The Beauty of Quilts

Over the course of the twenty-eight years we lived in the city, I periodically went through drawers, closets, and the cellar asking, "What would I keep if we moved?" It helped keep me honest to a point, but it wasn't real. I would organize and clean out and keep a lot of what I went through, especially fabric.

My mom taught me to sew at an early age and made me beautiful dresses until I started sewing for myself. I started making my own clothes when I was 14. Girls were not permitted to wear pants to school, so I would find a basic dress pattern and make my school clothes. In high school I also made slacks and simple jackets. I kept all the scraps in a box. The summer before I started college I made myself a quilt.

Quilts were a tradition in my family. I grew up with dark heavy quilts my great-grandmother made from recycled woolen work clothes. The quilts were pieced from irregular shapes, backed with flannel or wool, and tied with heavy thread. These were functional household items that kept us warm and made great forts in the house or yard.

I made that first quilt with a variety of fabrics cut into sqares. I matched four squares of one fabric with five of another to create nine-squares. Then I sewed those together, backed the top with a lime-green gingham sheet, lined it with a sheet blanket, and tied it with green embroidery floss. My family still uses this quilt.

Over the years I've made quilts of wool, knit, flannel, and cotton, where the size of the quilt depends on what scraps I have left of a certain fabric. I have always been able to create some form of pattern for these practical, basic quilts that are tied with thread. Nothing is wasted and the result is something that can be enjoyed for years.

This past Christmas I made each of my sons a quilt from t-shirts they no longer wear but couldn't bear to part with. Like so many things, the shirts surfaced during our move. Also found was a box of 672 corduroy squares cut from scraps over the past 34 years. A year after our move I decided that it was time to make them into a quilt, which presented a unique problem. I had too many designs and not enough squares of each to create a pattern. I like to lay things out and know what the end product will look like. I like things to be even and symmetrical. What was I going to do?

Each of the quilts I have made represents a period in my life. Upon reflection I decided that this corduroy quilt could represent my life after the move to the country, which is rich with color and texture while it is uneven and asymmetrical. I can plan small sections, but I have no idea what the final product will look like.