A Special Christmas Gift

My youngest daughter, who retired in December, 2009 after serving 30 years in the United States Air Force, is keeping herself busy learning how to act like a civilian, and is quite enjoying it.  She has turned into "Susie Homemaker," cooking and decorating, and gardening, etc.

Daughter is highly proficient at cross-stitch, having produced some very lovely and intricate works of art over the past twenty years or so.  However, one of the crafts/skills that she has not practiced for thirty years is any sort of general sewing.  She raised two boys and found it easier to buy their shirts and trousers ready made, rather than attempt to make them at home -- besides which, sewing well takes time and effort, and her responsibilities in the Air Force left little time for that sort of thing.   A seamstress she was not, although she owned a small sewing machine which she used to patch her boys' jeans and mend tears, etc.

One of the delights she discovered in her new home town in Nebraska was a fabric shop (which I visited with her during my trip in July - she was trying to make "vintage aprons" at the time) replete with hundreds, if not thousands, of bolts of lovely fabrics, wonderful patterns and other "sewing stuff," and staffed by friendly and helpful people who also teach classes in quilting, from beginner through advanced techniques.  Even though Daughter didn't really know much about even basic sewing, she signed herself up for Quilting 101, the classes for which began in mid-October.

Around the middle of November (last month), she told me that she was making a quilt for my Christmas present, and hoped to have it finished by that date.  I was pleased that she would make this effort for me, but had no idea what to expect from a fledgling seamstress.  My gift arrived on Monday before Christmas, with instructions to open immediately, which I did and -- what to my wondering eyes should appear but this:

 

About all I could utter was "amazing!"  This beautiful quilt was made by a daughter that had called me only a few months ago to ask me how to find 3/8" on a ruler!!

I think she did a wonderful job on her first large quilt (it measures 50" x 70").  It has thirty blocks, she told me, each containing 14 different Christmas-themed fabrics, with a total of 30 different fabrics in the quilt. The pattern is named "Tree's Up! Lights On!" and was designed by Sandy Gervais (anyone who quilts is probably familiar with her fabric designs and patterns.)

The back side looks like this:

so it's beautiful from either side.

To make it even more special, she has embroidered "secret messages" for me into some of the quilt blocks, and signed it at the bottom --

How special is that?!

At this writing, I'm trying to decide how and where I can display this very, very special gift so that I can see it all year long.  It probably will go into my bedroom for most of the year and come out into the living room at Christmas time.

In the meantime, it's chilly in my house, so the quilt is a cuddle-cover, me beneath, cats on top, as I watch TV from my recliner.

ABC Wednesday - "M"

"M" is for Minnie Mouse Quilt

In 1939, when I was 5 years old, our family lived in El Paso, Texas. My mother had a dear friend, Mrs. Barney P., whom we children called "Mrs. Pahdough" because we couldn't properly pronounce her last name. I don't know for sure, but I think the P. family did not have children of their own, and sort of adopted me and my younger sister. But "Pahdough" and I especially loved each other. At some time that year, so that I could have my very own quilt, she made a series of twelve quilt blocks, each featuring Minnie Mouse, a Disney character that was all the rage at the time. Each Minnie is dressed in a different outfit, with a different umbrella, hat and shoes.

As fate would have it, our family moved from El Paso to New Mexico before the quilt could be constructed. My mamma kept the blocks put away in tissue paper, pending the day she would have time to make the quilt. In 1950, we moved to Arkansas, and the quilt blocks moved with us, sheltered safely in Mama's cedar chest.

Finally, in 1954, in the summer before I was married, the ladies of my mother's Sunday School class constructed a quilt using "Pahdough's" blocks, and it was given to me by my mother as a wedding present.

What does a 20 year old with her head in the clouds know about taking care of a hand-made quilt? I used it on my bed until my children were born, then it covered their beds in turn. It had milk and hot cocoa spilled on it; it went to the laundromat; it was used to wrap breakables when we moved. By the time I had sense enough to realize what a treasure I had, it was just about worn out.

But, wait.... it's the surrounding QUILT that's worn out... not the blocks, even though the colors are a bit faded (but not as much as I would expect from fabric 70 years old), a few of Minnie's ears have worn spots, and there are one or two places where the applique stitch is beginning to ravel. I still have hopes of carefully removing the blocks from the worn out pieces that hold them together, and having them reset into a quilt for a grandchild, or a great-grandchild.

(detail from a block)

In the meantime, the bed covering I have always called "Pahdough's" quilt is resting, wrapped in tissue in my own cedar chest.

ABC Wednesday was created by Mrs. Nesbitt. Please visit the ABC Wednesday site to view others' interpretations of this week's letter, "M."