Special Stuff – Thursday: Nuptial Quilt

quilt
My grandma made me this hand-stitched, paper-pieced, queen sized quilt for me when she still lived in Adelaide, when I still lived in a sharehouse. She kept it for me and told me she would give it to me when I got married. It was to be my “Nuptial Quilt”. At some point she gave up waiting, and gave it to me anyway. It was probably about the time that it was clear I would be spending my life with Phil but would go around shouting that I was “NEVER going to get married – there was no point to such an outdated tradition” etc etc. So we had it on our bed and then we decided it would be kind of fun to have a wedding (party-dress-rings-friends : what’s not to like?) and so we got married anyway.

The floral patches are made from hundreds of little scraps of Liberty material and it has a kind of timeless charm.Β It’s a beautiful, but delicate quilt. About a year ago, we decided we needed to store it as it was not standing up to the love of small children. Bed jumping (and the resulting spilled coffee), vegemite hands, smeared banana and the tunneling games, cocooning games, underwater adventure games were all starting to take their toll. We have replaced it with a lovely Nathalie Lete quilt which does the trick but isn’t quite so special, because Nathalie isn’t my 93 year old grandma.

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15 Responses

  1. rosa says:

    A Nathalie Lete quilt?! I need to see that!

  2. Kirsty says:

    Oh Claire, it’s beautiful. I love everything about this story & the lovely wedding snap too. What a treasure.Liberty reminds me of my aunt & clinique aromatics elixir perfume.

  3. what a beautiful story and super special quilt! definitely a treasure.

  4. Mandy says:

    Hand-stitched quilt? THAT is a labor of love! I actually have a deep desire to hand-stitch a quilt. Seeing things like this and reading stories like yours just makes me want to jump up and hand-stitch a quilt even more!

  5. Feronia says:

    Beautiful quilt and a beautiful tradition, Claire πŸ™‚

  6. Pip Lincolne says:

    Wow. Your granny is ace. I love those sorts of traditions – I wonder if we will have time to do that for our grandchildren… I hope we do! Maybe we can take a ‘Vow of Tradition’ and start making plans now – that gives you around 50 years to get your Loobylu-as-a-Granny quilt done. Dya think you can do it?I think I have only around 35 years before my eldest has kids who then get married… so I better get a wriggle on!! xx

  7. Christina says:

    So beautiful. I have started a hand pieced hexagon quilt with reproduction 1930’s fabric and this is really insiring to keep at it.:)

  8. pamela says:

    WOW, I love this quilt. What a special treasure. I have a few from my mother-in-law that she had bought at antique store and she has coffee stains on a few. kinda sad.

  9. Hayley says:

    The quilt is gorgeous, it must be lovely owning something that so much time and effort went into.Just had to comment because your opinion on marriage is exactly the same as mine: my partner and I were never going to get married, then we thought it would be fun to have a party to celebrate us, so we are engaged.

  10. Sam says:

    That has to be the most gorgeous quilt I have ever seen! Seriously!!

  11. Cate says:

    What a stunning quilt and beautiful story. I love the idea of things being handed down through generations. I keep intending to make a wedding quilt for my husband and I but I did make him an embroidery for his birthday…

  12. Alicia P. says:

    Oh wow, Claire — that is extraordinary. I just started making a few hexagons for the first time last week and had to stop after a couple dozen because my finger was so sore. What a labor of love she made for you, and in Liberty fabrics, no less. I have to say I’d probably take it off the bed too, as much as you’d hate to cloister it away, but honestly . . . what a treasure.

  13. Alicia P. says:

    P.S. I used Liberty fabrics on mine too because it seems like the perfect application for those precious pieces, doesn’t it? It’s like you don’t dare use too much at once! Because it’s too beautiful! πŸ™‚

  14. Alison says:

    Your quilt story brought a tear to my eye… it is so beautiful. You are very lucky to have something so special from your Grandma.

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