This is my constant companion, Ralf.
A storm raged last night and Ralf and I snuggled under my favorite quilt and watched TV.
Some 80 years ago, a lady made this quilt.
She collected feed sacks and patiently hand pieced a large utilitarian quilt.
The colors are vintage. Brown, tan, blue, mint green and 20’s pink. The batting is thin cotton and the back it the same coarse brown homespun that she used in the construction of the blocks.
Where did she get the pattern from?
I can’t find it in any of my old pattern books. I can’t find a name for it, and I think it is probably a version of drunkards path.
Was she sitting in her kitchen by the fire in a small town of Minnesota. Was it snowing when she began the quilt. Did she continue it through the green of spring and the heat haze of a summer day by the lake.
I believe she was in her 60’s + because the quilt had never been used when I purchased it in an antique store in my American hometown of Long Prairie MN. Then again, she could have made it for a daughter or a friend who didn’t like it and never used it.
I imagine, it was sold in a job lot at an auction of a deceased estate. Maybe the family found it in a trunk and sold it along with her other "Womens Art Projects" to the local antique dealer?
In summer of 2005 I had a short break in Long Prairie and I rode my bike the 2 miles into town. It was a hot misty summer day, and I was just taking in the beauty of our little town. Lake Charlotte glistening blue in the sun, the green maples by the shore and the fields of ripening corn. I stopped for a drink  in one of the cafes and then went  to the antique shop for my compulsory visit.  The quilt was hanging by the counter and I asked the price.  $45  I think….. so I packed it up and put it in my back back and rode home with it for show and tell.
I love this quilt and use it daily when I’m home.
Grandson Kodi loves it too and he sits and watching TV under the quilt with a teddy bear biscuit in each hand. When the biscuits have been eaten he has to turn off the TV. It’s amazing just how long he make two  cookies last.   
Things made in the past last for a long time. We never know what will happen to them in the future.
Where will your quilts end up in 80 years? I have collected these treasures for many years. I believe that the doilies, pinnies, embroidered tablecloths and dishtowels that I’ve collected over the years are a form of "Womens Art"
I showed some of my Australian treasures once at Guild. They were rather ugly, but had been patiently made by hand and the makers used the fabric of the day. One lady was heard to exlaim "She’d buy anything"
Hmm, she missed the point.
Art comes in many forms. The art of my Mother and her sisters did around their homes to make it "nice" is as important to me as a beautiful painting.
A quilt made by a lady in Minnesota has given me much joy and comfort and I share in her friendship as a fellow quilter. Her memory will live on in her handwork as will yours and mine in the future.