October 7, 2009

Granny Ida


Granny Ida was born October 11,1900. She lived to be 94 years young....passing on to the sweet side in December of 1994. She was a quilter and crocheter. I have a few pieces of her crochet and will cherish them forever! I also have a quilt that she gave me when I first married in 1978. It is stained but still together because it is made from double knit fabrics. She loved to do applique quilts using those fabrics. They will be here when nothing else is.

Granny had 10 children, one of which died at the age of 3 months. My mother was child #7. My granddaddy died when my mother was 4 and left granny to raise all those children on her own. She never remarried. When her last child left the nest, she was afraid to stay alone so she moved into the house with our family. I grew up under a quilting frame because granny always had a quilt up working on it. She sold many of her quilts to neighbors in the community. I am sure she did not get what they were worth! She also sold many crochet items. I wish I had some of her early works back from these people.

Granny did not like chocolate and did not drink cola. She did like to have a grape or orange Nehi on occassion. But she loved her coffee! Her favorite cake was homemade coconut and her favorite pie was egg custard. From way back I cannot remember granny having any teeth. Most likely due to the fact that they rotted out of her mouth because she dipped Bruton Snuff for many years. She was very clean with it and you could never smell it on her. She never enjoyed french fries because they made her gums sore but she loved her mashed potatoes.

As hard as it might be to imagine granny never drove a car. She never got her license, never wanted to.

Her hero was John Wayne! My sister bought her the entire VHS set of his movies one year for Christmas. Granny thought she had died and gone to heaven already. :)

She loved to play rook, aggravation, and dominoes. She would sit for hours with her grandchildren and play games as long as they would. She was truly a wonderful granny!

She taught me all I know about quilting, along with my dad's mom...Granny Ella. If it weren't for these 2 remarkable ladies, I may have never learned to love quilting the way that I do.

In 4 days we will celebrate grannys birthday even though she is no longer with us. We will celebrate the beautiful memories as we do every day of the year! So, please join in with me and leave this remarkable lady a special message!

8 comments:

Shogun said...

Happy Birthday Ida! Good thing you taught Thearica to quilt! Sounds like you also passed on a love of "family". Ali

Val said...

Happy Birthday to Granny Ida! My Granny is still living and makes a quilt a week. She will be 96 years old this month. You were so blessed to have your Granny while growing up. I cherish every minute with my Granny. I post about her a lot on my blog. I loved hearing about your Granny.

Micki said...

What an incredible lady Granny Ida is! She is a gem, and you are so lucky to have all the wonderful memories about her.
Micki

Anonymous said...

What great you have such fond memories of your grandma.Thank you so much with sharing that with us.
It sounds that Grandma Ida was a grandma like a grandma should be!
It is nice to celebrate her life,she is not forgotten.
It must have been hard for her raising a family on her own after your granddad past away.
She deserves to be honoured and remembered.

JessicaSews said...

How sweet, Thearica
She deserves the honors!
Sweet Blessings to Granny Ida!

RockinBobbin said...

What a great way to honor your granny. My gramps will have passed one yr this Dec and I sure miss him. But like you, I love to recollect all of the special things about him. Thanks for sharing your story!

marsha said...

Many more to come,you have passed aspecieal grift on to your granddaughter. Just reading this made my day. thank you.

jessica miller said...

Happy late B-day Granny Ida!!! I didnt remember or even know some of this stuff about her, I'm glad you post our families stuff on here. Missing you bunches Jessie