47 years ago on this date, my mother passed away at home with my father by her side. She had been sick so long we had started praying for what was best for her instead of asking for her to get better. I was in the upstairs bathroom and could hear my father through the open register to the kitchen below when he called the local funeral home director. It was about five in the morning. He said, “Gene, this is George, I hate to ruin your first day of deer season, but I need you to come pick up my wife.” Continue reading “Thinking of Mom”
This day represents one of my top interests. I grew up in a 4-H household learning to bake, do household chores easily, including folding fitted sheets, and sew. We started our sewing lessons by making our own sewing box to hold our scissors, threads, seam ripper, hand needles, tape measure and straight pins. Our first sewing project was an apron. I still wear one when I get serious in the kitchen.
My projects advanced to skirts, blouses, dresses, and other clothing. At that time, girls still wore dresses to school every day. I proudly wore “homemade” gowns to high school formal dances. Happy they were different than anyone else’s. I got an easy A in history by making a replica of the flag Betsy Ross made. I wish the rest of the class had been that easy for me.
Soon it was time to make baby clothes. I was a U.S.A.F. wife, lucky to be able to stay home with my children. Making their clothes filled hours, the clothes fit, and were less expensive than buying pre-made. My son was born first. His Aunt Georgia made him a baby quilt. When my daughter was born in England, there was no big sister handy to make her a quilt, so I made one myself. It was just squares of flannel sewn together on a sewing machine. I’ve been making quilts ever since.
A typical comment quilt makers hear is, “Are you really going to cut up all that good fabric, then sew it back together?” Absolutely! Choosing the colors and fabric designs for the quilt pattern you want to make is part of the fun for me. The days of using old clothes, flour sacks, or fabric scraps to make a quilt are generally gone. Building a fabric stash in your cupboard, drawers, closets, and storage tubs in now the norm. Quilters will drive long distances to check out a new quilt shop. There are even events called Shop-Hops. If you visit all the shops that are involved in that hop, you are eligible for nice prizes. The local one near where I live lasts four days and covers 400 miles if you go the full circle all at once. It is no longer and inexpensive hobby.
A quilter needs homes for her quilts. In other blogs I have mentioned my husband’s large family. They are the recipients of quilts I just have to make because there is a new technique or pattern that has caught my attention. I give them for 5oth anniversary’s, weddings, and in some cases just because the fabric told me who it should go to. Oh, my children and sisters have a bunch too.
I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my hand, but I must have had a needle because my sewing studio is larger than our family room. The colors and creativity make my soul sing.
Sue Spitulnik 