Grandma taught me...

Everyone has someone, who is/was their favorite and has influenced their life.
  
Mine is my maternal grandmother, Emily Edith Davies Knudsen.   
She was a beautiful, loving, kind, talented, strong, extraordinary woman.
   
My memories of her conjur up the scent of tea and cinnamon toast to warm me after skating on a cold winter day, cookies and milk at my bedside (just in case I might get hungry in the night), handknit mittens and a dollar bill tied in a bow with the crochet string, Friday nights watching Perry Mason, the projects she taught my Girl Scout troop, roast chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, the little wooden apples with carved tea set inside, shrimp salad and ice tea parties on the screen porch, picking ripe plums from the trees in her back yard, all the handiwork techniques she taught me and my sisters...   I could go on and on and on.
    
My time with Grandma was the very best ever.   A true lady.   She passed away 40 years ago and I miss her every day.

When I saw Jo Morton's "Sisters" quilt and, especially, how one of the "Stitchers"  used an old photo of a relative, I knew I would make this quilt with Grandma's photo.
It's now finished (except for the label) and I just HAD to share it with you.   

The photo is one of three, circa 1916, taken just before Grandma and Grampa were married.    They, actually, eloped on New Year's Eve, so I'm not really sure what year they were married.    And they kept their marriage a secret, because she was a teacher and back then teachers could not be married.   She needed to keep her job, as Grampa was headed to France - he was a train man, actually, a brakeman, and was invaluable on the WW1 troop trains.

     

The little quilt, aptly named "Grandma" is sitting, proudly, on Grampa Knudsen's writing desk in front of Grandma's acrylic chalk drawing of tiger lilys...     The quilt stand is made of wrought iron and the little quilt fits it perfectly. 

And sew on...

Jeanne