Sharing something special

I’d like to tell you all about one of my most favorite people in the entire world, my grandmother. Maw-Maw is a very crafty person and it is from her that I inherited my love of crafts. She taught me to crochet when I was a little girl, and since I am left-handed and she is right-handed, I learned by sitting across from her and mirroring what her hands were doing. At 90 years old she still sews, crochets, embroiders, and quilts like nobody’s business. The closets in her house are full of beautiful quilts that she has made, however, none of them have as much meaning as the quilt below:

When my Paw-Paw died in 1993, she carefully cut apart his neckties and made a quilt with the pieces. She edged the quilt with a shiny brown and burgundy rayon. Here are some close-ups:

After she sewed the pieces together, she went back over them with zigzag and briar stitches.

I absolutely love it and it brings back many good memories of my Paw-Paw as well. As she and I visited last weekend, she began to show me quilts that she hasn’t finished yet and there was a quilt that was her mother’s that she was repairing. It’s a beautiful quilt with big, embroidered butterflies on it. Like a lot of people her age, she is concerned that she won’t be able to finish everything before her time on this earth ends. She fretted out loud about who would finish her mother’s quilt. I said, “Maw-Maw, if you don’t get it finished, I will learn how to finish it.” She looked at me, smiled, and said, “Yes, you’re about the only one I would trust to finish it.” I was flooded with pride and sadness at the same time. She has been such a huge influence on my life, and I don’t even want to think about her not being around anymore, yet I know that day will come all too soon. But when it does, I will lovingly finish all the projects that she didn’t have time to.