Interwebs Quilt Festival Entry!

I'm so excited to be able to post my entry to Amy's virtual quilt show.  As soon as I heard about it, I knew which one I would enter.  This is a quilt that I made with my mother.

As I have said elsewhere in these pages, I have taken a long hiatus from quilting - somewhere in the area of 15 years - and only came back to it this past summer.  But I've never said why.

My mother passed away suddenly in August 2008.  She had a massive stroke one day when she was out to lunch with her husband.  Only 69, she had been in good health and spirits.  It was a devastating blow to all of us.

My mother was a fiend for sewing and all kinds of needlework.  For many years she had a 40" floor loom. She embroidered and did cross-stitch and quilted.  When I came home for the funeral, there was a cutting table set up in the living room where she had been cutting binding fabric that morning.

I returned home with this quilt top that she had pieced.  I knew that finishing it for her would be a wonderful way to honour her memory.  I didn't get to it for several months.  I had a needlepoint project to finish for the synagogue and things at work were very busy, plus I wasn't looking forward to wrestling with my ancient Singer which was the bottom of the line when I bought it twenty years ago.   But, even more, gradually it became clear to me that I wasn't ready to start working on it.

At the beginning of August this year, I went to the local Pfaff dealer and bought a two year old fancy electronic model in perfect knick.  I found the LQS and bought some fabric for backing and binding.  I knew my mother always quilted with polyester batting, but I bought cotton/bamboo.

On the eve of the anniversary of her passing, I pinned the quilt together, and the next day, I set up my new sewing machine on a table in front of an open window and sewed all day long.  I won't lie - there were times I had to take a little break for tears.  But it was a hugely healing thing, spending such a difficult day working for her and with her, thinking about what a wonderfully warm and talented woman she was.  I even had a good laugh when I found one of the background squares in one of the nine-patches was reversed, with the wrong side showing.  She always had a humility block in her quilts - by accident or design she never admitted - but she always pointed it out.

So that's the story of this quilt, called I'll Be Seeing You, and why I chose it for the Quilt Festival.  As time has gone by, my mother's husband has sent me various other bits and bobs from my mother's sewing room.  I will have other projects to share with her.  But this one will always be special.

I'm looking forward to ooohing and aahing over the other entries in the Quilt Festival, and I encourage you to do so, as well.  The list of participants will be at the bottom of this post.  And now that you've found me, please come back and visit any time!