Old Family Quilt

Nice and Sunny out today. I washed a load of coloreds and got them hung out on the line.

I walked around the house a little while, trying to decide what to do. I see a lot that needs doing, but seem to have a problem knowing where to start.

Finally I said, just do one thing.
One thing is better than no thing.

There was/is a box sitting by the back door I planned to take to my Mom's, but then after talking with her a few days ago, I decided some of the things in the box didn't need to go.
Some old craft type books and crochet magazines.
I pulled them out and carried them upstairs to put in the yard sale pile.

While I was up there, I compiled some Scotch and rolls of packaging tape I had laying around into one box.
There were some large pickle jars of river rock from when we were going to make Terrariums, years and years ago, so I put the rocks in baggies and relocated them to my craft stash, and brought the big jars down to put with the canning stuff. I use those for making Apple Cider Vinegar.

So I continued like that, just doing one thing, and one more thing, and I saw a (old plastic comforter) bag with a pillow, a doll, and a quilt in it.
The pillow was made for me by my Grannie, and the doll was a Cabbage Patch knock-off made by my Aunt and her MIL, who we called Nanny, even though she was our Cousin's Grandmother and not ours. Everyone's related in the South, right.

Since those were such personal items, I wondered if the old quilt was one that my Dad had given to me some years ago.
It was.
It had belonged to his Great-Grandparents (my Great-Great-Grandparents), and had been sewn for them by relatives and the Community (pretty much same difference, almost everyone was related by blood or marriage) after their house had burned down.
I emailed my Dad to ask what year that was, but I'm thinking it was in the early 1900's - 1930's.

I have a few vintage, old quilts that belonged to my family, J's family, some other body's family...
But what makes this one so special, is that the Quilters "signed" it.

Maud Burch

Lula Burch

Clara J. Ledford

Maxine Nicholson

Altogether there are 20 different signatures, out of 30 squares.

So awesome!

The poor quilt is disintegrating, I guess, so I laid it out and photographed every square and every signature, so there'll always be a record of it (as long as the digital files last).