Handkerchief Quilt

Since the 1920s, Patricia Spooner has owned handkerchiefs that were passed down from her grandmother Mabel Long Philips and great-grandmother, Loretta Philips Rogers. These handkerchiefs had been stored and rarely used while in her possession. She decided that a good way to pass them down to her family was to sew them into a quilt. Since quilts are warm and could be used, she figured more of her family members would want them. “Because no one wants just a sack full of handkerchiefs, but if you have a quilt they’ll be wanting it.”

To Patricia, quilts are a visual piece of history. “If you do something with it, and you pass it to someone you know then they get invested in it, in your family history. They get invested in their family history.” This quilt is sewn with a total of 25 blocks, each featuring its own unique handkerchief. She used yellow fabric in between each block and alongside the borders. Though most quilters preserve their quilts and rarely use them, Patricia thinks using quilts makes them more special and looks forward to this quilt being passed down in her family for years to come.