Next-gen Crafty

Because I've been working with a collection of 1930s reproduction quilting fabrics, I've been thinking about the way quilters build history one tiny stitch at a time. The quilts my grandmother and great-grandmother made speak to the eras they lived through - times of prosperity and times when 'making do' became a national motto.  But whether the times were lean or filled with plenty, they quilted.

They were creative on so many levels.  They stitched together scraps into textile art.  Beauty was born of resourcefulness.  Utility quilts made simply for the luxury of warmth were embroidered with stitch-encyclopedia profusion.  The mother passed her craft and her scraps to her daughter...who did likewise, and now we are six generations, mother to daughter, where imagination is passed as an inheritance. 

And yet, for reasons I haven't really looked at all that closely, until just very recently, I hadn't connected myself with the senior ranks.  Possibly because they are all gone. Possibly because I haven't grown up yet and have no immediate plans to do that.
But.  It now occurs to me that I am the quilting grammie.  The one who makes the 'blankies' that get cuddled and snuggled and worn through until the batting shows. 

C'est moi.  Wow.

In some crazy miracle of genetics, the Crafty Gene continues to be not just passed along but expanded as it goes. The Girls of Clan Cozy work with fiber, but they don't just quilt. They sew, knit and crochet. They write, paint and work with photography. They dance.  They play music.  So to commemorate, today's gratuitous cute features next-gen Cozy, the Grandgirls. It's in-gene-uity in action. The Force is with us!

And they like hats.  Is there a Hat Gene?