I saw a picture of an antique quilt in a magazine, and was inspired to try a sunshine and shadow quilt like it. It required careful use of cotton prints.
When my father moved to a new city, I gave the quilt to him. They moved because my mother had been diagnosed with rhumatoid arthritus and they thought that the doctors would be better in a university town.
Dad 'went horizontal' on his bed in the afternoons.
Eventually, the top of the quilt wore out, some of the fabrics disintegrated.
I started to mend it when he moved into long term care. Since 2013, off and on, during my visits with him, I take the needle and scissors and scraps from a ziplock I keep in his cupboard and mend,
Sometimes I work on other sewing project or I go through photos with him, or I read to him.
He likes Ogden Nash.
He likes Emily Dickinson.
The mending seems to be a slow process.
I brought the quilt home a couple of weeks ago and told myself "just go for it"!
Mend it.
Now.
The man is 93 years old.
the deep soul comfort of mending for the people we love most
ReplyDeleteIt's a touching story, this quilt's time with your father and you. What a joyful occasion to see one of your own quilts used so much that some pieces wear through. I haven't seen my quilts used this much. I hope to be able to also patch some of my own quilts someday.
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