Mothers Quilt

I visited my grandmother today and took two quilts with me for her to identify the quilter(s).  I was delighted to learn that one of them was cut out and pieced together by my mother.  Both my grandmother and mothers favorite color was/is red.  At first I didn't believe my grandma as I had never seen my mother make a quilt.  Yet, this very quilt was the one on my sister and my bed.  It has some damage...probably because one of our favorite things to do was jump on the beds like a trampoline!  My mother had six children and one miscarriage and as time went on had very little time for "projects".  Cooking, cleaning, washing, and ironing were her projects.  I remember that she did one day long projects like making candles, refinishing furniture, and she certainly had the talent and know how to make this quilt.  I wish I remembered it.  I wish I had been old enough to help her make it.  She and I didn't really have that sort of a relationship.  She probably made it in the 1950's when there were not so many of us occupying her time.  She probably worked on it alone as my mother was not in any clubs or organizations and didn't socialize much with people outside of her immediate family.  It would be hard for me to imagine her part of a quilting bee or anything like that as my grandmothers on both sides were.  They were far more social.  She worked solitary as I do on my projects.

   Quilting has been on my mind lately as I have started to make a metal quilt replica...and I had just started the project when I learned that my bank cards were missing...then my medications.  That has taken up quite a lot of my time, but there is no one but me that can protect me...so that is what I have had to do instead of work on my art projects that are the love of my life!  I felt I needed to warn my grandmother that some of my family are not to be trusted in her medicine cabinet or her purse.  Even though her retirement home is under surveillance, I wouldn't trust that the meth heads wouldn't hurt her in order to get her medications and her money in spite of being on camera!  Taking in the two quilts was my way of breaking the ice, warning her, and perhaps finding some more clues to my genealogy.  I am looking forward to piecing together my own (metal) quilt replica, and am very proud to continue what is clearly a tradition in the women (ancestors) in our family.  Perhaps in my journey I will find someone who can repair my mothers quilt and I can use it once again on my bed.  If not, I am going to try to figure out a way to hang it on the wall so I can admire it next to my grandfathers lumber saw, scythe, and tree trimmer.  It would look great as a backdrop behind my cauldron.  My ancestors worked very hard and made nice things that have lasted throughout time.  They were far to busy and had too much respect for themselves to be preoccupied with altering their state of consciousness.  I have seen no evidence that they were selfish which is what drug addition basically boils down to.  Or maybe...just maybe the work in itself altered their state of consciousness!