Quilts That My Grandmother Made

My grandmother who has been making quilts since she was a little girl, makes the best quilts.  She has made quilts for every person in our family, plus some. They may not be as aesthetically appealing as most of the more modern quilts and even traditional quilts that us bloggers view in blog land. However, in my book, they are the best.

Its not just because she is my grandmother, but it is a fact among African American Quilt makers of her time. This could also be the case for white quilt makers of the same error. Unfortunately I don't know any.  The thing that I feel made her quilts so awesome was that they were heavy. When you were tucked in with one of these quilts, you were not moving. They kept you warm on the coldest nights without any outside heat. The quilt at the top of the page is a twin sized quilt but has the weight of almost 2king sized quilts (maybe a little exaggerated).

My quest is to try and recreate that quality, along with the modern appeal that I am in love with today. When I say modern, I don't just mean modern design. I am talking about the quality of how the pieces are put together along with the binding. Even though my grandmother's quilts last a good while. They start to rip and come a loose at the seams.

After talking with her and closely observing the quilts. I have concluded that one of the contributing factors to the weight of the quilts is the diversity of the fabrics that she and others of her time used.  They used whatever they had. Such as old bags from flour, sugar, coffee, etc. which were not thin pieces of fabric. 

 Secondly, the batting type plays a role also.  I tried to take a picture of the batting that she used, from the hole of a ripped seam of a quilt she made for me. Needless to say the pic is not good (desperately in need of a new camera). Any whoo, the batting feels like thick balls of cotton straight from the fields.

The last thing that I think plays a role in the weightiness of her quilts is the quilting.  She hand quilted with very wide space between the next row of quilted stitches. I believe this pattern caused the batting to give way to its fluffiness. 

I wish that I had pictures to go with the details that I have described, please share your input.