Happy & Historic Quilts
two new quilts: one old & one New
“You have just discovered the latest addition to the Vintage Giggles Quilt collection: Happy and Historic quilts, two new options for your growing quilt obsession. We hope you enjoy the stories.”
how are these quilts different?
The first ever finished quilts for purchase by Vintage Giggles! Here, you’ll find finished quilts, ready for sale, with a story about their creation or history. Happy quilts are simple patchwork quilts that easily and affordably allow you to add the touch of a quilt to any room. Historic quilts are actual vintage quilts that have been mended and finished to a washable and usable state by our team. New quilts will be added as they are available. Enjoy the stories below and let us know what you think!
Granny Smith: a historic quilt
A piece of history with a fictitious story to illustrate it’s glory, this is an old quilt that’s been restored, repaired and finished. If you see the buy me button at the bottom of the page, this quilt is still available for purchse.
This is the first ever Historic Quilt by Vintage Giggles. As you may know, these are quilts that were made many decades ago and then restored and finished by our team. These come with an added treasure, however; each historic quilt that we present to you will have a story that goes with it. This story will be inspired by the quilt itself, and contain elements of historical accuracy, but the story itself will be fiction. For that reason, we call this it’s Hollywood Story.
And now, we present to you “Granny Smith.”
Straight from the northern Appalachian Mountains, this quilt holds the charm of our grandmothers, or great grandmothers and the things they enjoyed best.
Upon waking before the sunrise each morning, Granny would wash her face and pin back her thin white hair in a tiny bun, seemingly containing more bobby pins than strands of hair. Next, she'd walk to the kitchen and wrap her worn out apron around her waist and secure it with a limp bow tied in the back. It was once puffy and stiff, but after years of baking, it now hangs delicately with some frayed edges where the stitches have pulled out and the fabric is unraveling.
It has a divided pocked in the front that’s slightly gathered as to expand when it needs to hold more.
After sitting for a cup of tea in the quiet dark kitchen, the sunlight is just starting to fill the handmade curtains above her kitchen sink.
"Those ladies must be getting fiesty," she mumbles to herself, as she slips on her oversized and permanently creased leather boots. Time to let the chickens out and gather the eggs. She usually can count on six, just enough for a pie, a batch of biscuits and two more to cook in the cast iron for breakfast.
On her way back to the kitchen, she notices the morning dew awakening the sweet fragrance of her basil as she passes. She pauses, pulls her snippers from her apron pocket and snips a few large sized leaves. That will be a nice touch to the eggs, she thinks.
After carefully emptying the eggs into her wire basket and placing the basil in a damp cloth for later, she places two bowls on her countertop. Time to make apple pie.
The orchard down the road just put out the season's first picking of yellowish green skinned Granny Smiths. Those are her favorite to bake with, well second to rhubarb, because the tartness allows for a little extra sugar, and who doesn't like a little extra sugar?
Once the pie goes in the oven, that gives her just enough time to make the biscuits and eggs for breakfast. This is her daily cadence. She doesn’t have to think about the recipe, cooking times or ingredients. She hums softly as she wipes the counters clean and prepares to
sit for breakfast.
With a satisfied appetite, she changes her nearly worn thin apron for a heavier duty one. This one has dirt ground into the seams and is sun bleached on the top. This is her gardening apron, and if you don't find Granny in the kitchen, you’ll find her in her rose garden.
She happily snips and prunes, plucking off what is no longer growing, and pulling out any uninvited weeds that have pushed their way in since the day before. The hairs from her bun are starting to fall and frame her jawline, but she’s not bothered. She's busy talking to the birds and noticing one or two new songs from foreign birds passing through. Her basket is near full as she gathers the best cuts to garnish her friend's table later this afternoon for the weekly ladies lunch and bridge gathering.
You'll find the colors in this quilt faded and the threads a little worn. Allow the colors to illustrate the vision of a happy Granny humming and going through her quiet morning routine. She takes joy in the simple things that she sees. The corners of her kitchen have some eternal flour pressed into them, but her life is simple, and she is happy.
Use this quilt as a centerpiece for your kitchen table, or as a companion to keep you warm as you fly across the county to visit family. Welcome a new generation and give this to a newborn baby as if to carry on the simple joys and traditions of former generations. Or, simply drape it over the back of your reading chair because it makes you happy.
Quilt Size: 31” x 30”
Price: $140
The Lemon Seed: The First Happy Quilt
Announcing the newest way to buy a Vintage GIggles quilt when you want one, but life hasn’t handed you enough reason yet. Read here to find out how this quilt came about and when it will be available for purchase!
This quilt, and the whole concept actually, was born out of an unfortunate situation. Until now, every quilt we’ve made has been custom ordered by a client who was most likely personally recommended by a friend or family member who previously had a quilt made. We like our bubble and the amazing people that we have had the opportunity to create for.
In order to keep a business fresh and thriving however, new things must be attempted. Listing our little company on Google, outside of our comfy little circle, was one of those recent changes. Sure enough, very soon afterwards, something scary happened.
We received a request from someone not very familiar with our company or our work, to purchase a quilt that was pictured on our website. After explaining that all of our work is custom made and even though that quilt is not for sale, we offered to re-create something similar to the quilt in the picture. They accepted.
We explained the process, and upon discussing some general design options, we began gathering fabrics to create the quilt and confirmed with an image of the material for their approval. Great, again they accepted. Something still felt off, and due to the unusual nature of this purchase, (combined with our fear of going outside of our bubble), we requested payment upfront, as a precaution. (Do you know those little nudges you feel in the pit of your stomach? This was one of those.)
The customer, happily willing to pay, became more and more eager for the total and became insistent that payment needed to be made today, against any prompting from us. They’d be paying through Zelle, they said. Again, a little unusual, but acceptable. (That stomach pit began growing more and more evident that something was off.)
When the text came through that they had made the payment, but we had received no confirmation on our end, we were then sent a text with a phone number to call in order to release the funds. Never before having to do this to receive a payment, we explained that this was outside of normal business practices and if they would like to continue with this quilt, a different form of payment must be made.
That was the last we ever heard from them. Luckily, that stomach pit protected us from what could have been a tragic situation, but the most devastating part to our team is that we had gathered the material to design a full sized quilt in really fun colors to match the customer’s request, and now we had to walk away from that design.
Not being able to bring ourselves to sort and reshelf the fabric pieces that we had collected for this fun quilt, we decided to poll our Instagram family and ask if premade quilts were of any interest to them. Boy did they speak!! They let us know that they need ALL THE QUILTS and would love the option to buy a Vintage Giggles quilt, without having to send in personal items, as is the case for all other quilts that we make. (I knew we could be friends!!)
So, we put our heads together to figure out how we could make this happen and what would be the purpose. We decided that we design some “new” quilts and repair some old ones to share with you, because you all are our people, and we love you.
Enter stage right, The Happy Quilt and the Historic Quilt. This Lemon Seed quilt is the first official Happy Quilt, and Historical quilt restorations are already underway!
We call this first Happy Quilt “Lemon Seeds” because it came from what would have otherwise been a disappointing situation. Instead, we gave it some thought and turned it into something that we hope you all will enjoy! It would make us so joyful to know that this is the start of something wonderful that many can benefit from!
You’ll see the classic and cheerful colors on the front of this quilt, paired with little tiny budding potted plants on the back. In our mind, those are little lemon trees. The trim of this quilt, of course, is yellow to symbolize happy sunshine that makes everything better!
Thank goodness we never did put those fabrics away.
QUILT SIZE: 80” x 85” (just shy of a full size)
PRICE: $360 (plus shipping and taxes, if applicable)
This quilt will be live for purchase to the first person to click on the “BUY ME” link below which will be located below and active on Monday, April 14, 2025 at 8:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time. All future quilts will be announced in advance and live for purchase as soon as they are posted. This one is the exception, as it is the first.