Crazy Baby Quilts

Yes, the ambiguity is intentional - we were crazy!  But not so crazy that I can't use these beautiful quilts for my babies.  My paternal grandmother made each of us a quilt from fabric scraps.  Her combinations of color and pattern are fun for adults and babies alike - not too cutesy, and not too serious.  They also reflect the designs of the 50's and 60's, and it is fun too see some of those fabric designs repeating today.  This is the not-so-crazy side made of scraps from clothing and table linens.

     

On the crazy side, below, the blue animal print on the right reminds me of Jackie Shapiro's "sweetpea" fabric, or Alexander Henry's designs.

         

Handmade lace and a silver thimble

I never personally watched my grandmother make anything but doll clothes, but my cedar chest is bursting with her embroidery and handmade lace.  She grew up in Madagascar in the twenties, the daughter of Norwegian Lutheran missionaries.  Sewing and embroidery were of course required of girls at the time, but I think that she really excelled in such arts.  Here is my favorite example of her lace:

 

Her other pieces are more conventional, round, snowflake shapes.  They are equally as beautiful, but I love the geometry of this delicate piece - like a spider's mosaic.

It was her mother's thimble that inspired the name for my blog:

This thimble has two dragons engraved on the side.  It was given to my great grandmother in the 1890's when she was confirmed.  She used it often, and she passed it on to my grandmother Agnes, who gave it to my mother.  When I was a little girl, I used to go through my mother's jewelry box and look at and try on everything.  I always loved caressing this thimble.  When I graduated from high school, my mother put it on a chain so that I could wear it around my neck - she didn't use it - she likes to sew big things by machine.  But once in a while, I take it off the chain and use it while I am embroidering - always conscious of its history and the generations that this small cup links together across time.