A Quilt Story

In the early 1990’s I was reading a book by a psychologist from San Francisco (forgot her name) who persevered in her quest to study the Amish by living among them until one community was convinced of her sincerity and finally took her in. There she learned, among other things, how the Amish made quilts, but for her the more important thing was the way all the families supported one another in a close-knit caring society. If a neighbor’s barn burned down, for example, the whole community rebuilt the barn--hence, the term “barn-raising.” She had so much wanted to create that same sense of community for herself and her friends when she returned to San Francisco but, after several futile efforts, came to the painful realization that they simply weren’t interested because they just didn’t have the same vision and, of course, having never experienced that kind of community, they didn’t see what the big deal was anyway.

Having felt like a displaced person searching for some sense of community myself, I could identify with her hopes and ultimate disappointment that the culture to which she returned and in which we live lends itself more to isolation than to community. That book stoked my interest in quilting, and I decided to join a quilt club. My mother had sent me a copy of the book my Aunt had written on the Bentley family tree, and though I had read bits and pieces of it, I had never sat down with it page by page. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to read anything about “the Bentleys,” but one day when I was moving some books, I came upon my Aunt's genealogy study again and browsed through it. I had never known any female relative in the Bentley family who had made any quilts so I thought it was just some stroke of luck that the quilt bug decided to bite me! To my astonishment, in the very back of the book were pictures of quilts made by my female ancestors--all the old patterns I was learning about in my quilt club. I was amazed and delighted and felt some kind of silent connection with and gratitude for my dead female ancestors who were quilters. I was soon signing up for quilt classes and going to quilt shows, especially the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival that comes to Williamsburg every year.

The first quilt I made for my daughter Juanita was the Bear's Paw quilt. She had picked out the colors, fabric and pattern and often sat beside me at the sewing machine, handing me pieces of fabric as I sewed the blocks together. She seemed fascinated and amazed that I could take scraps of fabric and turn them into something beautiful. I told her that one of my mottos is, "When life gives you scraps, make quilts." She took that quilt with her to college.

Another quilt I made for Juanita was a T-shirt quilt. I just cut up her old t-shirts and sewed them together with sashing strips in between. She really liked it a lot.

I haven’t yet finished a Jacob's Ladder quilt. I only got the top made but never got around to putting it into bat and binding it so it’s still in my stash at home waiting on me to finish.

Several women in my law firm made a signature/memory quilt for a paralegal battling lung cancer last year. We were able to get the quilt completed and to her by Christmas. I served as the online quilt instructor for the women many of whom did not even know how to sew or quilt but still wanted to contribute. It was a heart-felt effort so I thought it would be appropriate for us all to give her a signature/memory quilt with hearts on it. She died this past Spring.

It's been several years since I've made any quilts at home or been back to my quilt club, but I enjoyed making quilts for a time and being part of a quilt chapter. I've also enjoyed giving away a lot of material I had collected over the years. I knew I'd never have enough time to make all the quilts I wanted to make or use up all the fabric I had purchased, and the women in my quilt chapter were very happy to receive boxes and boxes of free 100% cotton quilt fabric to use in charity quilts or in a special quilt for a family member. There's a lot of fun to be had just in shopping for that special fabric for the quilt you hope to make someday!