Family Treasures - Aunt Ginny's Quilts

And now back to our previously scheduled program... continuing the story of family heirlooms in the possession of my aunts and uncles and sharing  memories of their earlier lives with my Elling grandparents.  Aunt Ginny had many things to share, so let's get to it.

 Just look at this lovely wedding ring quilt, given to my aunt Ginny and Uncle Alfred as a wedding present from his mother and my grandmother, Ida Spoering Elling.  As Aunt Ginny tells the story, she and her then fiance', Alfred, went to his parent's house for Sunday supper and there were Grandma Elling and three of her Spoering sisters - Lydia, Freida and Annie - working on this quilt.  Grandma said, "Ginny, this is going to be yours, so you need to put some stitches in it."  Ginny said she put in three stitches, pricked her fingers and when the blood began to flow, she was told to quit!


 


 Isn't it fun to look at all the vintage fabrics used?  Most of them were probably someone's clothing at one time or another, as I doubt if new fabrics were purchased for a quilt during those days.
Ginny and Alfred were married in April 1946, so this quilt can be pretty accurately dated...and best of all, we know the stitchers were the Spoering sisters.  Any little blood spots on there to mark your quilting debut, Aunt Ginny?

 This second quilt was given to Aunt
Ginny from Aunt Kate, Albert's second wife who was a sister of his first wife, Ida - both born Spoering.
One Christmas Aunt Kate gave quilts to all the daughters and daughters-in-law - some time in the early 1960's perhaps.  No one seems really sure if she pieced the quilts or not (there would have been seven quilts to do), but we are fairly certain they were quilted by one or more groups of church ladies in a quilting circle, probably from Hamler.  Aunt Kate died in 1968.

 







 The posts concerning family treasures all appeared in August, 2010 on the Elling Family News Blog.