Wednesday, April 23, 2008




Mom's day...
Mom made this very cool quilt and I just finished quilting it for her. She got the pattern from Bonnie's Amazing Quiltville. My girls had a great time pointing out all the fabrics that they recognized. I remember doing that with quilts when I was a little girl. Fun to see all the little bits and peices from our lives joined together into one big beautiful scene. I remember a wool quilt my Grandma made... and my Mom liked to point out the wool pieces that came from her coat- the same coat she was wearing when she was struck by a car and stuck in bed for months. That was certainly a memorable moment and it is commemorated in a quilt... My Grandma liked to tell stories and she liked to quilt- they kind of go together, don't they? How often have you made a quilt and not had a story to tell about it? Either the quilt, or the circumstances that led to it's creation, or the folks for whom it was made...See? Stories and quilts go hand in hand.
True, for some odd reason, perhaps my mother or Aunt Isobel could shed some light on it, my Grandma liked to tell.. well, rather morbid stories. But that's what made them memorable. I must be a lot like her, because I still love those stories and have even added a few of my own. I didn't think they were morbid when I was a child- weird how things like that don't occur to a person until they get older. I know my daughters absolutely love to hear the stories she told me- the "real life" stories. And I suppose that the most memorable ones are those she shared when we'd visit the cemetary on Memorial Day, so why wouldn't they be morbid? It's kind of fun to be treated like an adult and let in on some of the shocking mysteries of life. Like the one about that baby whose head swelled as "big as a pillow." He turned blue and died. Or the little girl who was prissy and vain and liked to pin paper bows on her dress and one day she got too close to the fire... well, she survived, but could never have children... Now it's been said that I don't remember things exactly accurately, but I say that I remember them as an 8 year old would- and I can vouch for it, the little mind is often a strange and skewed place. Yeah, well the big mind can be too, huh?

2 comments:

Darcie said...

lol You're funny! So this is what the wind blew in?! ;-)

Doesn't matter how you like your stories -- strange and skewed or otherwise -- I love you to pieces!

Love the quilt...and the quilting is perfect!!!

Pamela (Peni) Teel said...

Great job as usual, sweetheart. The more I look at it the more I like those strip twist lines. And I had completely forgotten about the 16-patch in the upper corner...when I miscount I just improvise. Likely found the two pieces I needed uder the bed when the borders were all sewn:)

As for Grandma's stories...she lived a lot of sad ones herself - a 'blue baby,' babies lost to diptheria and typhoid fever, one burned...shiver. But didn't she know how to laugh, too! And make biscuits and raise fine upright citizens.

Mom always told me the stories of the little ones - every child gone too soone was everyone's loss, I think.

Glad you have those tombstone memories, though, aren't you?