I don’t know the entire story of this quilt, and it fills me with questions. How old was my great grandma when she  made it? How long did it take her? Where did she get all of this wild fabric?  I feel like my grandma may have said the fabrics were her old shirts and dresses at one point. I called Grandma this week to ask her some details about the border, which was sewn on by machine. I thought she told me once that she sewed the border on, but I can’t remember now, and she can’t either.

There are a few things I do know about this top.

1. It’s very colorful and mismatchy.

2. I like it a lot.

3. The pattern is called a double wedding ring.

4. Double wedding rings are very hard to sew.

5. It was pieced probably before I was born, and all by hand.

6. It sat in my Grandma’s closet for a long time.

I think the quilt came to me with very interesting timing. It started like this. My sister in law loves quilting  and family history. A few years ago, she gave me a miniature double wedding ring template for my birthday. The template is acrylic, so I could cut the pieces with my rotary cutter. I thought that to start I would try making a 3 ring oversized hot pad for my mom for Christmas.

By the time I was done mangling my three ring hot pad into existence, I realized that I don’t have the skill level to make a full wedding ring quilt—much less a miniature one! I decided that if I tried it again, it would be with a teacher and a class.

While I was still finishing my wrinkly piece of mischief, my mom and grandma were cleaning out a closet, and found this top and gave it to me. I decided that if our ancestors are watching over us, Great Grandma was watching over me, waiting for me to try a wedding ring quilt so I would not judge her craftsmanship.

It’s not perfect, but it is whole. I am so glad it came to me. It took me two years to get up the patience to think I could hand quilt it, but I have got it basted and ready now. I took these pictures to chronicle the hand work inside, because that is one treasures of this quilt that will be hidden once it is quilted.