Quilt Memories

Great Grandma Larson's Quilt

       There are so many memories attached to the quilts I make and own. The first quilt I had was one that my Great
Grandma pieced and my Grandma machine quilted way back when I was about 12.  They also made a doll size one for me. Whenever I look at the crooked mismatched pieces I can see Grandma and Aunt Hazel sitting in their tiny living room in their side by side chairs. Hazel was pulling scraps from a paper bag and cutting pieces  with scissors which she piled on the end table between them. Hazel couldn't see very well and had a paper template so the pieces were not too precise! Grandma then stitched them together by hand--color didn't seem to matter much. My quilt has pieces from my bathrobe and my cousin Connie's and my Easter dresses, my brothers' flannel pajamas. My Grandma used cotton batting and a white fabric on the back. I have studied textiles, shopped fabric stores for years and sewn forever and I still cannot identify what type of fabric it is. It is just so soft! It is one of my prized possessions and is the one I still choose to snuggle under.
      I always sew with either music playing or a video. I have never had "live TV" in the sewing room. Over time the music has gone from cassette, to CD to Ipod to ITunes on the laptop or Kindle. I still record my favorite shows on VHS and watch them while I sew. I couldn't begin to imagine how many episodes of Regis I've watched while quilting! I have quilts that remind me of a certain Mary Chapin Carpenter CD, or Regis, or Ellen. The ones I am doing now will always be my Doctor Who quilts because I have watched 6 seasons of Doctor Who this winter while sewing! A couple of them remind me of a World Series or playoff game I watched while sewing binding.
      Some quilts remind me of the shopping trips and quilt shops and shows where I got the fabrics or learned a new technique. They remind me of the friends who shopped with me or gave me the fabric scraps. Some of the fabrics even release a scent when they are ironed and I am taken back to a day when a soup or stew or something yummy was cooking.
     When I give a quilt to someone I hope they make their own memories around the quilt and hopefully remember the person who made it with love.