Several of you have mentioned Mom recently, I guess you’re missing her as much as I am! I was looking for one of her quilts tonight (I have a bunch of photos of them in a online album we share) because I was using pink strips leftover from a couple pineapple quilts she’d made years ago tonight in my pink HeartStrings blocks. Over the years I’ve done a LOT of cutting for Mom and my reward is usually getting the leftover bits and strips to bring home with me. They may sit for years waiting to be used but they DO get used eventually.
For those of you that don’t know, Mom and I have been quilting together since 2000. I hadn’t even finished my first quilt before I convinced her she had to try it. She had sewn in the past, making clothes for us when we were growing up so she had more sewing experience … I had never even used a sewing machine and I hand pieced my first quilt and then machine quilted it with straight lines. I had read a LOT about quilting by the time I tried my first quilt (and still obsessively read about and look for quilting inspiration) and I’ve shared all that quilting knowledge with Mom through the years.
This is a photo of us together with a quilt I made for her in 2002 so we’d only been quilting for a couple years. She still pulls it out and uses it every Christmas! Both of us have many quilts that we have worked on together … she has done a lot of piecing and appliqué for me in exchange for my quilting for her. But just so you know, this one was all my work … including the appliqué!
Isn’t it funny how little bits of fabric can hold so many precious memories?!
Sent from my iPad
Hi Mary! I look forward to your next visit with your Mom. Both of you inspire each other and have such fun on projects together. Both of her pineapple quilts are just lovely! How nice that you are using up the pink scraps. ~smile~ Roseanne
I love reading about your and your mom making quilts together. I got my mom into quilting also. She had all the sewing experience and I hated, but tolerated the piecing because I loved hand quilting. I eventually bought my first longarm (I’m on my third now that’s computerized) and she bought my second one when I shut down my longarm business and started one of her own.
Hi Mary! I love your posts with your Mom. They remind me so much of my sewing journey with my own mother. I grew up watching her sew everything from coats to curtains to wedding dresses and I myself began to sew when I was a teen. We lived a country apart for most of my adult life, she in Colorado and me here in Wisconsin and we saw each other only about once a year. She moved back home here to Wisconsin about 10 years before she passed away (five years ago), but was an active sewist up until the day she died. Over the years I had made many flannel baby quilts for friends and family and accumulated yards and yards of leftover fabrics (I overbuy and undercut, so I always had leftovers). I wanted to use them up and enlisted Mom’s help to make donation quilts for Project Linus.
Due to a shorter work schedule one winter shortly after she moved back, I was able to spend one day a week with her. We planned, we cut, we sewed, we reconnected through our shared love of sewing. In all, we made 10 quilts for local donation that winter. Those are the happiest memories I have of time spent with my Mom. My favorite picture is one of the two of us with our quilts before we took them for donation. Each time I read about you and your Mom, it brings back those memories of that winter I spent sewing with mine. Enjoy them and cherish them. Happy sewing!
I do enjoy your “mom” posts. It’s so special that you can share a fun hobby like this with each other. My mother was an accomplished seamstress but focused on garments mostly. She made quilts, but they were definitely utility quilts. Scrappy squares mostly and always tied. Her last couple of years were spent crocheting tons of afghans. We did share the love of sewing and reading, but had very different tastes.
I’m sorry to hear your Mom won’t be able to visit this summer. I’m sure you are both very disappointed. I would have loved to see you both sewing together but with the current situation it’s better to stay safe and at home. Hopefully by Fall things will get better.
It is so nice that you have a shared love of sewing!
Love it!