Aside from being very cute blocks, hearing the stories behind them is awesome. Thank you for sharing, and I look forward to seeing more of them!

Oh, I meant to add that, at least for my parents, I'll include a booklet with photos of all the blocks and why they were included in the quilt.

An envelope on the back could be good too, not sure how much I can include on a patch.

I will probably put their names, birthdates, and who made it. Maybe names of the children and grandchildren as well.

The booklet will allow me lots of room for info.

What a wonderful memory quilt that you are making.

Your quilt is going to be so special to them. I enjoyed reading the little stories behind your selections in fabric for the blocks.

How very special this quilt will be. I am sure that they will be blown away by it. What a labor of love for them. I look forward to see more of these super blocks and hearing more of the stories behind them. Thanks for sharing this journey with us. BrendaK

Glad everyone is liking the stories! I'm sure the quilt as a whole would look incredibly random without knowing some of the memories/reasons for each block :)

I got a few more resized...

The (food) garden!


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My mom has always had a garden. When she didn't have enough room at the house, she had a garden plot on a friends property a few blocks from the house, and also did a flower garden at the church. She can grow pretty much anything. They moved a few years ago to a house on about 1 1/2 acres, just so she would have a big garden. The garden takes up about 2/3 of an acre, and she'll plant 40+ tomato plants (she usually grows over 200 plants from seed and gives away the extras), peppers, onions, potatoes, corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, etc, etc.

We'll usually spend a few days over the summer canning things for the winter.

I need to embroider seeds on the watermelon. Throwing myself into something and committing myself to be forced to learn a new skill is not something new for me, lol.

Sadly, I have not developed her green thumb. My house is where plants go to die, but I keep trying! I've managed to keep my mint alive! (My grandmother got the original mint plant in the sixties, my mom took a cutting, and last year I took a cutting of my mom's. I'd say Gramma got her money's worth.)

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The house, the cherry tree, and the pool... (with a dog in the window)

I grew up in a big green house with a large cherry tree in the front yard. My mom took a lot of pride in that cherry tree. One year, she was gone on a sewing group trip when the cherries ripened. My dad called Gramma (mom's mom), and asked her how to can cherries. Gramma talked him though the canning process over the phone (he had seen mom and gramma can many times, but had never canned himself). He got 70 quarts off of the one tree. He delivered some to my gramma, and every time she had visitors for lunch she'd tell them "My son-in-love canned these!"

We didn't have AC, so every year we would set up a (3 or 4 foot high) swimming pool up in the yard. We lived in that pool, and being a tow-head, my hair would turn green from the chlorine. I remember one year, when I was around 5, I fainted while we were assembling the pool. I remember feeling really hot, and then waking up to my dad covering me with wet washclothes (I even remember the sundress I was wearing). After that, they made sure I was in the shade when we put it together.

I was #4 of 5 kids, and we all grew up in this house.

Ok, two more...

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My SIL made the tulips. My mom has always had a large flower garden, even though dad is allergic to almost all of them. Every Sunday, she would make flower arrangements for the church next door as well as our church. When she didn't have enough room for the flower garden, she planted one at the church.

The blue background fabric is fabric my mom ice dyed for my sister's wedding. She made small quilts to cover hay bales (outdoor wedding, we sat on the bales) using the fabric and denim. She also made table cloths with the same fabric. When guests went home, there were enough small quilts that anyone who wanted one got to take them home. My son actually helped her with them, piecing several of the tops together for her.

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Sewing machine and spools. SIL also made both of these, with my sister picking out the fabrics to use. Again with the creepy crawlies-- mom loves bugs and worms... The same wedding fabric is also used on one of the spools.

all of your blocks are super. and a really memorable collection

great story, great idea, great blocks.... the quilt will be very precious for all of the family!