Quilts and Cotton Combs

How is everyone today? I hope doing well. We are in for a 'cool spell' here. Low to mid 90's. :-D That is always welcomed this time of year.

I am participating in Kelli's of There's No Place Like Home Friday Show and Tell. {Click on this link to read more about it.}

And I have another family "heirloom" to share with you. I hope you enjoy it.

My maternal grandmother loved making quilts. I bet she made hundreds of them. Most, every stitch by hand. I have only a few that she made. But this one is very special. She made this Around the World top in 1958 for her 'first grandchild' (me) and entered it in the Madison County (Alabama) Fair. It took home the Blue Ribbon! She was so proud of that.

She gave up on me ever getting married, which was when she was planning on giving me the quilt, so some time in the early 80's she quilted it and gave it to me. When I was very young, I can remember when Grandma would sandwich a quilt, she would lay unbleached muslin (she was very simple country woman. The quilts these days would blow her mind. The green backing I picked for this quilt blew her mind....) on the floor. She would take clean cotton and her combs and began to comb them (that was before she discovered the quilting poly...) and she would comb those fibers, spreading them out on the muslin. When the muslin was sufficiently covered, she would place the top onto the cotton and pin it down.

I am sure that these cotton combs have seen many many quilts. Grandma died a few months before I got married. Praise the Lord, she did see me engaged to a wonderful man who she adored. So she quit worrying. I was the oldest of her 11 grands and almost the last to marry. That fretted her to no end. But I digress...

I have seen these combs used for wool, flax, any type of fiber that needs combing before spinning, processing, etc. The needles are very very fine and very strong. They scratch the skin easily. When my mom had to 'downsize' and we were cleaning out her house, I found them tucked away in a closet. Since I learned to quilt from grandma and helped her with her quilts a lot, Mama let me take them home.

I am working on a way to display them someway. I do not want to keep them hidden in a closet. I want to show them. I think, if I ever get that 'sewing studio/office' thing going, that will be a perfect place. :-)