A Plus Quilt Returned
This is one of the first quilts that I shared here on Simple Simon and Company:
And eventually led to the release of our Plus Quilt Pattern.
I made it back in 2015 with the first line Elizabeth and I ever designed for Riley Black Designs. The post, which you can find HERE, is all about that line called “Four Corners” and our first time presenting at Quilt Market.
It was such a fun and exciting time in our lives!
Just looking at the pictures fills me with happiness and thanksgiving.
That quilt…made with our first fabric line…and of course my favorite material…velvet… was a treasure to me and I knew I wanted it to have a special home.
So that Christmas I gave it to my grandma.
My grandma who loved to quilt…who tended and fawned over my babies…who taught me to love words…who taught me to “toughen up”.
And she’s kept it in her bedroom…until my last trip to visit her.
My grandma is in the process of cleaning out her home. Everyone who visits now leaves with arm loads of dishes, candles, knick knacks, etc. She even sent my high school son home with a bag full of copy paper, pens, and file folders. 🙂
But she sent me home with my quilt.
She wanted to make sure that I got it back.
I’m not ready to have it back.
I’m not sure that I will ever be ready.
I want her to have it. I don’t want to have any reason for it needing to be returned.
I want her to be here. Like she always has been. Forever.
I’m not ready to let go.
I’m not ready to get things back.
This past summer my other grandmother passed away and as I helped my dad clean out her home and possessions I was surprised at the pile of quilts, pillows, paintings, frames, and other gifts that I had given her over the years and that she had saved.
These items are now in my sewing room until I’m ready to go through them again…and find them a new home.
But this Plus Quilt…the one my grandma just returned to me…it stays in my family room.
Right now it is hanging off the back of a rocking chair next to the blanket she crocheted years ago…and I curl up under it with my girls to watch movies.
It’s funny how handmade objects sometimes seem to create a life of their own.
This one quilt…embodies so many things to me. Gratitude, happiness, excitement, friendship with Elizabeth, the fun of running Simple Simon and Company, and the pride, legacy, and love of a watchful grandmother.
And of course this:
Which is probably my favorite quilt picture of all time…it’s my high school son Simon trying to hold up the quilt against the wind so I can take a photo of it.
He has become my quilt holder extraordinaire and will spend forever with me out taking quilt photos in the wind if I will get him a giant soda when we finish…
I love riding around taking quilt pictures with him…and even though he wouldn’t say it I think he does too…he always volunteers to come along.
And so these memories with him are also wrapped up in this quilt.
A quilt that has become a treasure.
Now, one last picture before I sign off:
Simon calls it the half man half quilt shot…and we have score of photos like this from pretty much every quilt we have ever tried to photograph outside. 🙂
Quilting is a beautiful, expensive, time consuming hobby…but for me it is also a gift.
A gift I am so thankful for.
Happy Quilting.
-liZ
My mom gave me back the one I made for her and my dad. It was the first bed-size quilt I pieced and hand quilted. It was on their bed every day. It was there after my dad passed away. It was there the last time I went home to visit. This time folded and placed at the end of the bed. My mom had terminal cancer. She was in her 90’s and still able to live at home; but, knew she would be closing her home and moving to assisted living before I would visit again. She was so afraid the quilt would be “lost” before I could get it and she wanted me to have it. Now, it is on my bed. Eventually, it will be my daughter’s and after that, if it survives, it will be my grandson’s. It is always too soon. There is never enough time. Despite that, the love remains and our quilts are a warm, daily reminders because they are stitched with love and warp us in love.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I love your story…and what you said…”the love remains and our quilts are warm, daily reminders because they are stitched with love and wrap us in love.”