My mother, Louise Baumann, was busy at the time raising my sister. My father worked long hours due to the war effort and she worked hard. Her parents were older and needed her help, too. Then I was born, which didn't make life easier, I'm sure.
At any rate, when Mother got older, she took Oma's quilt tops and projects and finished them into keepsake quilts for her five grandchildren. One Christmas, she brought them to the celebration. Each had a number assigned. The grands drew a number from a box and that was the quilt they got. Of course, there was some swapping afterwards.
My daughter's quilt was a Lone Star, although the fabrics were not arranged in the usual fashion. Instead of concentric rings, the fabrics repeated along the edges of the figure.
At some point, my grandson started using that quilt. He used it and used it. Loved it to death, in fact. As he was packing for college, my daughter realized that many of the fabrics were just gone and the batting was showing through. She was mortified. But gave it to me anyhow, with apologies and remorse. Actually, I was pleased to know that it was well used. I arrogantly assumed that I could repair it. But the damage was too much. So I did the next best thing (in my opinion). I found fabrics in my collection and created a new star, using the same pattern. When I finished, I realized that my star was larger, but I decided to use it anyway. I pin-basted it to the quilt base and machine quilted it all the way out to the last seam. Then I tucked under the edges and machine-appliqued that final edge down. I'm hoping that I kept the quilt's spirit of using what was available and making do.
I hope that it continues to be appreciated and loved.
A wonderful story!
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