Grandma's Love

My Grandma has a special place in my heart and her love still warms my heart every day. It's the small things like freshly backed sugar rolls, late night tea, a bunch of flowers, a dinner I am cooking that bring memories of her. Our pretend games we used to play together, our trips to the lake and the river near our summer holiday house, our laughs and our tears - it's all a part of who I am now. My brother and I used to spend almost every summer with our grandparents. Each spring our parents would pack us up ready for the summer adventures away from home and send us on a plane trip to a different city for the next three exciting months. It was always fun, and I have to say that we hardly missed our parents, but if our parents managed to take some time off work and come spend some summer days with us all, it always felt extra special.

My Grandma was an excellent sewist. She could sew anything from a tiny bag to a most complicated suit in no time at all easily designing her own patterns for everything she needed. By the time I was about 12, she almost had stopped sewing and embroidering and switched to knitting and making her own angora yarn. But she still occasionally sewed some necessary things. One day she decided to make a bedspread. Together with Grandpa they went to a local fabric store and soon they came back with a few bags full of scraps. Hmm...scraps... My Grandma was super excited and I was super concerned for her mental wellbeing. Who goes to a shop to buy fabric, but brings back bags of scraps of instead? Why on earth would you even bring this rubbish home?! Why would you take something that the shop was happy to give away for free or even worse throw away?! These were my thoughts when she walked in and excitedly started showing me all the bits and pieces in those bags. I just could not understand and share her excitement at that time. I wish I could talk to her now and share my excitement when I pull out my box full of scraps. I know that she would have understood me.

Well that day Grandma disappeared behind her sewing machine and a huge pile of scraps and for the next few days we hardly saw her, only when she cooked and ate meals with us. At the end of that week, we had a new bed throw that was stitched in columns of narrow strips. A very basic patchwork really. She sat there stitching small pieces together over and over, and over again. That bedspread lasted for years. It was not anything special or fancy, but a very practical and durable piece that was used by the family for years. All made from small scraps of fabric.

Even though my Grandma was a very crafty person, she never knew anything about English Paper Piecing. Well, that's what I assume as I had never heard her talk about it and never has seen anything even close to it in her hands. I know for sure that if I showed her the basics of English Paper Piecing now, she would had been absolutely amazed and most likely hooked on it right away. 

I mentioned before that most things I make have a special meaning to me. Exactly like these hexagon flowers that are going to become quilt blocks for a special quilt. The quilt that I am going to call "Grandma's Love". A small tribute to my Grandmother that made my childhood very memorable and special. The quilt will have about 42 square blocks with low volume background and a Liberty hexagon scrappy flower with a hand embroidery in the middle. All the flowers are going to be made with scraps of different Liberty prints in various colours.

If you want to make a scrappy quilt or any other scrappy project with Liberty, but you do not want to buy large pieces of Liberty, then The Strawberry Thief Liberty Fabric Scrap Bundle Club might a good place for you to start building your stash. For just $25 per month, you would receive a pack of approximately half a meter worth of unique Liberty scraps delivered right to your door. Go to the Strawberry Thief website to find out all the information and we might be working on a scrappy Liberty quilt together!

Happy scrappy sewing! Larisa xox