Connecting Through Quilting

The end of November was a hectic time for my family. The hunting trip to Louisiana did not go quite as planned.  Oh the guys did get to hunt and the rewards were three deer and a hog for our freezers. However, our dear friend's mother passed the Monday that we were there.  My days of reading and working on projects turned into days of comforting and helping them get through the difficult times.  I am grateful the Lord chose to put us there at that time.  My son Killian was a pallbearer for the first time and it was a little sobering experience for him.  But all in all, It was a good experience.  

Then the day before her funeral, we got word that my father in law passed away.  This is the second year in a row that we have had a death right before Thanksgiving in our family. Our friends were there for us as we were for them.  Thanksgiving was a rushed affair with my husband, daughter and I flying out early on black Friday. I only packed my hexie kit for this trip.  

When we got to my Mother in law's house, my sister in law was cutting up old uniforms and hospital gowns.  Good sections were being set aside for quilt blocks and stained sections were being set aside for rugs.  You see my in-laws are old school quilters. They quilt from scraps and old clothes.  That doesn't mean they don't or won't use new fabric. It's just they never had much to spare and they make do with what they had.  

Last year my mother in law showed me a bunch of quilt tops she had made out of sheets that she had been given. She was waiting for my sister in law to have time to come tie them with her.  This year it was old uniforms and hospital gowns. Any fabric is game for quilting.  My husband told me how at one time they would go to the thrift store and get the bags of rags and pull out all the good fabric for quilts. 

One evening, I took my hexie kit with me to my mother in laws.  I sat by the wood stove and started basting the fabric to the paper pieces.  My mother in law was fascinated. She wanted to know what I was doing.  I said I was trying my hand at paper piecing. I explained that it was a quilt project that I could take with me. 

I showed her the hexagon papers that I had bought. I explained how I cut the template that I used for cutting the fabric hexagons.  I showed her the lapel stick that I used to temporarily glue the fabric to the papers. I sat and basted several hexies while talking about it.  I showed her how I planned to put them together,  She recognized the grandmother's garden pattern and comments that she had never been able to get her hexagons even. She really liked the idea of the paper piecing.  She liked the idea of it being something she could sit and do while watching TV. We sat and talked about it for a good hour.  She was interested but felt that with her time and work ravaged hands, she would not be able to do it. Then we were talking about her crocheting and the hats she was making for people.  She figured she might end up giving them to a homeless shelter or something since all of her kids and most of her grandkids are grown.

Here's the thing. I don't' have a lot in common with my Mother in law.  She grew up on a farm in rural Idaho. I grew up in in a city in New York.  She graduated from high school but in her world that was going above and beyond for a girl's education.  I grew up with the understanding that I would go to college. She rarely worked outside of the home. I've not been fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom. We are worlds apart. But we do connect over quilting. Neither of us quilts like the other.  Hers have always been mostly using what she has. I am more of a buy what I like. She mostly just uses scissors and templates, I use rotary cutter and rulers. She hand quilts or ties her quilts, I have a Long arm. As I said she is old school quilting and I am more modern quilting. She is fascinated by what I do and I appreciate what she does. It is a way the two of us can connect.  

I am grateful that I can connect with her this way.  It gives us something to bond over beside my husband and kids.

Who do you connect with over quilting?