In July 1976 our family moved from sultry Brownsville, Texas to Denver and were staying with my mom and dad in Greeley for a month while looking for a home. I was 30 at the time, had a lovely husband, Stan, and two young children, Jamela, age 11 and John, 17 months.
I was young and full of energy. Stan would compute to Denver each day while I passed the time at my parent’s house on the farm taking care of the kids and waiting to find a house; one that would be perfect for our family.
One thing lead to another during that hot summer month. Pretty soon conversations
with my Mom lead to her favorite hobby – Quilting. She had hundreds of patterns, magazines and booklets about quilting along with pieces of fabric here and there. She had several quilt projects started one of which was the button quilt. This was one of the only quilt projects she finished completely. It was 5 inch squares all hand sewn, then stuffed with a nylon stocking – not the pantie hose type, but the ones you wear with a garter belt. She then hand sewed all these many squares together and tied each one in the center with a button on each side.
I have slept under that quilt. It weighs a ton and will keep you warm on the coldest nights in Alaska. I entered that quilt in an exhibit at the Denver capitol. The quilt was accepted, but was so heavy that they decided to not hang it up as it might have pulled down the molding.
During that July I caught the quilt bug just enough to start my first quilt. These were not the slick, quick quilts that you can whip up in a day. They were the old fashion ones that you spend hours marking fabric, using scissors to cut out pieces from templates, then sew together the small pieces. I moved from the dark ages to sew the pieces by machine, but matching the pattern was tenuous at best.
Well, I finished a few blocks with messy seams that included slightly imperfect matches. The most fun was shopping for fabric. I’m not sure why I picked red as blues and yellows are really my favorite colors. It might have been a centennial thing. 1976 was the Country’s 200th birthday and red white and blue were keen on my mind. 
Red/White Hexagon Started 1976
My Mom, Frances, was a stickler for detail, especially for sewing projects. The pieces had to come together exactly and the back of the block had to be as attractive as the front with no jumbled up seams. I had selected from all the quilt patterns a hexagon in red and white. The six triangles came together to form a hexagon. Each triangle had two parts; one white and one red. One block would have a white center and the next block switched with a red center.
Well, 31 years later, those quilt blocks are still bundled together waiting for someone to face up to the mis-matched patterns and sew them together.
When our family found a house in Lakewood, we packed up our belongings including the quilt blocks and fabric scraps and moved on. Making quilts took a back seat to setting up a new home, soccer practice, music lessons, hiking and camping in the summer and skiing in the winter. As they say life happens.