Thursday, January 19, 2012

Quilted Thoughts

When I flew back to California last November, I knew it was likely that I would need to attend my mom's funeral, but I still didn't really believe. I packed in a hurry, but surprisingly everything I needed made its way to my suitcase. (Except for a pair of heels, which the boy was able to bring with him when he flew back a few days afterwards.) But in my hurry to pack, I didn't think about the fact that I might want to leave room so I could bring things back to Louisiana with me.
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Even without much room, there was one thing I wanted to be sure I brought back with me, even if it meant I'd have to leave other items in California for now. I few years ago my mom made me a t-shirt quilt out of all my old soccer shirt. I had a mild freak-out when I couldn't find it the immediately, but tracked it down gave it about half of my suitcase. (Thankfully the boy filled up most of his suitcase with my belongings as well.)
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The quilt has shirts from as far back as 6th grade and up through college. Part of it is even in honor of my teenage crush on England's Michael Owen.
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But bringing back the quilt reminded me of another project my mom and I had discussed. Last year I showed my mom Mrs. French Fries' post about sewing napkins and turning them into a quilt, which she loved. "I would do this for you, if you wanted," she told me. Except I remembered Mrs. Cardigan's post ranting about how awful it was sewing napkins. And I don't sew, so I would basically be making a lot of work for other people.

Mrs. French Fries' Napkin Quilt
Did I want the quilt and the napkins then? Not necessarily. Do I want them now? Again not really. Except I want to have the opportunity to want them. I want to be able to say to my mom, "Thank you for offering, but I'm not sure cloth napkins fit into 'my vision.'" So again, like everything else in this situation, it just sucks that things worked out the way they did.

Did you loose wedding related project due to circumstances out of your control? And what are your thoughts on a napkin quilt?

4 comments:

  1. I love the t-shirt quilt your mom made you! I'd really like to have a t-shirt quilt made out of all my race t-shirts.

    I'm sure somewhere your mom is hearing you say what you want to say to her. In some way or another. XO

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  2. I made a wedding quilt out of the vintage cloth napkins I collected for my wedding. I found all of them at thrift stores leading up to the day and I used a tutorial at Purl Bee for the design. It was challenging at times b/c of the material, but I loved it. It was actually my first major sewing project ever and it took a long time to complete, but completely worth it for me. My great, great grandma was a quilter as is my grnadma so I love that its trickled down to me. I have a post with a finished picture of the quilt on my blog if you want to see.

    I can't imaging what its like to lose your mom before your wedding, but I really do believe that she's out there somewhere with you, helping in (maybe unconventional) ways:)

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  3. I love the quilt your mom made for you. That's amazing that you'll be able to have that for years and years!

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  4. I love t-shirt quilts. I don't have one as I wasn't active in sports, so didn' really have t-shirts to make a quilt out of!

    That napkin quilt is beautiful!! And like Amber said, your mom is looking down on you, hearing your thoughts/wishes/etc. I know that's cliche to say, though... Thinking of you! xoxo

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