Rags to Riches

I made a quilt!
I've never made a quilt in my life -- although I had always planned to make one from all of my son's T-shirts, and I had always planned to make one from all the fabric squares I saved from every single piece of clothing I made for me and even for my husband and son. (That surely would have been a whopper of a quilt!) Alas, those two plans never came to fruition.

I've been sewing since I was in the second-grade, when my mother taught me how to make little shift-dresses for my Barbie doll. Mom used to help my sister and I 'build' a big tent in our carport using sheets and cardtables. We'd spread out blankets on the concrete floor and Mom would sit in the tent with us all afternoon making hand-stitched dresses for our Barbies.

So, it's no surprise that I was sewing on her Singer by the time I was in the fifth-grade, making some of my own clothes. Mom bought that machine when she was pregnant with me and sewed on that same machine until only a few years ago when she and I made some holiday aprons together.

It's also no surprise that sewing is what I finally turned to for some of that much-needed healing spirit.

Remember the tsunami of Jan. 2 -- the day I wrote about the giant wave of pain I was feeling? It's the day I thought I was ready to pack up Mother's clothes and donate them to charity. But when I opened her closet and saw an orange striped shirt she often wore and smelled her, I couldn't do it. I couldn't move, and I also couldn't deal with the loss.

A friend of mine suggested I use some of my crafting and sewing "talents" to make something from Mom's clothes. At first I couldn't imagine not only not donating them to those less fortunate, but also cutting them up into pieces. So, for about a week, I simply ignored my friend's suggestion. But my brother, who reads my posts and my Facebook, encouraged me to do it. He also thought it would be healing for me.

Well, I finally went back into my mom's closet and was suddenly filled with excitement. When that happened, I knew making a quilt was the right thing to do.

 

I went through her closet and pulled out her everyday clothes; blouses, T-shirts, slacks, capri pants and some of her satin pajamas. Also laying on her bed is her favorite fleece blanket she used to cover up with when we would go camping or when she was sitting in her living room watching television. I decided to use that fleece blanket as the backing for my quilt. So, I measured the fleece, then from that, decided the size of each square and picked out the appropriate number of pieces of clothing.

 The first cut was the hardest. The feelings that came over me after seeing this orange and white striped top in my mother's closet on Jan. 2 are what started the tsunami of emotions

that prompted a week of depression -- until I decided to act upon this suggestion.

The collection of squares cut for the quilt bring back so many memories...

And, it's funny, my younger sister and I can recall every piece of clothing we wore as children (usually the adorable dresses made for us by Mom)

and where we were when we wore it.

All of the squares are sewn together and the quilt-top is complete!

I'm feeling so energized by this project.

 

I hand-sew buttons at every corner, attaching the quilt-top to the fleece blanket,

and then sew blanket binding around the edge.

(By the way, this is not my mother's old sewing machine.)

 

My husband and I went camping this past weekend (that's me and my new quilt in our little camping trailer), and I hand-stitched the back side of the blanket binding to the fleece as we drove to our destination. I absolutely love my new quilt and encourage all of you to do something like this.

Now I'm going to send the scraps to my younger sister so she can do the same thing.



 

Loving and caring advice can sometimes come from the least expected places. My friend who suggested that I make something from my mother's clothes isn't someone I'd have expected to hear from. And when it's great advice that you took and it worked out -- it's (as my mother would say) the cherry on top.

Mom would have considered these pieces of clothing chosen to make my special quilt just rags, but I turned her "rags" into riches for me.