A quilt with a story, as told by my friend, Yolanda . . .
My godmother, Vera, is truly a God-send in my life. She is originally from Huntsville, AL and currently resides in Helena, AL. Vera comes to visit my family and me often, at least twice a year. This year she visited us for two months during the summer, and she began to inquire about my hobby and love of quilting. I was able to convince her to look through my fabric stash and pick out some of her favorite color fabrics to help design a quilt that she would like for herself. Once the fabrics were chosen, we began to cut 5 inch squares from each piece.
We laid out the squares on the floor to plan and ensure like fabric squares would not be sewn together. Vera really likes the vintage look of utilitarian quilts because they remind her of the quilts her grandmother used to make. Once all the pieces were cut, I then convinced her to sit at my sewing table to sew them together. This was a great success. Vera couldn’t believe she was sewing; this is something she has NEVER been interested in doing. She frequently retells the story of when her grandfather bought her a new sewing machine with a hard case. Instead of using it to sew, it became her foot stool.
It took us three days to sew the squares together. She was so proud of the work we had done! She sat on the sofa and began to name family members each square reminded her of, such as her children playing jacks, grand-dad’s blue coveralls, grandmother’s paisley dress, tea time with her girls, and sewing with me, her god-daughter. We named the quilt “Remember When” – what a great time we had making new, fun memories of quilting together!
This experience sparked her creativity, unfortunately not for quilting. Vera is an avid fan of tea, especially English style tea. She enjoys tea time including setting the table with doilies, tea pot warmers or cozies, napkins, and tea cup rugs. Together we have made several of these items to enhance our tea time experience.
When Yolanda asked me to quilt the top on my longarm, I noticed that the navy backing fabric was printed with gold dragonflies. Come to find out, Vera is partial to dragonflies, so I suggested a dragonfly pantograph. Thread choice was blue or gold, and Yolanda and I thought gold would show the quilting design to best advantage especially on the wide border. The gold thread blends in with most of the fabrics but shows up nicely on the solid squares. This glimpse of the design invites the viewer to look more closely to see that dragonflies flit across the entire surface of the quilt.
Thanks, Yolanda and Vera, for sharing the story of your wonderful memory quilt with us!