Quilts with stories....

Here is my entry into the You Can Quilt This on what quilting means to me...the 2nd quilt is the one I was talking about from the lady who had recently passed away. The quilt on the top is another garage sale find but without the cool story.

I will get pics of the girls quilts that I made if I can tear them away from them-they are pretty possessive and get concerned if I take them out of their rooms, don't know what they think I will do with them but it surely means they love them.

What does quilting mean to me? I have made quilts but my favorites are when my girls were babies I created quilts that were just for them-white background with red stitched nursery rhyme blocks for my oldest and for my youngest a 9 block quilt with giant felt geometric shapes each worked into a picture-the favorite one of hers is the one with two girls holding hands (representing her and her sister) but really it was about sitting and hand stitching, working on these day after day and then seeing the grubby little hands squishy and petting them when they were done, being dragged all over the house picking up dust bunnies on the floor along the way.

My fave quilt memory though it not one of the ones above but of meeting an older gentleman at a garage sale I just swung by on my way to an errand-only $5 in my hand I spy a quilt and knowing that it is going to cost more I just want to look at it-the obvious memories the weight of it in my arms, the patches from clothing that I recognize as 70s vintage and those that I don’t it is huge easily king size….the man comes over to me with his rheumy eyes slightly watering… his wife had just recently passed and he was selling things so he could move. He eyed me with this quilt in my hands showing obvious love for the maker and said ‘my wife made that, I can remember her working on it and cutting out some clothes of mine, hers and our kids’ I said it is beautiful and I hope it goes to someone who can love it just as much then put it down moving on to some cute owl trinkets on the table. He then picks it up and says ‘if you promise to use it I want you to have it I think my wife would have liked that’ as I try not to dissolve into tears I say I don’t have the money that this is worth and I think it would be better if you could get money for it….he said ‘take it and promise’ and I did but I still bought all that I could with my $5. I said thanks it will always be loved and cared for and drove off on my errand. To this day I have told my girls that story. We have together patched and mended the riips and tears as the older fabric squares wear from daily use. Inside we found a heavy hand knitted blanket instead of batting and it peeks out at us when there are holes. It is sitting here beside me now on the couch after having been dragged through the dust bunnies on the floor by my youngest preparing to watch a movie but it has also done time as a tent, picnic blanket, covered us when we were sick and snuggled us when it was cold….I think his wife would be smiling!

Quilts are meant to be used and softened by love.