I would make another quilt for her and keep the original. Enjoy the original while you still have life and put it in a will that the quilt is to be donated to XXXX museum to be displayed for all to enjoy. I'd go ahead and write up the history of the quilt too and include the story about the cousin in it as well.

My DGM had lots of tops when she died and they were snatched up by greedy relatives who don't quilt. I would have loved to have had one to finish but didn't get one. I did get boxes of fabric that nobody wanted and made 8 quilts for aunts/uncles/dad/and my sister for helping me make the quilts. I did have an aunt tell me that if I found feed sack in those boxes that she wanted them (SHHHH....I laughed inside because I did find some and she's not getting them, LOL ). When we delivered them on the anniversary of DGM's death one year later, another aunt gave my sister a biscuit quilt that was stuffed with rolled up panty hose. It needs to be repaired, and I offered to help her do it when she got ready to do it. The same aunt gave me one of my greatGM's quilts...a crazy quilt. It was completely done by hand. It had silk in it that is deteriorating. It needs to be finished...it has no backing/batting. I know that it'll have to be finished by hand so it's on display in my home, not to be used but admired. It has feather stitching done by hand over every seam. It has been suggested that when I finish it to use charm tacks. I'm not sure where I'd find them though. I hope to finish it someday before I pass away....

Nola...good for you to keep those type items. Some people just have no brain when it comes to historical/sentimental things. If it doesn't have a monetary value, they just don't care and it's classified as junk. You know the old saying "one man's junk is another man's treasure". Nice save!

Janice

I'm with you Nola, try and organize the quilt to be donated to a museum if you can Meg. Antique fabrics need very delicate handling, and to risk its damage through carelessness is an appalling thought. Its worth making another quilt as a replacement. You could make a quilt in the same style with reproduction fabrics and give it to your mother...maybe you could exchange the new quilt with the unfinished one. I don't know how this would sit with your mother but at least she would be able to enjoy the new quilt and gain the benefit out of it. And who knows? The new quilt may be more attractive to your finicky niece. Its a dilemma Meg. Good luck.

Well done on saving your in-laws personal correspondence Nola. They are irreplaceable and beyond value. When our family was tracing its roots we were lucky enough to find some correspondence between my 3rd Great (Great-great-great)Grandparents when Daniel took a trip to England (at least a 12 month expedition in those days!) and Elizabeth remained in Australia. It gives us so much insight into their lives and their love for each other. My Gr Gr Gr Grandparents had met on the ship coming to Australia and had married not long after they arrived. Daniel was a Sargent with the British Army and Elizabeth was migrating with her family, originally from France, to the new colony of South Australia. That we can learn so much about them is possible by the care and respect of their correspondence by one of my Grandmother's distant cousins. I have no doubt that future generations of your family will be grateful for your foresight Nola.

Melita

Wow - Nola - what a find!!

Mary

I just wish I'd kept more of the correspondence between my grandparents (in Florida) and my Mom. I do have a shoe box full of letters from them, as well as some from the aunts. It's not really "historical" to me - I kept the letters because I loved my grandparents so much and had so little time with them (I spent 2 1/2 days with them in 1962, and the same again in 1967). They had moved to Florida when I was 4 months old, and I was 16 before I met them. Don't know why - I think there were some hard feelings concerning my Dad (on his part, not their's), and Mom's youngest brother was a trouble-maker - I think he told my grandparents lies about dad and mom - can't prove it but that's what I suspect. Uncle Ed didn't want anyone close to them except himself - for monetary reasons. He'd have bled their bank account dry if Grandpa hadn't caught on to what he was doing.

Anyway, I always felt a huge empty spot in my life because I never really got to know my maternal side of the family - so I saved the letters as something to "hold on to - something to sort of fill that empty spot". Now the entire family is gone, and with my granddaughter's love of family history, I'm sure someday she'll get a big kick out of reading letters from her great-great grandmother to her great-grandmother.

My granddaughter has never seen it, but someday when she's older I'll dig out the pieces of hand-woven linen that her great-great-great grandmother brought with her from Germany back in 1882! She'll get a real charge out of that! I have very little from Mom's side of the family and believe me, I hang on tight to the few things I do have!

Nola

I have to say the finishing the quilt and giving it to a museum would be the way I would go, unless I wanted something that my mother had started. She never did any quilting. All she ever did was clothing that by the time I came around was long gone. but anyway back to you. If you don't want to feel guilty for doing it with out her permission, visit and do it with her there asking her thoughts on what you are doing and maybe ask for her help.


Side note: when my grandmother passed all of my family that live near her took all of her things like vultures. What they deemed for me to have since I was 20th in line for what I wanted and was not living close they gave me some old furniture and a couple of things that they all new that I gave her and wanted back. I never forgave them for taking things that I knew that she wanted me to have.


Well any ways Love the time that you have and do the best you can with out thinking of your niece since she has no claim.

On a visit to an Aunt last year I was talking about my quilting and learned that my Grandmother (who died when I was a child) was a quilter. My aunt told me that after GM died she found several old quilt tops but since she didn't quilt she gave them to the salvation army, argh!!! But she went to a box and found some old scraps and an apron GM made and gave them to me. So at least I have something of hers. The fabric looks like 50s vintage. there is enough to make a table topper or a runner.

Regarding the letters, what a treat. We moved my MIL to assisted living last year and found all the letters she and my FIL wrote while they were courting and she was away at college. What a treasure! I also have all her diaries, although they are more factual then emotional, they are still a peek at the past!

I hope you have found a solution to the quilt dilemna. I agree a "new" quilt to the niece should solve any issues she may have and you can enjoy the quilt your mother started!

Nola, I would really like to visit your upstairs sometimes! Just give me some coffee and let me explore I'll bet I would have a ball.

You lucky duck, 1930's fabric! Wow!

Have Fun!

Betty

Nola, I absolutely believe you did the right thing. I've been so lucky to read old love letters of my parents, and I have to tell you it's sooo very comforting to read of their love for each other. Way to go!

You know, I'm a little slow in getting on the band wagon of the 30's fabrics, but I have to admit I'm in love with them now. What a find that would be to open a box and come across old fabric like that. Do you suppose our grands will be excited to find our scraps! I hope they are............