The holiday season is in full swing, with all the twinkling lights, shopping bags, baked goods, and travel plans that come with it. To celebrate the season, we thought we’d take a look back at our QSOS interviews and feature some stories of holiday quiltmaking, family, and giving. Do you give quilts as holiday gifts? Or make quilts to accompany your holiday traditions? We’d love to hear more about how your holidays intersect with quilts–leave us a comment!
We’ll start out with an excerpt from this interview with Kay Butler, about a Christmas Mystery Quilt. My favorite part of this story is that their mystery quilt group included a journal for each quiltmaker to write “the story of their lives.” What a lovely gift to include with a holiday quilt–a little note or journal that tells that quilt’s story (and of course, a cute label to go along with it!)
Heather Gibson: Okay, tell me about the quilt you brought today.
Kay Butler: Okay, this is a Christmas Mystery Quilt. We had a Mystery Quilt planned to do in our guild. There were four girls in the group. We were to select the fabric that we wanted, place it in a brown bag, and then pass it on to the next person in the group. And the next person would do a little bit more work, and it’s sort of like a “round robin” idea. And so I started this endeavor with a visit to a quilt shop here in Dover called Rose Valley Quilt Shop. I bought all of my fabrics there, in the Amish Shop, from a very dear friend, Rachel Hershberger. And I had in my head that I wanted a Christmas design. Normally I’m a real purple-lover, a real purple fan. But I thought, ‘I’m going to break from tradition here. I’m going to force myself to think in a different color realm here.’ And I chose what you see here on the end is called the “zinger” fabric. A lot of the quilters will buy a zinger fabric, and they will pull from that zinger fabric the various colors that are in there, like the reds and the greens and the golds that you see. So I bought the fabric. And in the brown bag we also include a journal. Each lady includes a journal, and they write the story of their lives in the journal. And what’s taking place in their lives, if they’re having difficulty with that step of the project that they’ve been doing. And that also documents the quilt and tells a little bit more about the quilt.
Judy Whitson of Tuscaloosa, Alabama talked about gifting quilts, both during the holidays, and year round. I love the idea of every gifted quilt being a memory quilt that remembers both the maker and the recipient (and all the more reason to label those quilts!).
“I love to give. It is a sign that you really care for somebody when you give them a handmade item like a little baby quilt or a quilt for their bed or something, and it is more or less a memory quilt. I always put a signature block on there saying who it is for, the date, and who designed it and who made it, quilted.”
I also loved this interview with Resna Ximines Hammer in Washington, D.C. about the ways she uses her quilts in her family’s holiday traditions. I can’t help but laugh at interviewer Evelyn Salinger’s question “do you actually use this on Friday nights yourself?” because I know I have a few quilted objects I’m a little hesitant to use. But Resna’s notion that a table should be beautiful, and that handmade objects can enhance a family ceremony, is a lovely sentiment for the holidays.
Evelyn Salinger (ES): Good. Nice of you to come today with your things to show. Let’s start out first with your telling me what you have made here.
Resna Hammer (RH): These are two–One of the things that I am actually very passionate about is Jewish ceremonial kinds of cloths. And this is called a Challah cover and it’s used to cover bread on the Friday night dinner. This particular one also I tried to incorporate all of the holidays that would come in the certain period of time. Here this is Hanukkah, this is the symbol for Hanukkah, this is Purim, which is another one, and the pomegranates are for the High Holy Days.
ES: Do you actually use this on Friday nights yourself?
RH: We actually use it on Friday nights.
ES: Every Friday night or just on the holiday time?
RH: Just on the holiday. I have another one for Friday. I believe that the table should be beautiful. And normally what your traditional Challah covers are usually silk and they are painted on and I thought what I wanted to do and what I’ve been doing, a wonderful quilted ones that I just think enhance the day and the ceremony. This also has incorporated in it the seven species, which is in the Bible and that are things that are all incorporated with Shabbes or to do with the Sabbath. What I’ve written here in Hebrew is, it’s like, ‘For all the Miracles that You Perform for Us,’ and ‘We Thank You.’ I wanted it every Friday night to be able to see that.
We’ll end with some sweet words from Sue Stiner of Newark, Delaware. We all love to spend time with our fabric stash, but during the holidays, what could be better than spending time with our ‘stash’ of family and friends? “Most of the quilts I’ve made though, I’ve given away. But know that I’m building up a stash of grandkids along with a stash of fabric; I’ll probably be making more for family than I will for friends.”
Happy holidays to all of you from all of us at the Quilt Alliance! Thank you for another year of sharing your quilts, your stories, and your gifts with us!
-Emma Parker, Project Manager