All Hanky No Panky

I finished the last few hankie blocks:

Now I have to figure out how to set them together.  I'm thinking that attic window frames would be a nice way to set them off.  A trip to the fabric store is in order, but don't know when that will happen.

Progress report.

Thank you so much for the nice comments that were left on my last post about the quilt I'm making with handkerchief fabrics.  I've really been enjoying pairing up the fabrics for each block to bring out the colors in the hankies.  I've got 6 blocks finished, and the fabrics cut and chosen for the last 3.  Here's a peek at what I've got so far:

The only hard part about using the handkerchief print fabric, is that not all the hankies were printed symmetrically, which means that not all the corners are exactly the same, so I'm fudging it a bit.  The real test will come when I put the blocks all together.

I'm not at all sure how I want to put these together in terms of sashing color, and what the border fabric should be.  I'm still sorting that out, but it's a fun "problem" to have.  ;-)

I wanted to add a few comments about my grandfather, since he is also in the picture in yesterday's post.  He was very reserved and a man of few words.  He was content to sit back and let my grandmother be the lively one. He was never late for anything.  He would rather arrive early and wait in the car than be late.

He had a lots of thick hair on his head that never thinned as he aged, although eventually it became pure white.  He worked for years in a paper cutting factory, which is where he met my grandmother.  We were never at a loss for scrap paper in my house because Grandpa had always been able to bring home bundles of it that were leftover from paper cutting projects.   He never cooked a day in his life, until my grandmother became ill in her later years and then he learned to cook while she sat in the kitchen chair and coached him along. 

When I was old enough to learn to ride a two wheeled bike, Grandpa took the best parts from  3 bikes that had belonged to my mother and aunts and turned them into a "new" bike for me.   I wish I could say I knew him very well, but he wasn't much of a talker.  He was just always there, providing a solid base for the rest of the family to branch out from.

Grandmother's Hankies

My mother's mother was born in 1898. That's her in the picture,  sitting on the hay bale looking rather cross.   It's seems unusual to see her looking cranky.  I remember her as always having a smile on her face.  Perhaps the big hat that her sister was wearing was poking her in the face, or her button-hook shoes were too tight.



Grandma married rather late for a woman of her era, and she also broke with traditon by marrying a younger man.  She gave birth to  my mother,  and then 6 years later, had twin girls, not knowing she was carrying twins until the day they were born.

My grandmother always dressed up, complete with stockings, heels and jewelry, (and gloves if she was going into the city).  She often came by our house to babysit if  my mom  needed to run an errand, and she would don an apron over her dress and do all the ironing while Mom was out.  She might stay long enough to  have some lunch, but then she would head back home to watch her "stories" on TV. 

 Every Christmas, she gave my sister and I a new pair of patent leather shoes and we loved getting them.  She was kind and generous, and paid for a year of ballet lessons for me when I was little.  She was always so interested in everything her grandchildren did, and would attend any school play or recital and applaud heartily.  She was caring and approachable, but she liked to sign her greeting cards with "Grandmere", even though we called her "Grandma".

One of the things I'll always remember about my grandmother is that she always had a pretty handkerchief in her purse. She would spray a little perfume on it so that it was both pretty to look at and pretty to smell.

Whenever I see a beautiful ladies hankie, I think of my grandmother, and I wish that I had some of those hankies to keep.