The "Tillie" Doll

I have been working on a Munie Family project lately. Gathering memories, recipes, ancestry information, etc. It has been a lot a fun and besides I truly enjoy doing those type of projects.

One of my memories from my Grandma Munie was how she created these beautiful quilts. I remember how most often we would stop in for a visit and grandma would always have her quilting stands out with a quilt stretched across the room. You see she was known for the final touches a lot of times. She would be the one who would apply the points (the finishing piece or ends of the quilts).

Grandma would also cross stitch pillowcases which is where I think I learned how to cross stitch even before my girl scout days. When I married Greg she gave me pillowcases as a wedding shower gift which I still have today, 22 years later (she also gave us a salad bowl - which we still have and use today, some things never go out of style!). For our wedding present Grandma stitched on her own, my very own quilt. She asked me to pick my color. Well I went with a Aqua Blue to match our bedroom at the time and unfortunately that color didn't last long but the good news is that one side is white. My quilt is now tucked away in my cedar chest which one day will be passed down to my daughter.

My Aunt Pat has a tremendous talent of creating doll clothes. Several years ago she came up with the Tillie doll concept. The Tillie doll (named after Grandma Munie) was created out of the pillowcases Grandma stitched years ago. I quickly put in my request and in turn I got a Tillie doll. Luckily my Mom (thanks Mom) had a pillowcase from Grandma for Aunt Pat to create some Tillie magic.

I don't know if you can see this in the photo but the pillowcase Mom had, had the word "HERS" stitched into it. Yes, back then you had things like that, HIS and HERS items. The lace at the bottom is a unique hand stitch my Grandma could produce. I can't think of the name of it but from what I can remember there wasn't that many women who could replicate it.

Thanks Grandma for all of the beautiful quilts, handkerchiefs, pillowcases, etc., that you created for us and thank you too Aunt Pat for preserving Grandma's memories into a priceless heirloom.