Family Paid Tribute to Their Grandmother by Displaying Quilts She Sewed at Her Funeral

(Illustration - Shutterstock)

When grandmother and quilter extraordinaire Margaret Hubl passed away at the age of 89 in Nebraska, her family believed that the only way they could pay tribute to her was by showcasing the quilts she sewed at her funeral service.

For Margaret’s family members, who were the recipients of these incredibly colorful and beautiful labors of love, her presence was there in the form of the quilts. “This is the love that Grandma made for each of us,” granddaughter Christina Tollman told TODAY. “This is what she made for each of us to wrap up in when we hurt.”

However, quilting was just one part of her life as a mother and grandmother.

In addition to raising three of her own children, she also took care of her sister-in-law’s twins after she passed away in a tragic accident. With five kids in a fairly small three-bedroom house on their farm, Hubl found time in between cooking, cleaning, and caring to sew clothes for her children.

Illustration - Shutterstock | Mary Terriberry

Later, she moved on to quilting once the five kids she had raised started to have their own kids. Each grandchild had a specially designed quilt made for them right on time when they completed high school. As Tollman explained, “She wanted us to have something to wrap up and keep warm in when we went away to school.”

When Hubl passed away in July 2016, the extent of her work became visible at the funeral service. Some members of the family even got to see quilts that were destined for them on their wedding days. “I actually have three cousins that are not married,” Tollman said, “and the day of her funeral was the day that they got to see their quilts for the first time.”

In addition to realizing just how many quilts there were, Tollman also found a small notebook while she went through her grandma’s things; this gave some insight into the way her grandmother worked. “When we sat down to go through her things we found—I call it a pocket notebook. Inside it says whose quilt she was working on, what day she put it in the quilt frame and which day she took it out.”

At her funeral service, Tollman said: “We covered almost every single pew in that church.”

After the incredible sight of a church full of quilts during the funeral, each member of the family will have something to physically hold on to “when we miss her,” as granddaughter Tollman put it.

While quilting has often been a family art, a group of quilters did something special for veterans just like what Margaret did for her loved ones. The Quilters in the Valley Quilt Guild of Ellensburg, Washington, banded together one weekend to make over 25 quilts for former servicemen and women in February 2020. The guild had the special privilege of gifting one to a World War II veteran.

Kathy Cruse, the chair of the guild, told KIMA, “Every veteran is going to say ‘I’m not worthy ma'am, I was just doing my job.’” However, for Cruse and the 50 volunteers who worked around the clock to make the quilts, “we know differently, we need to thank them.”