A Lifelong Love...

It was my mother who instilled in me a lifelong love of sewing. I have a very early memory of being sick in bed when my mother assembled a little embroidery kit for me to occupy my mind and hands while I was recovering. She showed me how to hoop the fabric and a few basic stitches; I was off and running. On this particular occasion I managed to stitch straight through the project and the bed sheet. I learned how to un-sew that day too! I also remember her cutting out doll clothes for me to sew on her machine. When I was in Jr. High I came one day home raving about the Singer Golden Touch & Sew that we used in the Home Ec. lab. A machine like that was an extravagance back in 1965; but, after getting the "go-ahead" from Dad, Mom and I drove to the Singer store in Bradford, MA and she bought one! I was able to sit and teach her all that I'd learned about that machine in school. I don't remember what we had for a machine before that day, but I do believe whatever it was she traded it in for that Golden Touch & Sew! She made a LOT of clothes, for both me and my sister, back in those days. She was also a whiz at re-making clothes! (Something I've never been interested in doing!) Mom would buy a dress and change the collar, add pockets, alter the sleeves; she always had great vision that way. When I started quilting, in 1983, I introduced Mom to all that the quilting world could offer! As a young bride in the early 50's making quilts wasn't nearly as exciting as buying a new bedspread or blankets. The rest is history. She was hooked on quilting from that time on and for the rest of her life! We had SEW many adventures together visiting quilt shops, taking classes, buying fabric, planning projects, the list goes on and on...

I began teaching a beginner quiltmaking class back in the late 1980's at a local quilt shop. This was that projectꜛ, the "Milky Way Star".  For an interested beginner just starting out, it covered everything that a new quiltmaker would need to know: constructing blocks from squares, half square triangles, applique with both inside and outside points, setting, mitering pieced borders, quilting, binding you name it. This piece finishes 40" square and is large enough to be useful but small enough to actually complete. Mom was my guinea pig. She made numerous quilts from this one design. In fact, my Mom lost a dear friend earlier last year. She and Dad went to visit her in the hospital in her final days. Mom placed one of her Milky Way quilts over her friend, Bonnie, in a final gesture of love. Back in December, Bonnie's daughter brought that very same quilt back to the same hospital and laid it over my mother, it was on Mom's bed when we arrived at her bedside for our final good-byes. Full circle. We folded that quilt up and brought it home with us. I told Dad to ask Bonnie's daughter if she'd like it back, that was Mom's wish, after all. He will do that, it's on the back of  Mom's chair at home right now. Thanks for indulging me in this lengthy post as I pull together these memories that Mom and I had together. We shared so many things, but this lifelong love of sewing and quilting is paramount, and all the more precious to me today. 

Thanks, Mom!

   Life is Good!