Quilting is a beautiful homemaking skill, and an expression of beauty as well as a for making a useful item for warmth. My grandmother was a quilter all her life. As a child, I used to sit with her in her chair (she was petite and I was a skinny kid!) while she pieced scraps together and I would write or draw. While both of my grandmothers quilted as well as my mother, my main inspiration comes from my Grandma Cline. I want to be just like her. I want a beautiful, interesting, loving, quiet home, and make quilts. I made my first quilt on my own in my mid-20's, and have enjoyed quilting off-and-on since.
I call this blog "Patchwork Pathways" because I see this in my own life as being handed down from generation to generation, from my grandmothers and mother. Back in older days quilting was more of a necessity, to keep the family warm. Quilts were made, and they were USED. Nowadays, the artistic side figures in more, but quilts are still warm and useful, and very satisfying to make no matter what the size.
To start this blog, let me introduce you to the main influence in my life, a lady I loved dearly when I was a child, and still do in sweet memory. She was a gem! My Grandma Cline. Here is a picture and article from our small-town newspaper from a long time ago.
Mrs. J.M. Cline Has Made Many Hundreds of Beautiful Quilts.
Mrs. J.M. Cline of Coldwater, though 87 years of age, is in quite good health, does all of her housework and finds time to piece and make quilts.
She is shown here with three of her finished quilts and a nine-patch in her lap on which she is now working. The quilt to the far left in the picture is made from a pattern of General Eisenhower's mother.
Between it and Mrs. Cline is a quilt she calls the Curiosity pattern; to the far right is a quilt made of 28 blocks, each of which has 144 one-inch squares to the block. she has made nine quilts of this last pattern.
Last year Mrs. Cline made six or eight quilts and has finished six this year.
Mr. and Mrs. Cline came to Kansas from Evansville, Ind., in 1907 and she and Mr. Cline in 1912 built their new home, where she still lives. He passed away in 1953. They raised 10 children, nine of whom are still living. Mrs. Cline was the eldest of 13 children born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Metzker, early-day residents of Comanche county.
Mrs. Cline has 28 grandchildren, 63 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. She says she inherited her quilt-making from her Grandmother Metzker. (Handwritten note on cut-out article - 12-31-64.)
