Over the weekend we traveled to Minnesota to go to family graduation parties. We had lots of fun traveling. As we traveled, I had a tote of double wedding ring pieces and I pinned my way to Minnesota. We took a different road than we typically take so we were able to stop at some antique shops.
Of course I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures of double wedding ring quilts. Since I am working on Buck and Jen’s quilt double wedding ring quilt, I look and study the them all the time.
This one was a little different than typical ones with the pink center background fabric and the green melon centers. This also had more segments in the ring than I typically see.
This one I liked even more.
The teal color was really fun.
As I was working on the one I am making I started thinking how odd it is that I see double wedding ring quilts at antique shops and flea markets all the time. The more I thought about it, the more I sewed and the more I sewed I realized why.
Reason 1-These probably were made for weddings and were kept in cedar chests as a special wedding remembrance.
Reason 2- These are more challenging so when they were made they were kept in cedar chests.
What I can’t figure out is why any family would care so little about the workmanship that someone put into the quilts to just give away or let them be auctioned off. When I die, I hope one of kids becomes the keeper of the quilts. Then as grandchildren and great grand children are born, a quilt is given to them. I hope my kids care about our personal family history and tell their kids about how much I loved to quilt.
I realize that not everyone has kids, or grand kids to pass things along to but I just have trouble understanding how and why family pictures and pieces of family history end up on auction or antique stores…family is just too important to end up there.
We had an antique quilt show about a yr ago – celebrating a towns 200th anniversary and 1 yr. anniversary recovery from Irene. Every quilt was family owned and documented and passed down and notation of who was next in line to receive it. I was very impressed as a majority were from the Civil War or Revolution eras. A lot of love of those heritage treasures.
There was quilt show at a church near here a few years back and an unbelievable number of the antique quilts on display had been rescued from dumpsters. Winding up at an antique show or auction has to be better than winding up at the landfill.
I doubt my family is going to keep -all- of my quilts, especially when so many of us in the family right now are quilters and we’re kind of prolific! And I’d rather they found homes with a stranger who appreciated them than a family member who didn’t.
First of all I do apologize for my bad English : I’m French, I live in France and I learnt quilting a few years ago visiting my daughter who lives in the States.
I appreciate a lot your website and if I’m writing you today it is because I have no illusion about what my quilts are going to become after my death. I am not very prolific as I chose to hand piece, make hand appliqué and handquilting as my French quilting friends do.
I think as Michelle does that I’d rather my quilts find one place to be appreciated by strangers than finishing in my daughter or one of my grand children trash.
Thank you for the pleasure I always find reading you
Let’s face it Jo, unless the person or people who make the “keep or discard” decision are close to the person who made the quilt, actually witnessed it being made, or have memories of using it, they often can’t/don’t value the work and love that went into making it. Especially now when you can go in a store and see quilts that “look” similar to the ones we make but cost only $30 or $40 (and can be bought with a coupon!). To the average person, it makes a quilt seem “disposable”.
That said, I had a recent experience that may restore your faith a little. I live in a large urban co-op complex (15,000 units) and was in the laundry room of one of the buildings. While waiting for my clothes to finish washing, I was reading a quilt magazine. The man sitting next to me noticed it and asked me if I quilted and then told me of his fond memories of sleeping under his grandmother’s quilts when he visited her as a child. It just so happens I was washing one of my quilts that day and later on when he saw me take it out of the dryer, asked if he could see and touch it and complemented me on it. Then he said I should make them for sale because “people appreciate handmade things”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I very much doubted that enough people would be willing to pay the going rate for materials and (more important) labor for a handmade quilt to make it worth my while. But I did really appreciate his interest!
“What I can’t figure out is why any family would care so little about the workmanship that someone put into the quilts to just give away or let them be auctioned off.”
one word: divorce
I love your wedding ring quilt, the colors are perfect. I am not a blue person per say, but that blue you did is perfect. I see more in your future for sure. You are blessed that your future daughter asked you to make her a quilt.
Could you please tell me where you found this pattern. I have not been able to find one on the internet that is like it.
Thanks!