'The Family Tree'

The quilt name is suiting based on the history attached to this quilt!  This is the quilt my Mother started back around 1977 with her mother-in-law.  I think the best part of this quilt, is that it was made with all old fabrics that they had laying around.  Anything from towels, sheets to clothes.  Mom cut it all out with scissors and sewed it on an old Singer Treadle Machine.  I remember spending many hours playing on that treadle.  The creative things you can make that treadle become!

I came across this top when going through some belongings in my Mother's house.  I asked about it and she told me how she made it.  I assume she never finished it, because that would have meant putting it on a quilting frame in the living room and doing it by hand.  So I asked if I could finish it for her, and she said yes. There is a much lager one, that i will someday finish up for her too, but this one was more important to finish quickly.

So I had decided to make a quilt for my Grandmother (my Mother's Mom), so that she could keep her legs warm while in her wheelchair, and have something that can provide some tactile sensory.  So I knew Gran liked her last soft blanket and that maybe old fabrics might remind her of her childhood.  It was in this thought process that it dawned on me to use the quilt to my Mother had made and attach it to a soft backing.

I have sewn on a very soft 'Minky' backing, and left out putting in batting.  I opted to Free Motion it it a swirly pattern, to help give it a pucker texture, which in turn would help to make the not so square squares look better.  As always, I have hand sewn the binding on, I don't find the machine sewn ones look as clean.  This is the first project that I have also included a handwritten label on, that is fade-proof and washable.  It will be on it's way to my Mother at the end of the month, so she can hand deliver it to her Mom and tell her the story and read her the label.  I am SO excited!