Quilting Memories for the Future

My earliest memories of my grandmother are connected to her busy with some kind of needlecraft. She was keen on sewing, quilting and crocheting.

As she grew older, she wanted to leave an heirloom to each of her grandchildren. At that stage, guided by the ignorance of youth, I declined her offer.

Then, my grandmother became very ill. She gradually lost her eyesight, and eventually was unable to continue busying herself with the needlecraft she so much loved. Her life, once so meaningful, was reduced to her bed and her chair in her old-age home. The final straw was when she developed gangrene in her left foot. The operation to amputate part of her left leg was too severe an intervention for a woman of her age, and she died at the age of eighty-seven.

Shortly after her death I came across the quilt that she made for my mother a few years before losing her eyesight. Suddenly it began to dawn upon me. When I looked at the quilt, I did not see a blanket. Instead, I saw a scrapbook made from material. It was as if, by looking at the quilt, I was paging through my family album. I remembered the times when we baked cookies with my mother, the times when my sisters and I played with our tea-set, the first "Superman"-movie I saw with my dad, my first day at school, the visits we had with our grandparents and many other special memories. Each memory was carefully interwoven into this quilt.

I begged my mom to give me the quilt, and luckily, she did. I now treasure this quilt, thinking of all the memories stitched into this quilt, each stitch done with love.

I just wish my grandmother could still be around. I would have loved to share the importance of the memories she captured in the quilt. She had the wisdom I once lacked, knowing that the quilt she made is something that will always touch both my past and my future¹. I also realize that this is what crafts are all about ~ capturing memories in the present that will have meaning in the future.

Bibliography:

1. http://www.aprairiehomequilts.com/quilting-resources/quilting-quotes.html