Comfort Lap Quilts For The Matriarchs Of The Family.

We have family reunions every two years. My side of the family is pretty big. The main people in this family are our aunts and an uncle; there were six sisters and one brother. Whenever we had the reunions everyone always brought gifts for grandma, aunts and our uncle. They were and are the special people.

Our grandpa died in 1959 when we were having a family get together. He would have loved all the reunions. Uncle died 1988, shortly after our 100-year-old grandma died, my dad died 3 months later. After grandma passed away the sisters were now the matriarchs of the family.

We have had our reunions at Mountain View in the Arkansas mountains. Mountain View is a great little town in the hills of Arkansas Ozark Mountains, the White River and some creeks near by. Lots of fun stuff to do there. Downtown there's music played in the square. Old time hoedowns are lots of fun. Bring your lawn chairs and stay awhile.

It is very hilly in Mountain View and was getting too hard for the older folks to walk around so we have had to change places in for our reunions.

My cousin the planner of all the reunions moved the reunions to Reelfoot Lake; The Lake was formed during the Madrid earthquakes in 1811-1812. Great fishing and boating, but I saw water moccasins. The water moccasins kind of set me off from it. It is very pretty and somewhere around here I have pictures. When I find them I'll put them on. Each place we went to we stayed at a resort.

We later moved the reunions to Jonesboro, Arkansas, my favorite place, no snakes, at least not at Holiday Inn.

The older folks in our family needed to be in a place where there wasn't so much traveling to do and Jonesboro worked out the best for everyone.

The Holiday Inn was very nice. They had great beds with nice linen. There is breakfast in the morning. It's close to shopping and restaurants.

I decided one year to make the matriarchs each a little quilt just a small one for either their laps or they could use them on the table. By this time our uncle had passed away but we always included his wife in the gift. One aunt had also passed away. I have a small baby quilt in this size and I often use it just to cover my feet or just around my shoulders, when it's too warm for a large throw.

It is really hard to figure out what to get all of them sometimes and this is what I came up with.

The sizes of the quilts I made were 52X52. I used larger blocks on most of them so they would go fast. I did each one in a different block. I used colors I thought each aunt (my mother included) would like. Most blocks were just simple squares. I did one pinwheel pattern and a four point star on a couple of the quilts.

When I was finished with them I rolled them and tied them with a bow.

It was fun making the quilts. Really not hard, would be even easier if you just make a throw pillow. Pillows won’t take as much fabric or time. Make one large block maybe 14X14 with a plain back. Buy a pillow form. Sew the two sides together. I included a video on how to make a patchwork pillow.

These little quilts would be great for a baby shower. If you want to make them warmer than back them with flannel or do the quilts completely in flannel. I always like small quilts to carry with my babies and these would be just right size. Make them in baby prints or prints to match a nursery.

If you’re looking for some good quilt blocks check out the link below. There are hundreds of blocks on this site called Quilt Blocks Galore address below.

, . You can also check out

Millionaire Tips on how to learn to make a quilt.

Lap quilts are easy to make and you use up leftover fabric on them to save time you can make all your quilt blocks the same in just different fabric and put together a small quilt. They are small enough to be quilted on a regular machine.

This year I have 12 quilts to make. My husband is helping me we're making for our kids and grandkids, daughter-in-laws and son-in-laws. It gets cold here in the winter and I hate getting out so making quilts keep us busy. The photo below is one of the quilts we started making the jelly roll quilt another easy quilt to make. Our cat ( Levi Jones ) has to test out each quilt.

It's a great thing to have family reunions. So much changes in a family so very fast. My aunt and uncle are in a nursing home now. We have another aunt who is also in a nursing home she doesn't even recognize her daughter. My cousin is in a nursing home and has stopped eating and she couldn't stay at home because she wondered off. My uncle died on Friday. My brother-in-law is in the hospital and not expected to live. This all happened within a year.

There are only two of the sisters left. My mother passed away this year 2015. Many others in my side of the family have passed away.

My husband's family in two years he lost two sisters and a brother. Sad to say in 2014 my husband passed away.

Sad to say, but I think our family reunions are over.

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Lap Quilts For The Matriarchs Of The Family.