new couple, and it would provide them with some lovely memories of their wedding day. Then we found out that there were going to be four weddings in our church the following summer!

After we got over our shock, we decided to simplify things even more than we had been doing and went with a rail fence signature block. We picked colors for the four couples and took a roadtrip to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, to buy fabric. That was the fun part. We each took two sets of fabrics and hunkered down to get the signature blocks done before the respective showers. We marked the 1/4" seam allowance and gave instructions not to sign in that area. Some people followed directions and some didn't, but what are you going to do? After we got all the blocks signed, we soon realized that we were not going to have the quilts done by the weddings, so we went with the etiquette rule that you have one year after the wedding to give a gift. We were in such a frenzy to get them finished that we forgot to take pictures of all of them but we do have a few.

The first of four quilts on the design wall before signing and piecing together.

We picked the colors for each quilt based on what we learned of their tastes. The other two quilts were red and green and a blue and white batik.

When the final quilt had been sent out (within the year window, barely,) Teri and I looked at each other and said, "We're done!" and our career as the church wedding quilt makers was over.

We learned a lot about making group quilts, and I'm not sure we would have done things differently, as we needed to go through the learning process of what worked for us. Both sayings, "many hands make light work" and "too many cooks spoil the broth" applied at different times. Thankfully, the amount of weddings in our church dwindled, so we didn't feel too bad about hanging up our wedding quilt needles. The biggest lessons we learned were be careful about starting a tradition, and that it's okay to end a tradition. Do you have any quilt traditions that you have started...or maybe ended? Please share some stories!