My paternal grandmother was a quilt maker. She was Pennsylvania Dutch, and actually still spoke a bit of the language. Her maiden name was Amanda Roth and she married my father’s father, Oscar Kriebel.  The picture above was taken of her when she was 19 years old.  Everyone always says that I look a lot like her. I remember playing under the quilting frame in her apartment as a child. She made all kinds of quilts. She did a lot of cross stitch. She also did appliqué, and patchwork. She belonged to a group of women at church called the “Golden Agers” who got together to quilt at the church. You had to be 50 years or older to be a member, and as I recall those women seemed really old to me. Now I’m ten years older than the entrance requirement, and I don’t feel old at all.

While I didn’t make my first quilt until six years after my grandmother died, I have to give her credit for sparking my interest in the first place. Grammy used to quilt with a frame, and I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way until I came across a quilt on the cover of the February 1974 issue of Family Circle. I’ll show that magazine cover,and the quilt I made from the pattern, in a future post. But first I’ll be showing some of the quilts that Grammy made.  She made many, and I am lucky enough to have a few of them.

Here is a picture that shows Grammy and me at about the same age.  I am 17 in my high school graduation photo, just two years younger than Grammy in her photo.  Do you see the resemblance?