Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Our own Keeping Quilt

Just look at the fifth generation laying on these quilts. We read the Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco, this week. It was a great chance to get out the quilts sewn by both of my great-great grandmothers from my mothers side. One of them immigrated as a child from Germany, that would be Grandmother Pister. The other one was made from Grandmother Ulrich who was born here to Russian immigrant parents. What a wonderful time to share a bit of our history together. We thought up all kinds of adventures that we believed these quilts might have been on.

We were wondering about the fabrics cut into pieces and used to make these patterns.
This one is more worn and has the small knotted strings tying the layers together. I was reminded again how special sharing the past is with the new generations. Thanks for the reminder, Ms. Polacco.
I highly recommend her collection of books...she is a great illustrator and uses her own life stories to share stories we all can relate to. Two of them are read aloud on this site. We have learned about bee keeping, imaginary friends, brothers and silly neighbors.

1 comment:

Xandra@Heart-of-Service said...

I have a quilt made by my great-grandmother and great-aunt. I too have spent hours looking at all the pieces and wondering what dress, what shirt, what pair of pants each one came from, because you know that they would never have gone out and bought material to make a quilt! I would imagine my grandmother in a dress made of one fabric, and what the women talked about as they quilted. What a legacy!

Xandra