The Healing Quilt: A Tribute to My Mom ………..
It’s that time of the year again.
Everyone around you starts saying, “Merry Christmas!” and you feel like you need to reply in kind. I’m not a Scrooge but I do begin to feel melancholy and sentimental in December.
Maybe the Hallmark Channel is to blame?
I start to miss my parents during this time of the year and the way we all used to get together at one of their houses for the holidays. Because my Mom died more recently, I guess I have thought a lot about her lately.
My Mother lived to be 86. She was such an inspiration, not only because she was my Mother but, because she had overcome so many obstacles in her long lifetime. She beat the odds, you could say.
Besides raising eight ornery children, earning her Masters in Library Science, advocating and serving on several boards for the disabled, and volunteering regularly, Mom also ran 5K’s. She lived in Fort Wayne most of her life but also lived in Monterey, Bloomington and Richmond, where she participated in races.
My Mom wasn’t a lifelong runner but she did run for 25 years. She started when she was 50 and stopped around age 75, when she decided to replace running with walking. During those running years, she accumulated over a hundred t-shirts from the 5K’s that she entered.
Sorting through her clothes, after she died, we piled all the running shirts on the bed and each grandchild took a shirt or two.
There were still around 75 left. What to do? We couldn’t just let them go to the local Goodwill as they were her “prized possessions.” Some of them were like new, some hadn’t been worn and some were tattered but, she loved every one of those running shirts.
When she passed away in 2013 I was devastated, as most children are when a parent dies. The loss was profound for me and I needed to do something to work through it, to stay busy.
So …… I started a memory project. I started researching “how to make a t-shirt quilt.” I was terrified that I would start such a colossal feat and wouldn’t be able to finish.
A Little Side Note: I do not sew.
I spent the next nine months working on this project, not really knowing what I was doing. I took it slow. I started with a mini 2-session quilting class. I read everything I could find on t-shirt quilts. I spent hours and hours in fabric stores. I got to know the names of all the employees at all the local sewing shops. And …….. I asked a lot of questions.
If it weren’t for Nancy’s Fancy’s and The Stitching Nook, I don’t think this project, and labor of love, would have ever come to fruition. I am so grateful for their expertise and invaluable help!
The first task at hand was to figure out which shirts I would use. As I made the shirt choices, I tried to choose the ones that would best represent all aspects, areas, and the people in her life.
Then came the design. If you look closely, you can see the little black road that runs in a zig-zag direction, from one side of the quilt to the other. Poo drew the shoe design for me to use as a template and I used it to cut out those little running shoes. I wish I could take credit for that feature but I saw something similar as I was researching this project. 🙂
The flip side of the quilt was equally challenging as I didn’t want just a plain back, I wanted something that would be specific to her. I don’t remember exactly how we came up for the design of the backside but, (I say “we” because my husband was a significant contributor to the project.), I know it was Poo’s idea to put the shape of Lake Papakeechie on it.
I got online and found the map of the lake and printed it. Poo took it to work where he was able to use an industrial size printer to blow it up on to a large piece of architect paper. We then went searching for material that would depict the blue waters of the lake.
There were two things that I know my Mom loved.
- Books
- Lake Papakeechie
So the flip side of the quilt has the outline of our lake and two quotes. One quote from author Henry David Thoreau and comedian, Steven Wright. One about the lake and the other about books.
I am lucky enough to have a sister who owns a commercial-type sewing machine who was able to do some embroidery work for me. She helped my vision come alive. 🙂
The star at the bottom is marked as Fort Wayne and the little footprints illustrate her traveling to the cottage, where she loved to spend time.
It was definitely a labor of love and worth every minute. There was also something extremely therapeutic about the journey in making this quilt. It was healing. I thought about her every day. I think I talked to her often, not aloud but, definitely in my head. I also did a lot of crying during the process.
As Previously stated, I took it one step at a time and super slow. When it was finished, I didn’t even have a plan for where it was going to go, who would use it or where it would be displayed.
Truth be known, I never imagined it would turn out so good!
It dawned on me, eventually, that it needed to be at the lake. It’s the one place that my Mom, me and all of my siblings share and have in common.
So that’s where it went!
A New Side Note: I now sew! .............. A little :)
“It’s hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember.”
xoxo, Katy
