Many years ago, in the 1970s, my mom asked “Aunt Ada” to make some quilts for our family.  Ada Flory Lundquist was the second wife of my Great-grandpa Emanuel Lundquist who had first married Grace Honor Bushman, my Great-grandma.

These are two of the quilts that came to our family from Aunt Ada, who made them in her later years.  Ada was born in 1883 in West Virginia and she lived to be 89 years old.  She died in Los Angeles in 1973 when I was in 8th grade.

My bedroom was decorated in lavender with a floral bedspread and matching hand towels.  My mom asked Ada to make a lavender quilt for me.  By the time she made these quilts, her eyesight was poor.  Fabrics were scrappy and didn’t always match and her stitches were uneven and full of character.  But I loved my Aunt Ada Quilt and used it well.

This is another quilt she made for us.  The patches are made from clothing scraps and the binding wraps around to the front.  These old quilts have a lot of charm because they tell stories about the lives of their makers.

Here’s a photo of Aunt Ada at one of our annual “Family Picnics” in southern California.  I’m sitting between my cousins, Cheryl and Debbie Martell, on the right.  Ada had 3 daughters:  Mary, Edna and Vicki and a son named Reed.

Edna, Mary and Vicki with their mother, Ada Flory Lundquist and a quilt she made.

Edna, Mary and Vicki with Aunt Ada