As I have mentioned on this blog before, my mother quilted. So did my grandmother and my great-grandmother. And, I fully expect that if I went back further, I would find many more quilters!!!
This is a story about a Lemoyne star quilt.
My grandmother (named CHESTER!!!), pieced this Lemoyne Star quilt back in 1957 and gave the top to my mother who was supposed to quilt and finish it……
The purpose of this quilt was to keep ME warm at night!! Well, apparently I was NOT an easy child and my mother never got around to finishing the quilt……until she had a granddaughter!!!
Although it never kept me warm at night it was a part of my daughters life for many years.
I love to look at some of the individual blocks in this quilt because it tells me that my “Granny” made do with what she had!!!
Most of the blocks are made in this style…..
….with two fabrics in the star and the gray fabric being consistent thru most of the blocks.
But then there are a few that have two or more fabrics in the alternate points….
And then there are a few where the grey fabric doesn’t appear at all….
In today’s world, we might freak out because we had run out of one of our fabrics and might even make a hurried trip to the quilt store but I love that Granny didn’t do that. Instead she just used what she had available, knowing that the quilt would keep her loved-one’s warm!!
That is the kind of quilter that I want to be……
I Love the quilt and family story! Thanks for sharing. I have a lovely Cathedral Window I watched my grandmother make. She showed me how and I got about 8 squares made on a visit to her house with my infant son. I never got more made as kids and college, then work kept me busy. But I do quilt and treasure especially her quilt and the memories.
Thank you for the sweet story, Sandra. My Mom passed away 4 years ago and she was quilting almost to the very end. In her later years, we shared projects….she would do the hand applique and I would finish the top and quilt them. There are some wonderful memories there.
How wonderful to have a family quilt and know the history. A lovely connection with four generations.
It is wonderful to see quilts made of what was available at the time… The memories so dear to me come flooding back and I see my grandmother’s smile… Thank you
I agree Elizabeth. It is fun to wonder what was going on in their lives when they were working on it!!
Frances, this is right up my alley! You know I am all into heritage quilt patterns! I am absolutely intrigued by the “twins separated at birth” LeMoyne star quilts! So much so, I started my search on newspapers.com trying to find any early publications of the pattern. What a field of information… or should I say varying information about the Star of LeMoyne, Star of Lemoyne, Lemoyne Star, Lemon Star… it goes on and on. What I did find that was very common, thanks to your notation of the publication in the Kansas City Star [which would have been their “weekly”], was pattern book number 5540. This little pattern book was widely advertised across most national newspapers. If you sent “coin” for twenty-five cents [and I’ve just noticed my keyboard does not have a ‘cent’ key… oh old am I? Never mind, I digress], they would send you the pattern booklet. But wait, there’s more: you could also send in for stock fabrics. This implies the early days of mail order fabrics. At any rate, I do find the heritage patterns fascinating. Here’s the fact I learned today thanks to your post: as each state entered the union, a quilt pattern star was designed and designated for that state: Thus the Ohio Star, the Missouri Star, the Dakota Star, etc. [didn’t find a Georgia star so maybe we need to get busy]. If this is a traditional method of pattern design and designation, the Lemoyne would be attributed to Louisiana culture, making it a very old pattern. Thank you for this post. It strikes to my heart of all things old, including my grandmother’s unfinished 8-point giant star quilt and the wooden quilt frame it is still rolled upon, made by my grandfather for her to use.
WOW Dan, I LOVE this comment. Next time I need information, I will call you instead of ChatGPT!! I agree that it was an interesting journey to try to figure out why the quilts are twins. Thank you so much!!!