My mom passed away in 1987. After she died, I was given all of her sewing supplies, fabric, notions and whatnot. My brother got her 1948 Singer sewing machine in its original wooden cabinet because I had nowhere to put it. When I was going through her fabric I found this embroidered quilt top. I have a vague memory that she embroidered this for my daughter.

After I originally received this quilt top, I packed it away and forgot about it. A couple years ago, I was going through some boxes in the basement and found this quilt top again. So I did what any responsible adult would do, I packed it away again. I started quilting two years ago and after seeing a photo of an embroidered quilted top, I remembered the quilt top and finally knew what I wanted to do with it. I went to the basement to the box I thought it was in, and, it wasn’t there. I looked through all my boxes in my basement closet and couldn’t find it. I was devastated and couldn’t understand how it wasn’t there. Did I accidentally throw it away? That thought made me sick. A couple months ago, I was in my “mom cave”, i.e., my sewing room, and I was looking for some fabric in a large bin. I was digging through the bottom of it and omg, there was my quilt top!

I wanted to find out something about this pattern to possibly be able to date it, but as of yet, I can’t find anything. There are similar “Southern Belle Crinoline” patterns by the Bucilla Corporation, dating back to the 1940s and earlier, but none identical to this one.

Trying to find more information about this type of pattern, I googled Bucilla Corporation and found a very interesting article on the Plaid On Line website about the history of the Bucilla Corporation beginning with the fact that “Bucilla” was actually an acronym for the original company, Bernhard Ulmann Company, Incorporated (Lace, Linen, and Accessories). If you’re a history geek like I am, you’ll enjoy this. https://plaidonline.com/blog/august-2016/the-history-of-bucilla

Since that time, I’ve been working on designing the rest of the quilt and I think I’ve finally hit on what I want. After working diligently for a couple months, I completed the quilt a few days ago. I have to say, I am in love with how it turned out. I did a whole lot of free-motion quilting on the top to the point that I think I wore out my $200 Singer sewing machine.

I added the words “Love, Mom” on the bottom imagining that this is what my mother meant when she completed this Labor of Love for my daughter. Now someday, this Labor of Love will pass from me to my daughter and each time she looks at it, I hope she will remember how much I loved her.