Family Quilt Finished 80 Years Later
Originally published by The Salinas Californian.
Patrecia Bollin is 81 years old. When her mother, Alice Huxtable, was pregnant with her in 1934, she started making a "Girls on Swings" quilt. She finished all the blocks but never finished the quilt. Bollin, who inherited the blocks after her mother's passing, has been carrying them with her ever since. The blocks came with her through several moves as she and her husband relocated for his job. When they finally settled in Salinas, California, Bollin decided to do something with the blocks.
Bollin approached Active Seniors Inc., a group of quilters who work on group projects that are often requests from the community. The quilters promised to finish the quilt Bollin's mother had started over 80 years ago.
The quilt took an entire year to finish. The group decided to stay true to the original quilting style of the time, and hand stitched the quilt. Bollin provided 72 of her mother's hand-appliqued and hand-embroidered blocks that depict a girl wearing a dress and sunbonnet swinging on a wooden swing. The ladies at Active Seniors Inc. created a design that showcased the blocks and echoed the swinging girls in their hand-quilting details.. A year later, they presented it to Bollin, who plans to pass the quilt down to her daughter.
