About Those Quilts

Star asked, concerning my Easter party pictures: "Did you make all the quilts yourself? and why do you hang them up on this occasion? Is it significant or just a form of decoration for the walls of the barn?"

The tradition of hanging up quilts at our Easter party began back in the 80's  when our community of friends was in something of a quilt-making frenzy. We were cranking out group-made friendship and wedding and baby quilts for each other at a great pace and the Easter party was a perfect opportunity to show off what we'd been stitching the previous year.
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Community Quilts, the book a friend and I co-authored, tells the story of the quilts.

As time went on, the quilt making slowed. Not so many babies and lots more distractions to keep us from quilting. But we'd gotten used to seeing quilts up at Easter -- they're a nostalgia trip and they make the woodworking shop look festive.
Most years there are one or two new quilts on display -- some of the children who once received baby quilts are getting wedding quilts and grandchildren are beginning to arrive -- meaning more baby quilts.

These days, the quilts tend to be a mix of our community quilts -- old and new, antique family quilts, collected quilts, solo quilts I or my friends have made, and even (blush) a few store-bought quilts from China. (There's one in the background of the first picture.)   Folks say it's like seeing an old friend when we hang a quilt we all worked on twenty or so years ago.


Our friend Bob (the original of Doc Adams in the Elizabeth Goodweather books) always comes over Saturday afternoon to deal with the fiddly job of hanging the quilts. Quilts at the Easter party -- part of the tradition, just like the barbecued pork and the egg hunt.

These pictures are from several Easters -- not just the most recent.