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| Shirley (in pink) and Jake at the counter. |
It’s the day after Mother’s Day, and Shirley, Jake and I are off on an adventure to a quaint quilt shop in Old Town Tustin, The Flying Geese. We are picking out fat quarters of 1930’s material that Shirley will fashion by hand into a star quilt. It will bring sunshine into our spare bedroom. Shirley makes special plans for us to shop together, so I can pick out all of my favorite materials. She is thoughtful and giving. I’m so excited to pick out forty-seven different, vintage, bright-colored, patterned material pieces.
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| Shirley's 1930's Star Quilt |
Shirley takes quilting classes each week and she recently made two beautiful quilts, a 1930’s star quilt and another neutral colored quilt that now covers her master bed. When she showed us her latest projects in April, I fell in love with the bright, cheerful colors contrasted against the brilliant white background of her star quilt. Shirley is talented and her quilts are impeccably crafted.
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| Cheerful 1930's material |
Cruising down the main street of Old Town Tustin sets the mood of a sweet ol’ fashioned, relaxed spirit. I’ve forgotten about my iPad, laptop, smart phone, and feel my life suddenly simplified and down to Earth. I feel like I’m living in an episode of “Little House on the Prairie.” I’ve never had a sewing lesson in my life, and Shirley has never had a class using computers. But here we are sharing a fun, unhurried, outing that I’m sure to remember forever.
I’m certain that I’ve never stepped foot in a quilt shop before, but quilts are part of my life history. As a little girl, going to Nanny’s house was always an “Are we there yet?” event. Her cozy home filled with too many knick-knacks, gnomes, painted plates, hanging copper-bottomed pans, and country pine furniture, oozed with familiar sniffs of our traditional family recipes wafting between the few leftover spaces. Evenings were spent cuddled up on the white faux-fur rug in front of popping embers escaping freshly cut wood burning in the brick fireplace where five generations of eyes often congregated. Even though it was plenty warm, I lay there cuddled up with a familiar quilt listening to the hubbub of too many Roberts’ (an old family last name) rear-ends in the kitchen. Nanny has quilts on every bed, quilts on the backs of each sofa, quilts in the coat closet, quilts in the linen closet, and quilts on a pine wood quilt rack.
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| Shirley lays out the material on our couch |
But there was one quilt, my quilt, backed with red polka dots splattered onto white flannel that Nanny brought out of the closet just for me. Nanny has a way of making me feel special and loved. Disney princesses, pink plaid, sunshine yellow patterns, greens, and blue squares cover the front side of the child-themed quilt. Now the batting is wriggling out the sides, and many of the squares are worn all the way through. But when I get that longing to be comforted, I pull that old ratty quilt out of my hall closet and it takes me right back to the childhood feeling of being loved and cared for. And getting that feeling from snuggling up with my girlhood quilt is a lot fewer calories than eating my favorite comfort food –a box of Kraft Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese!
I wonder how the new 1930’s Lucky Star quilt will make heart impressions with my family. I know that for me it will forever remind me of how thoughtful and generous my Mother-in-law is. Just like the individual swatches of material are sewn together to create a one-of-a-kind quilt, our lives have united to pattern our forever family. As we sew together memories, life experiences, children, and marriages our hearts are warmed like children wrapped in a quilt. I’m in awe that this cacophony of patterned material will come together to form a piece of beauty, but it reminds me of how each one of us has blended together to become a beautiful family.
The new star quilt will be finished in about a year she tells me, and when it’s done it will cheer-up the spare bedroom where she sleeps when she spends time with our family.
And you better bet your lucky stars that on the nights I cuddle up with that quilt in front of our fireplace, I’ll be thinking, “Not only did I marry the hunk of my life, but I’m stitched together with a family who I cherish!”
A kindhearted woman gains respect…Proverbs 11:16
