I rummaged around the shop, flipping through greeting cards, lifting vintage glasses and sifting through novelties until I stumbled upon this hand-made quilt that reminded me of both my grandmothers. Grandma Churchill made useful quilts -- ones functioning more for warmth than they exhibited refined style, but filled with charm and odd colored fabrics. Oh, there was the fabric from an old coat, a scrap from an army blanket or a piece of old upholstery -- all pieced together with charm and whimsy. And then there were the ones Grandma Williams intricately designed in novel shapes and bright hues. Hers were true masterpieces, crafted in beautiful fabrics and stitched to precision.
Even though this quilt still needed its backing, and quilting, for that matter, the overstitching on the butterflies is flawless, and the mix of vintage fabrics remind me of the fanciful feed sacks that people started using for sewing projects during the Great Depression. Since cotton was so scarce at the time, feed makers hired designers to make beautiful feed sacks that end consumers could use to make clothes for their families and gorgeous, yet useful, quilts.
This quilt flutters like springtime and reminds me of those first bright days of childhood after a long, long winter: the marvel of the first daffodil to break through winter's frozen soil, the scent of a warm rain shower and the sight of the first robin to bob its head outside the front window. It's a body of work pieced together with care -- one that will endure time and brighten even the gloomiest of days.

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