The quilt of a lifetime

All of Grandma Collin's grandkids get a big quilt from her at some point in their life. Some for grad, some for their wedding, some when they move away from home, and some just whenever Grandma gets around to quilting them one, like this one for Lydia. 

Lydia decided she wanted an all white quilt, a technique called "whole cloth." The focus is soley on the stitching, not the piecing. It comes pre-printed, so all you have to do (ha, ha, ha) is quilt it.

This particular quilt has a pattern density of about 3/4 inch spacing between lines. That's a lot of stitches for a queen sized blanket! Millions of stitches, probably.

My girls had to be right up there with us. I discovered I could even quilt with one of them on my lap.

Grandma wanted me to take a few pictures of this heirloom project, as this is probably the only quilt like this she will ever do.

Her loving hands have stitched millions of stitches, and I'm sure, quilted well over a hundred quilts in her lifetime.

Arthritis kept her from it for a season, but she re-trained her hands through gentler needlework projects, and has been quilting strong ever since, even recovering from two carpal tunnel surgeries to keep on stitching.

She really enjoys doing it, and blessing people through it.

And her sun-room has the most amazing lighting for it too.

I was quilting on the other side of Grandma, but stopped to take these pictures.

I meant to get a shot of the underside of the quilt, but I realized after we left that I didn't get to it. :(

Such wonderful memories Grandma's house holds. I hope she can live there for a good many years yet.