Meet MARTHA
If you have explored my site, you possibly already know that Martha is one of my grandmothers, my dad’s mom. I was unlucky and never got to meet my grandfather, he passed 2 years before I was born. To be honest, none of us remember him. The oldest of my cousins was still only 2 when he passed. So Nannie was all we had. And boy did she make up for it with the love she showed us!!
She was very traditional. She did everything “the way we always did it.” She was part of that generation that REALLY knew how to cook……you know the ones I’m talking about - never wrote anything down or followed a recipe but everything was SO delicious! And since we are southern, probably not very good for your arteries! haha. I was lucky enough to get to sit down with her and make some of her classic dishes with her and “write” a recipe down as we went. I also have a lot of my canning recipes from her as well. Even though she passed in 2016, she never had a computer, the internet, a cell phone…….but she was the one that had CABLE!!! We didn’t have cable growing up, so it was special to go see her and get to watch Nickelodeon!! Every year at Christmas, we always watched A Christmas Story on the 24h marathon on TBS.
Anyways, I’m getting side tracked - y’all are here to hear about the quilt. It was designed with her in mind……traditional with a little whimsy, just like her!! She would always surprise you with something that just made you laugh. For instance, she was a diabetic but had the biggest sweet tooth!! But, when she learned you could call and order pizza delivered to your house…….I think she ate pizza everyday for a week before we found all the pizza boxes and knew what she had been doing. I guess it is a good thing grocery delivery wasn’t a thing at that time because she would have been ordering only ice cream and having it delivered with her groceries!!
The Martha quilt is a block based pattern, featuring traditional piecing. The block is composed of 4 units. It is a pattern best for an advanced beginner just because it has a lot of piecing and a lot of points to match up. But, my goal was to still write this pattern in a way that if a beginner just loved it and wanted to try it, they could understand all the instructions and have little tid-bits included to help them along the way. The pattern has very detailed instructions, and diagrams included for every step. I also included pressing instructions that allow for your seams to nest in order to help you match all the points up. I love how this little block is then arranged to have a surprise design, featuring 2 traditional elements.
When planning out my throw version, I had just finished working on my Midlife Quilter Maker apron project using Grow and Harvest from Art Gallery Fabrics. I fell in LOVE with this collection and knew it went perfectly with this quilt and the story behind it! I had a dear friend on mine quilt it for me using a flower and feather combo design. It turned out PERFECT!!! It was everything I had envisioned.
I hope you love Martha as much as I have loved creating her!! I would love to see your creations with her as well so please share your work on social!!!