Day 355: Mom loved to sew before her eyesight started to weaken. She made all kinds of quilts, from the small and snuggly to the king-sized masterpieces of precision.
She sewed baby quilts for each of her grandchildren. She made quilts to give away anonymously. She made quilts because she had an over-abundance of fabric she didn’t want to go to waste.
When my husband, then boyfriend, was serving a mission, Mom and I pieced two king-sized quilts for my hope chest that took weeks to finish. His mother and sisters came to the house, and we held old-fashioned quilting bees to get them finished. I will keep them forever and pass them down to my children.
The Christmas that our first child was born, Mom made him a Christmas stocking. It was so big we could have fit him inside. I eventually used it as a pattern to make our later children a stocking to match. She also made him a tree skirt with the nativity scene pieced in felt. We still carefully spread it beneath our tree every year. After thirty Christmases, it’s getting worn, and the felt is what Mom would’ve called “bedraggled” but it means The First Christmas Baby and our first Christmas baby when I look at it, so even if it’s a bit bedraggled, it’s staying under the tree.
The last project we worked on together was a Christmas wall-hanging, a star quilt to remind us of the Christmas star.
She patiently taught me how to cut each piece so the dozens of points would match up perfectly.
It has been part of our Christmas decor ever since. The colors are no longer the trendy fabric colors in the stores. There’s some gold braid that dates it a bit, but Mom loved gold braid, so I’m never taking it off. It’s getting older, and out of style, but I love it. It reminds me of those weekends when I sat at the kitchen table with her and learned under her patient direction.
It also reminds me of the care she took in stitching her testimony of a star that guided wisemen to our Savior. I don’t see a faded out-of-date quilt. When I look at it, I see the Christmas star and a mother who taught me to believe.
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