By Jacqueline Moran
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The pink, purple and black quilt was a special project. My ex-mother-in-law, Wanda, taught me to quilt. She was a wonderful woman and I always admired her strength and tenacity. She spent her career working as a hospice nurse. She had cancer three times, and it eventually claimed her life. From the time my son (my first child) was born until she passed we quilted together every time we visited each other. Each visit resulted in a quilt, and there were about three or four visits per year. In between she made quilts for my kids and for me.
In 2007, she and I started the pink and purple pinwheel quilt together with the intent that it would go to my daughter who was three at the time. We finished the quilt top, but never finished the quilt. I deployed a few months later, and she passed away a short time after I returned. By then I was divorced from her son, but that didn’t stop us from visits, or her from quilting.
In her last few months, she was determined to make as many quilts as possible for my kids. She made a LOT of quilts. We have half of a hallway closet filled with quilts. The pink and purple quilt top went into a box of other fabrics when I moved.
It’s been a long time since I quilted and quite frankly, I’d forgotten about it. Then I found it again and decided it was time to get it quilted. My daughter is 16 now and this past Christmas I was able to give her a present “from Mom and Grandma Wanda”. It’s not really her style anymore, but the sentiment is there and she’s had it on her bed ever since.
The second quilt, the blue, red, and yellow one, is also special. My husband has a daughter in the Phillipines. When I re-married, my kids and I decided to make her a quilt to connect us. My son was twelve and my daughter was eight.
For the backing, we decided to use a technique that Wanda had taught me, draw with crayon, cover it with some leftover fabric, and iron it to set the colors into the fabric. My daughter and I made the quilt topper, and we all worked on the backing. I tried to quilt it myself but with a standard machine. Life got in the way and I never finished it. Now my step-daughter is nearly 21 and will soon be moving in with us. She’s a bit too old for the drawings, but they are now within the quilt, and she’ll have a lovely quilt to welcome her to our home.
Thank you for being a part of our quilt stories!
Jackie
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A special story from my Newsletter. If you'd like to see more, Subscribe here.