Just Plain Ivy: Thanksgiving Quilt for Mom and Dad

Thanksgiving is my mom's favorite holiday. She loves all the food, all the 'guilt free' eating, because it's THANKSGIVING! Diets don't exist on that day. Cooking is not the favorite part. That can get pretty hectic when the number of people seems to grow each year. It IS getting better now that some of the kids are old enough to help bring some of the essential dishes.

But most of all she love having her big family around. Not all of us kids get to go home for Thanksgiving, but she's had so many of us, there are always plenty to fill up her too small kitchen.

I think her love of her family and the Thanksgiving holiday are pretty well illustrated in this amazing quilt she made so long ago. Back in November of 1978, my family consisted of my mom and dad and five of us kids. (Eventually we'd have a total of NINE kids!)

Erin would have been about 8, Amy 6, and I'd just turned 4.

Adam had just turned 3 and Cammy was 1.

Mom had us each draw on fabric squares and then sewed them together to create the top of this quilt.

I'm sure this yellow and brown were popular colors in 1978. She bordered the whole thing with a wide yellow border, which really solidified that late 70's vibe. And then the quilt top sat untouched for years.

34 years to be exact.

Here's my 4 year old contribution.

That's a turkey, I'm pretty sure.

I really want to know what that thing is next to it with the colorful cross/stripes.

And here's a beautiful girl (obviously a bit jaundiced)

with another beautiful girl with very large, sumptuous lips.

I'm not sure who drew this next one, but the eyelashes suggest it might be mine.

Maybe Amy? And that looks like another turkey... perhaps.

Amy's turkey is much better!

And her people are more like people.

Erin of course was the most advanced artist at the time being the oldest and wisest.

Also a bit of a brown-noser as you can see above...?

Adam, who was barely 3 at the time, drew this:

It's no surprise he grew up to be an actual ARTIST. (Colter Jacobsen)

I wonder what this is worth now? Or will be worth after he dies and gets SUPER famous...

Even baby Cammy got her square.

Of course she included Uncles Steve, Grandma and Grandpa and Grandmommy, Granddaddy and Uncle Howard.

In 2012, Mom and Dad were in Montana on their mission so it would be

Mom's first Thanksgiving without her big family. Sad day.

Amy unearthed this gem in the attic and thought it would be a great way to show mom we were thinking about her on this favorite holiday.

Only a couple of problems.

First, it wasn't finished. It was still just a quilt top.

And second, it was pretty hideous. The colors were really dated.

But Amy asked if I thought I could finish it off anyway and send it to mom and dad. And maybe try to make it a little nicer looking. She knew they'd love it.

Well, stupid me, I forgot to take the picture of the BEFORE.

Originally it had a wide mustard yellow border all the way around. This made it a really dark quilt and the yellow and brown overpowered the cute little pictures.

It was pretty obvious the border would have to go.

I cut the yellow border off, added a wide white border and a blue binding.

Then I did some mild quilting to finish it off.

The results were really quite cute. The white brightened up the previously very dark quilt. It also helped the little white squares with our pictures show up more.

The blue binding also added a fresh color that pulled the bright blue of the little flowers out of the dark brown calico.