Quilts & Friendship

These are pictures of an antique friendship quilt that my mom, aunt and grandmother each made blocks for in 1936. My mom would have been 22 years old at the time. I still love these old quilts. I can imagine the friendship times of sharing that went into making this quilt. They all took part in handquilting it so that involved sitting around a large quilt frame while their children played outside or even sat under the frame. I wonder how the conversations went. Did they talk about their husbands, their kids, share recipes and tips for getting stains out of laundry? Comparing them to the quilts I now make is quite a contrast. But I am sure that the conversations are probably close to the same when I get together with my friends to quilt. They probably laughed, sometimes cried and felt the magical feeling of kinship with their friends. Of course their tips for laundry stains might involve soaking the item in lemon juice in the sun. Ours might be, have you tried the latest stain removal? New technology may have changed the way we quilt or do laundry; but one thing doesn't change and that is conversation with a quilting friend is still a magical kinship.