Margaret Hubl passed away last July in Nebraska at the age of 89, but it’s safe to say her legacy […]
Margaret Hubl passed away last July in Nebraska at the age of 89, but it’s safe to say her legacy will continue to live on.
Her children and grandchildren decided to honor their grandma’s love and life long passion by displaying all her quilts over the backs of church pews.
“Never did I imagine how many there were,” Hubl’s granddaughter, Christina Tollman, told TODAY. “We covered almost every single pew in that church. I never knew how many she actually made.”
Hubl spent her life caring for her family. She had three children of her own, and then took in her sister-in-law’s twins after a tragic accident. Hubl and her husband, Henry, raised all five children in a small three-bedroom home on their farm.
Hubl initially started sewing in order to make clothes for her children, but as they grew up and had kids of their own, she had to make those kids something as well.
That’s where the quilts come in. She started making them for each grandchild as they graduated from high school.
“She wanted us to have something to wrap up and keep warm in when we went away to school,” said Tollman.
Hubl really thought about each person who would be receiving the quilts, too.
“When we sat down to go through her things we found this — 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,” explained Tollman.
And as Hubl’s children began to take care of themselves, she began putting more time into the quilts. They became a treasured gift for each grandchild on their wedding day.
Hubl wrote the day that she started each quilt, and the day she finished. The top says, «Put bow tie quilt in Feb. 13- ’99 finished Jan. 2000.» Courtesy Of Christina Tollman
“I actually have three cousins that are not married, and the day of her funeral was the day that they got to see their quilts for the first time,” said Tollman. “That was really kind of a neat moment.”
“This is the love that Grandma made for each of us. This is what she made for each of us to wrap up in when we hurt,” said Tollman. “When we miss her.”