Merle's Quilt

Inside a box of Randy's Mom's things, we found  a wonderful old quilt top, likely made in the mid- fifties.  She attended a local sewing course in 1955 as this blog post told about and her neighbour and friend Jennetta Curtis likely helped put it together as well.

My talented cousin Marilee was able to put a blue border and a lighter blue backing on it and the Reston United Church quilting group put it on the racks on February 13, 2017 to begin hand quilting it. They worked on it as a group on Mondays for just about a month.

One spot online called this pattern Radiant Star but Eight Pointed Star but it also is like the Bethlehem Star pattern too. It certainly would have been a huge job to cut and piece it together before the days of rotary cutters and mats!

Merle's sisters tell me that their Aunt Pearl (Cassell) Gerow was the quilter in their family and she sent many of the pieces that were used to make quilts in their family.  Aunt Allie remembers the quilting frames set up in their house in Elkhorn from time to time.

The blue thread in a combination of hearts and stars sets it off beautifully.  It is a work of art and we are so grateful to the community ladies for completing it.  We think she would be very proud indeed!