A Visit to Quilts from My Past

It was my intention this summer to visit some of the quilts I've made.  As I am usually finishing a quilt in the last few minutes before I wrap it, I have very few photos.  So, I also planned on collecting photos to record here.  But, now it's August and I only have this one.  Will try to do better in the following months!

In the early 70's, when my mom was home with three kids under age 5, she cut these pieces of wool into perfectly even squares - kind of mental health therapy, I think.  The wool came from a handful of old family wool coats, from a previous generation, that had been saved in a box in the chicken house at my great grandparents farm.  My mom disassembled the coats, removing the lining, seams, collars, buttons, and pockets. After washing the fabric, she trimmed out these thick wooly squares and stacked them neatly in a box.  After my brothers and I left home and my parents moved into a newer house, she asked me whether or not I wanted the box of squares. 
Well, you can't just get rid of them, I said. 
So, yes, I'll take them.

The box sat in the closet of my first house.  Then those squares sat in the attic of that first house when I rented it out and moved to California.  They moved to the basement of that first house when Mark and I moved back into after being married.  We moved the box of squares to a newer house when John came along and we needed more space.  (Isn't my husband patient with my weird fabric collection?) 

Now we would like to fix up the basement here, in our "new" house (10 years later!) and I must do something with these boxes!  For our adult gift exchange, at Christmas, my family draws couple names and must make homemade gifts, as a couple, for the couple whose names we've drawn.  Last year, Mark and I drew my parents' names.  Voila! - I had an idea - I decided to give back the squares!  Not just stacked up in the box; that would be silly (funny though!).  So I made this quilt (while Mark kept the kids out of my hair - that's the "couple" part!) for their cabin.  There were also some very pretty light blue squares but they didn't quite go with my design.

So, here is my first visit and photo-op of a quilt from my past.