Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012-February

I finally finished my block for the CQJP for February.  I am really, really happy with this one.  I might go back to add more to my January block, but for today and tomorrow on my days off, I need to get busy with my March block.  Down near the big purple flower, I was so happy to receive my order from Gerry, of her hand-painted buttons.  I had always admired these, and was thrilled to be able to add one to this block of my maternal grandparents. 

I  think this one I embellished to the hilt, because they never had anything fancy, living in rural Arkansas in poverty in the 30's and 40's.  Out of eight children, my grandmother had 2 babies die in infancy, one after she had walked numerous miles to take her to the doctor.  Another son was murdered when he was 19 or 20, probably because he just got paid.  My mother was the baby of the family, and her mother died when she was 10.  She was subsequently raised by her older sister, who was 10 years older than my mother.  So I never met this grandmother, and saw my grandfather maybe 3 times in my early childhood.  I would have liked to have known this grandmother Mary Ellen as she was a quilter.  She made them mostly out of flour sacks but she did make quilts.  My mother always was saddened by the fact that her mother never got to make her a quilt, as she did some of her brothers and sisters.