Today Kari from Handmade Mommy is being kind enough to join us for Flashback Friday. I love seeing all of Kari’s projects and tutorials, and I’m sure that you will too! I couldn’t help feeling nostalgic about the old quilts that I grew up with while reading Kari’s post. Take it away, Kari…
Hi All! I’m Kari from Handmade Mommy and I was thrilled when Abby asked me to join in on the Flashback Friday fun.Thanks for having me! Here’s my little flashback.
It’s 1978. My mom is 23 years old and pregnant with her first child (who happens to be me). She has long, straight, natural brown hair and her fresh face could practically pass for eighteen. She’s just celebrated with family and friends at her baby shower and is standing in front of the baby’s crib in the nursery smiling and holding up a handmade yellow gingham baby quilt.
{in a perfect world, I’d have the snapshot showing this scene to insert here, but no one in our family can track it down…I’ve put everyone on the case and we’ve torn through our homes looking for it.
But you’re all creative folks and I know you can picture it.}
My dad’s mom, my Grandma Edie, made the quilt by hand and I still have it. It’s a sweet reminder of all the hours she put into her work of love for her first grandchild. She used to make her own suits years ago, which my mom says were just beautiful. And she has always enjoyed sewing for her grandchildren (final tally: 4 granddaughters). Each of us have a handmade Christmas stocking, for example, that goes up every year.
closeups of her hand sewing on the quilt
the back of the quilt…
My mom has sewed for most of her life. She sewed her own clothes as a teenager, and even some clothes for her sisters. She created beautiful Christmas dresses and Halloween costumes for my sister and I as we were growing up. And she has made some amazing dresses for herself, in addition to gorgeous home decor.
Then you’ve got me…I sew almost every day and can’t seem to get enough. Quilts, clothes, gifts, home decor, anything is fair game on my machine. I discovered quilting about a year ago and love it. I must admit though that I avoid hand quilting at all costs and my grandma’s time, patience and heart that went into the quilt is that much more amazing to me.
Here is a picture from a couple weeks ago of me, my Grandma Edie, and my mom. 3 generations, more sewing with each one.
I have two boys, no girls, and had resigned myself to being the only seamstress in the house. But the other day, my boys turned their toy toolbench into a sewing table (complete with the drum set stool for a seat) and told me about their sewing machine (drill press), work light (just like Mommy’s OttLite), and the very sharp needle that I should never ever touch (toy drill bit). Then my oldest made me a special quilt (it was a tiny cloth napkin I had made for their play kitchen). So there may be hope yet. But if this next generation sews more than the last, they may never leave the house…
Thanks so much for joining us today Kari! I hope you all have a great weekend. Tonight Joel and I are going to the Jack Johnson concert that I’ve been waiting for for four (does that seem weird that the same-sounding word can be used three times in a row in a sentence?) months, so I know I will :).
What a sweet story and great photos! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing, Kari. I love that sewing is often in our genes.
Thank you for sharing, both your words and the picture of the quilt, if I could only hand sew like that. :(