Lyr Req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Mar 18 - 01:31 PM

theres a patch or two taken from that gown of blue that momma wore when she and dad were sweathearts

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Crowhugger
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 11:06 PM

Quilting on the decline? Like singingquilter I wouldn't think so. It goes through a so-called revival during every economic downturn and every time "nesting" becomes fashionable again.
    Lots of people quilt bed coverings, clothing and other household articles. Some use traditional patterns, some follow their own creative designs (that's what I tend to do). Some putter on their own, others belong to a guild; some make them by hand, others by machine and yet others do both. Some buy new cloth, some collect old cloth and/or garments, some exclusively use clothing scraps and only use yard goods for the backings, but most of us are textile whores, we'll get a piece anywhere we can!
Most of our spouses suffer from our constant battle with cloth acquisition syndrome.
    In whatever form, the art and craft is alive and flourishing. While regular fabric stores are (at best) consolidating their locations, quilt fabric specialists are holding their own. They were the first fabric folks to market and sell online and still seem to have a better internet presence than mainstream fabric stores.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: singingquilter
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 06:19 PM

These are all great suggestions! I've recorded "The Patchwork Quilt" by Natalie Whitted Price on one of my 5 cds on the subject of quilting. I can assure you, quilting is alive and well, and if it is on the decline, it is declining from its very recent Golden Years. It's estimated there are about 22 million quilters in the USA alone!

Subject: Lyr Add: ON MY GRANDMA'S PATCHWORK QUILT
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 09:38 PM

David H. B. Drake sings Larry Penn's song ON MY GRANDMA'S PATCHWORK QUILT on his album "Pot Luck," and the following lyrics and chords come from his web site.

ON MY GRANDMA'S PATCHWORK QUILT
(Larry Penn)

1. On my grandma's patchwork quilt,
Squares of corduroy and silk,
Red and green and blue, and yellow too,
On my grandma's patchwork quilt.

2. It was a patchwork quilt so fine,
Just an art of her design,
A piece of sister's dress next to grandpa's vest,
On my grandma's patchwork quilt. CHORUS

3. Got a pillow for my head,
And it wants to be my friend,
But nothing keeps me warm in a big snowstorm
Like my grandma's patchwork quilt. CHORUS

4. Around the world people wait
For a day when there's no hate,
And we treat each one like my grandma done
On her crazy patchwork quilt. CHORUS

5. Now my grandma's gone to rest,
And her quilt is all that's left,
But her love, I swear, it's in every square
Of my grandma's patchwork quilt. CHORUS

[Larry Penn sings ON GRANDMA'S PATCHWORK QUILT on the various-artists album "Grandma's Patchwork Quilt: A Children's Sampler" (American Melody CD 4103, 2003).

[When my son was little, I had a cassette of this album, and the above lyrics are pretty close to what I remember, but I think it was "thunderstorm" instead of "big snowstorm." I think "thunderstorm" scans better.--JD]

---

            D                  A7
  1. On my grandma's patchwork quilt,
              A7           D
  Squares of corduroy and silk,
            D                  G
  Red and green and blue, and yellow too,
          A7                  D
  On my grandma's patchwork quilt.

Subject: RE: lyr req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: JennieG
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 11:28 PM

Laurel, that's lovely, I had forgotten it! Jim, quilting is still alive and well, at least in the circles I move in - my son's girlfriend has recently taken it up too. She came to a couple of quilt shops with me when we visited (they live in Toronto, Canada) and was gobsmacked by the fabrics; she has been sewing since she was a child but hadn't seen quilts. It's lovely that you still have some of your mother's quilts, treasure them as family heirlooms. In the late 19-early 20th centuries, as ordinary people became a little more affluent (before the 1920s-30s depression) anything "home made" was looked down upon....clothing, quilts, furniture. Now things have come in a circle and hand-made is becoming more valued, as people appreciate the time taken and the skills used. I have made many quilts for friends as their babies are born.

You should see my fabric stash....repeat after me, I have an obscene amount of fabric and I don't need any more.......I have an obscene amount of fabric etc.......

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: lyr req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: open mike
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 11:20 PM

also Dolly PARTON has a song called coat of many colors...

also there is a story about how certain quilts were a symbol of the
underground rail road helping slaves find safe haven.

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/abolitionist.htm

Subject: Lyr Add: WATER FROM ANOTHER TIME (John McCutcheon)
From: open mike
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 10:55 PM

Here is John McCutcheon's take on quilts:


WATER FROM ANOTHER TIME
words and music by John McCutcheon

New mown hay on a July morn
Grandkids running through the knee-high corn
Sunburned nose and a scabbed-up knee
From a rope on the white oak tree
Just another summer's day at Grandpa's farm
With Grandma's bucket hanging off my arm
You know, the old pump's rusty but it work fine
Primed with water from another time

CHORUS: It don't take much, but you gotta have some
The old ways help the new ways come
Just leave a little extra for the next in line
They're gonna need a little water from another time

Tattered quilt on the goose-down bed
"Every stitch tells a story," my Grandma said
Her mama's nightgown, her grandpa's pants
And the dress she wore to her high school dance
Now wrapped at night in its patchwork scenes
I waltz with Grandma in my dreams
My arms, my heart, my life entwined
With water from another time

Chorus

Newborn cry in the morning air
The past & future are wedded there
This wellspring of my sons and daughters:
The bone and blood of living waters
And, though Grandpa's hand have gone to dust,
Like Grandma's pump: reduced to rust,
Their stories quench my soul and mind
Like water from another time

Chorus

Subject: RE: lyr req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 08:47 PM

JennieG: Thanks for your comments about quilts. I didn't know there had been a revival; I assumed the tradition was fairly continuous, although obviously in decline now.

My mother used to make quilts. I don't know when she began, but she was born in 1913. She grew up in a large farm family, and different kids developed different skills, depending on what was needed. Some of the girls were taught to cook; my mother was taught to sew. I remember one of my aunts complaining that she had been given the task of taking care of the animals, and consequently didn't learn anything that was useful in her later life! (She moved to the city when she was old enough to leave home.)

My mother made several shirts for me when I was a kid. She also made dresses for herself and her sisters who lived nearby. Quilt-making was a way of using up scraps of fabric that were left over from other projects. Also, shirts that I had outgrown were recycled into quilt material—if they weren't given away as hand-me-downs to my cousins.

I have several quilts that my mother made, and I can recognize some material in them from some shirts that I wore as a kid.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE PRETTY LITTLE PATCHWORK QUILT
From: JennieG
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 06:48 PM

Jim, the National Library obviously has the same sheet music that I have.

THE PRETTY LITTLE PATCHWORK QUILT
by Box, Cox, Roberts and Butler
Published by J. Albert & Son Pty Ltd, King Street Sydney, And The World Wide Music Co. Ltd., London. Authorised for sale only in Australia and New Zealand. 1938

Many years ago when Grandma was a girl of sweet sixteen
She began to make the sweetest patchwork quilt you've ever seen
All the years that followed after saw her pretty pattern grow
Ev'ry piece of silk and lace recalling days of long ago.

CHORUS:
In the patchwork quilt that Grandma made
There's velvet, silk, and rich brocade
Ev'ry night on the bed it's laid
The pretty little patchwork quilt
There's a patch of red, a patch of blue,
A touch of black for Grandpa too
Souvenirs of a love so true
In the pretty little patchwork quilt

When twilight is falling how tenderly her hands caress
A fragment of satin that was taken from her wedding dress

Now the patchwork quilt is old and frayed
But ev'ry patch that Grandma made
Brings a dream that will never fade
From the pretty little patchwork quilt.

In the 1930s there was a 'quilt revival', and the quilts that had previously been regarded as old-fashioned became popular again, as did quilt making - this might explain the copyright dates on several of the songs. The depression of the 1920s-30s also had a lot to do with the revival as many people couldn't afford store-bought blankets. I have several books on quilt history and they are unanimous on this.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: lyr req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 09:56 AM

Here are descriptions of a few more songs. I don't have any further information about them:


From the National Library of Australia:

THE PRETTY LITTLE PATCHWORK QUILT
Words and music by E[lton] Box, D[esmond] Cox, Roberts & [Ralph] Butler
"Featured by Jim Davidson's Dandies with Alice Smith"
Sydney: J. Albert & Son, 1938.


From the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University:

MOTHER'S CRAZY QUILT.
Words and music by Con Conrad, Ben Oakland, Milton Drake.
New York: M. Witmark & Sons, 1934
Ruth Etting, performer.
FIRST LINE: "Go to sleep my baby, Dry your baby tears," That's how mother sang her lullaby.

PATCHES (IN AN OLD FASHIONED QUILT)
Words and music by Bobbie Kuhn, Sylvia Clark, Ruth Frank.
Chicago: M. M. Cole Publishing Co., 1941.
FIRST LINE: Of all the relics I've acquired the one I love the best, nestles in the attic in an old family chest.


From WorldCat.org:

THE PATCHWORK QUILT
Words & music by Natalie Whitted Price
Chicago: Clayton F. Summy Co., 1913.

QUAINT OLD QUILT
Words, Greta Young. Music, Henrietta Bodycombe.
New York: M. Keane, 1938.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE QUILT THAT MY GRANDMOTHER MADE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 11:46 PM

From the Library of Congress American Memory Collection:

THE QUILT THAT MY GRANDMOTHER MADE
Words, Arthur W. French. Music, T. B. Kelley.
New York: Spear & Dehnhoff, 1879.

1. I've a curious relic of years long ago,
And no jewel to me has its worth.
'Tis a quilt that my grandmother made and I know
It's the oddest and quaintest on earth.
From her children to children it was handed down.
'Neath its warm folds they all have been laid.
Now descended to me, I will give it renown
As the quilt that my grandmother made.

CHORUS: My grandmother's quilt, my grandmother's quilt,
All the modern ones casts in the shade.
Oh, I think you would smile at the size and the style
Of the quilt that my grandmother made.

2. I have heard how the old lady often has said
That its patches were work of long years.
With the pieces by hundreds, and figures—no head
Could count up every one that appears;
And no rainbow could equal its colors in hue.
It has flowers and vines interlaid.
For the girls nowadays 'twould be something to do,
Such a quilt as my grandmother made.

3. It's been made many years, yet it does not wear out,
And its colors are bright as when new.
You may turn and may twist it around and about.
It is something that holds fast and true.
When I look at the labor on it has been pass'd,
Then this lesson to me is portrayed:
It is little by little that builds so to last,
Like the quilt that my grandmother made.

Subject: Lyr Add: GRAND-MOTHER'S PATCHWORK QUILT
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 11:43 PM

From the Library of Congress American Memory Collection:

GRAND-MOTHER'S PATCHWORK QUILT
"As sung by Thatcher, Primrose & West, Minstrel"
by Fred Eversmann, Jr.
Baltimore: George Willig & Co., 1883.

1. She sat in the old arm chair and sewed a dainty quilt.
An old and checkered beauty was that dear little patchwork quilt.
She christened the bright patches. she gave them our surnames.
The children gathered around her and felt proudly of their names.

CHORUS: We prize with secret pleasure
That little dainty checkered quilt,
And ever, ever dear as a family treasure
Is this grandmother's patchwork quilt.

2. To sew that patchwork quilt was a pleasure, not a duty,
For when it was completed, it proved to be a checkered beauty.
Though years since then have passed, time has not changed that quilt.
Bright are the rainbow colors of our grandmother's patchwork quilt.

Subject: RE: lyr req: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 03:45 AM

"On My Grandma's Patchwork Quilt" is on the Larry Penn album called Still Feels Like Rollin': Songs About Trucks and Trains, available from Smithsonian Global Sound, Amazon, emusic, and the other usual MP3 download sites.
I'd download and transcribe it, but I used up all my emusic downloads until April 7.

That may not be the song Les requested back in 2002, but I think we ought to post the Larry Penn song PLUS the one requested.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 02:58 AM

JR


Thought I would find you in the Quilt section ! All good stuff

AD

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 10:48 PM

Larry Penn, "Grandma's Patchwork Quilt," has been included in Macmillan/McGraw-Hill's "Reading and Language Arts in 1993."

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: JennieG
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 10:24 PM

Found it - copyright date is MCMXXXVIII, or 1938 in new money.

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: JennieG
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 10:11 PM

The one I have is "The Pretty Little Patchwork Quilt" - I know it's there - it's in A Very Safe Place.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 08:52 PM

This is definitely old friend Larry Penn's song. Song title is the same as the title of this thread. Larry is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin--USA. He's a retired truck/lorry driver,

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: JennieG
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 06:02 PM

I have a copy of the sheet music of this song, when I have a chance I will look for it. Guest Les from Oz, if you join Mudcat as a regular member (dead simple - follow the links above) I can send you a PM with the details.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 12:10 PM

I know this is a very old thread, but I happened to be looking for this song and came across it. The title is The Pretty Little Patchwork Quilt

Author:
Words and music - Box, Cox, Roberts and Butler
Publisher:
Chappell & Co. Ltd. London

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: GUEST,Guest Les from Oz
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 02:22 AM

Some of the words I remember are:

There's a patch of red, a patch of blue,
a patch black for grandpa too,
they had woven dreams of a love so true
in the pretty little patchwork quilt.

Now the patchwork quilt is old and frayed,
but every night on the bed it's laid,
the pretty little patchwork quilt.
A patch of silk that was taken from a wedding dress.

Les from Oz

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 12:48 AM

"Grandma's Patchwork Quilt is a children's song by Larry Penn. (First iten I hit on Google) He has another? version, On My Grandma's Patchwork Quilt. It is in current copyrighted cds, and the lyrics may not yet be on Google.

Subject: RE: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 12:04 AM

Les, you have offered two possible titles. "Grandma's Patchwork Quilt" and "The Patchwork Quilt that Grandma Made". Which is correct, and do you have any lyric snippets at all? That would help a lot.

Subject: Grandma's Patchwork Quilt
From: GUEST,Les from Oz
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 11:36 PM

Lyrics please - "The Patchwork Quilt That Grandma Made"