She started a quilting group at the local YWCA. She organized a little quilt show. I was proud of her. She made some great friends and made a yearly trip to Paduca. She passed away in 1989 at age 60. Her quilting group made a quilt as a memorial that hung in the YWCA , until the Y closed it's doors.
Her little quilt group went on to form a guild called piecemakers, to which I now belong since 2010.
This month, Karen, brought the little memorial quilt to guild as show and tell, and presented it to me. It was a big surprise and very much appreciated. I'm not the short one.
After years of raising my family, when I started quilting without distractions, I noticed that most of the quilts that we had made years ago that were color coordinated, were very dated and ....ugly lol. think avacado and gold. But the scrappy quilts were still relevant and...classic. I guess that is why I have evolved into a scrappy quilter. My stash was very much a mix of fabric over the years, and I wanted to use what I had. I still do. I still prefer all the "rules" of a long ago. It was a struggle to accept machine quilting. But, my favorite part is the piecing, so I had to move into the machine quilting era, so I could make as many quilts as I wanted. I didn't want to have someone else do the quilting, so I bought a used longarm. When we downsize, I think I can change my mind about that, too and leave it behind. I like to make bed size quilts for the practical part of things, but, I notice, I am thinking smaller these days.
I often feel sad that I didn't get a chance to grow old with my mother in law, and think she would have been a fun quilting friend.
One little quilt and lots of great memories. That is the real magic of quilting.
I am linking:
