Down Memory Lane...

Hello again! As much as things have been moving forward in my journey, still I sometimes find myself looking back. I have had three influential women in my life; my daughter who is the fire that re-lit my quilter's heart. My paternal grandmother, who I mentioned in my first post in this blog, had tried numerous times to teach me sewing, knitting and crochet with no success and my dear mother, who I mentioned as well, passed away about three months after my daughter's birth in 2004. Earlier this week, my friend who is recently taking an interest in quilting, had been asking me what sorts of things I have made. I sent her pictures of various items I still have in my home from my quilting past and I ran across the picture you see above. After I started quilting in 2000, my mother had been bugging me to make a quilt for her. So, for Mother's Day in 2002, I made for her the quilt and matching pillow shams you see her posing with in the picture. This is a basic log cabin block on both the quilt and shams done in green and light purple florals to match the decor of her bedroom. It really was lovely. My mother died in April 2004 of pancreatic cancer, in that bed, with that quilt. Before being diagnosed with cancer about six months before her death, my mom was a firecracker of a woman. She never met a stranger and she had a zest for life. That was how I had wanted to remember her, not as the terminally ill cancer patient she had become in those last few months. After her death, I cleaned out her room and I threw away anything that reminded me of her illness...including that quilt and shams. When I tell people that I threw that quilt away, they can't believe I did it. I had to...it held such bittersweet memories that only broke my heart over and over again. A few days after showing this picture to my friend, I was going through fabric stashes trying to figure out what I could still use. Not to mention, I'm still in the process of getting all of my quilting tools, gadgets and fabric moved to my new studio. As I sorted through piles of fabric leftovers from projects past, I found a single log cabin block that had been left over from my mom's quilt. God gave me a little gift. You see, I am a registered dental hygienist by profession and since coming back to my passion for quilting, my head swirls with ideas of where the love of this art could take me in my future. My mom is watching and I know she is proud of the woman I have become and I know my Lord is in this with me and will show me where he wants me to go next. I don't know yet what I am going to do with my single quilt block, but I do know now my heart no longer breaks at the sight of that quilt, but now propels me still forward in this journey.