A true Scrap Quilt

Della Brantner Hawn with daughters Lois and Dorothy, son Victor.

My first introduction to quilting came when I was about 10 and spending the night at my grandmother's with my cousin, Susie, daughter of Lois pictured on the left in the photo. My grandmother told us the quilt on our bed was a Double Wedding Ring and the one in the other room was a Trip around the World. She showed us bits of fabric that had been our dresses, hers or our moms, and then she told us stories about the other fabrics in the quilt. It was fascinating. Years later, as adults, we talked about it and everyone in the family told us that she didn't quilt. We were so puzzled because we didn't dream it up. How would we ever know the names of the quilts if she hadn't told us? The memory was crystal clear, but everyone just shook their heads at us.

About 30 years later, I found "the rest of the story." My grandparents and great grandparents saved every letter they received and often saved the rough draft of what they wrote also. My dad inherited the letters and I took my grandmother's side of the family to transcribe and he took his father's. One of those letters had the key to the quandary.

My grandmother had a sister in Iowa, Dulcie, who made beautiful quilts. Grandmother would bundle up the scraps and send them to her sister who would make them into quilts and send them back. Don't you know how wonderful it felt to tell my aunts and uncles that we weren't suffering from a delusion!

Ann and I were talking about scrap quilts and I mentioned that I sometimes cut my scraps up to fit the sections of the Double Wedding Ring. I am in no hurry to finish it because the scraps of my whole quilting life will be in it. I also put in scraps from clothes I make my granddaughters and their dolls. Since I don't know just when I'll be called to leave this mortal body, it may have to be finished by someone else, but it will be the fabric story of my life. That to me is a true scrap quilt and I want to have at least one.