Tribute to my Mother's Quilting

This morning I took down the blue/purple dyed fabric that I used in the front of the church during Advent, but didn't have anything else ready for this in-between time between Advent and Lent. Then I remembered that I had a couple of my mother's quilts in the closet and chose one of those. Because of the busy-ness of the quilt, I just machine-basted a rod pocket on top.


You saw my mother's cornhusk nativity figures right before Christmas, but my mother was also a fabulous art quilter, long before there was such a term. Her work from 35 years ago would fit right in today in the spirit of Nancy Crow and others.

She used very little new fabric, mostly what people gave her or what she picked up in the church's second-hand store, often clothes that she took apart. She also used the scraps in wonderful, colorful crocheted rugs.

In these days of web sites and Etsy, she would have a market for her quilts, but on the farm 30 years ago that was unheard of. When my dad died, my brother asked me if I wanted my mother's old Singer, but I declined since I was in transition myself at that time, selling my house and trying to downgrade. It's a decision I regret now.

Sometimes when I'm quilting I wish that my mother could have had the machines and fabrics we have today and wonder what she would have made. I have a feeling, though, that the spirit of her wonderful work could have been diluted if she used anything other than what she did.