Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Quilts and Mom



This is a quilt that my mother made for me. I didn't remember it was for me till after she died. She made a quilt for each of her grandchildren and we kept her pretty busy, she made twelve of them and decided to go from baby quilts to larger ones. She was going to make each of us children one (there are 4 of us). She made my sister one and then died in 2001. I was going through her things and thought about the fact that I never did get mine. We were very close, actually she was my best friend and I would have cherished it so. I came upon a quilt that had been finished and had the backing folded with it. I realized the it was one she had done for me. I had forgotten all about it but recalled her saying that she was going to make it for me since I would appreciate the odd colors. It was Amish and my mother always loved Amish things. I was so excited to find it and was telling a lady at church about it. She said she was in a quilting group and they loved mom and would be happy to quilt it for me. My mother did everything by hand, she loved doing all the things that went with quilting. She would cut each piece out with her rotary cutter and then hand sew and iron each piece. Then she would pick out the design she wanted to quilt and she would trace it on there. She quilted so good that a woman told her once that she almost did museum quality and that was 12 stitches to an inch. She won many awards for her quilts. I think of her every time I see or have my quilt on me. The love she quilted into it and then the love that each woman quilted into it as they finished it for me.