* My Mother's Quilts

Pearl Irene is in heaven now. She left behind a legacy of remembered love. A caring person, a helper, and always ready to do what needed to be done.  If you were sick she was the one you wanted to be there caring for you and your home. A wife, a mother,  grandmother and great grandmother. We all have at least one item she made for us, most of us have several.

Quilts are what she made most, they were highly sought after in our family. Occasionally she would sell one because she needed the money, but it took so much time to sew one and we kids and grand kids jealously wanted everyone she could produce.

In her last ten years of life she would quilt 8-9 hours a day, and her work became better and better so polished was her craft.

But my mother’s life had many many sad places; most of them before I came along.  The fabric of her life often rent and torn by tragedy, leftovers were what she was left with. 

These things that her life were made of became her art. Stitched together, a patchwork life became a beautiful comforting giving work of love. 

The many quilts she made are treasured still. The threads that held it all together her love of family, her legacy of love.

My grandmother also quilted, as her mother before her. I have continued the generations of quilters in our family.  I don't know who will quilt after me, but I sincerely hope one of my daughters or daughters in law will learn to quilt one day so this legacy of love can continue.

I have scanned old pictures of some of her quilts, most of them she forgot to take a picture of before they went to their new homes. I know the quality of the pictures isn't very good, and it was degraded even more when I had to change the format to jpegs, but still I hope you see the beauty.

Thank you mom for all the love and beauty you left behind.  You are loved still, and remembered often.

* This post first appeared at Family Home & Life.


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