Waves

I started this blog with the idea of telling "my story" chronologically, but my quilts aren't made chronologically... they are made in waves.  For example, I remember learning to hand piece from my mother when I was 14 years old--1989 ish? My mom helped me piece this block.

It got tossed aside and forgotten about until I was married and expecting a baby several years later in 1996. In the middle of nesting and feeling very much the stay at home wife/soon to be mom/crafter,  I pulled it out and brought it up to my mother, asking about the brown floral fabric thinking to make some more blocks for a sampler. 

It was gone of course. She thought maybe it was given to my grandmother? whom she was teaching to quilt during the years I was in college, getting married and getting pregnant. I moved on and made some other quilts but those stories are for other posts...

The block came up again when my grandmother passed away a few years later in 2002--my mom found the brown fabric in my Grandma's stash and gave it back to me remembering I had asked for it before.  There wasn't a lot left of it but, I was able to use it as the inner border for this quilt which I finished machine quilting in 2004.  My very first block became the label. So it took 15 years, but it landed in a quilt- finally!

 

The brown floral border was exactly the soft brown I wanted to make all the star points pop and it adds sentimentality to the quilt because that fabric was at one time owned and used by my mother and my grandmother.  It is the only quilt I have made for myself so far and, it still lays at the end of my bed. It is my favorite nap quilt.

I love it when hanging on to a project (or partial project) ends up in a serendipitous moment down the road when I suddenly realize it is exactly what I need to finish a quilt or project I am working on.

 The star points in this quilt were received in a fabric exchange I participated in with some quilting friends. This quilt was one of my first attempts at machine quilting.  I didn't have a fancy sewing machine, just a sturdy little Kenmore my husband had bought for me our first Christmas together.  I learned an awful lot while sewing on that machine! This whole quilt was quilted with a walking foot.  It is covered with wavy lines about 2 inches apart going down the length of the quilt. It isn't anything beautiful or artistic but it is well made, comfy and enriched with stories and memories of how it came to be.