I've been wanting to do this for months. As you know, I am not really a sewer. I just make sewing messes-there is a difference. Never the less, I enjoy sewing, and still use the old '70s Bernina my mother used her whole adult life, and then gave to me.
After my mother died in spring, 2013, I gathered as much as I could from her linens and brought them home. I am not an ironing person, so I knew that using these beautiful linen napkins was a mistake, as I'd have to...god forbid, iron. Nope, no ironing here at Apifera.
The linen napkin squares are so full of memories for me. My parents had wonderful taste in fabrics and home items and I grew up with these very napkins-so many dinners, celebrations and family and friends gathered around the teak table, and used these napkins to wipe away remnants of my mother's meals and my father's too. Can you believe these napkins are from the '60's? I know exactly which china pattern were used with each color.
The center quilt square is even more special. When my mother was around 8, her mother died tragically. But before her death, she and my mother made some quilt squares together. For years those squares sat tucked in a closet until a family friend insisted my mother make them into quilt. She was somewhat reluctant to do it-I wonder if it was just too hard a memory to face even after all those years. Or it might have been that the person coaxing was a bit bossy and she just wanted the idea to go away so her little quilt squares could remain in peace!
But the squares were made into a quilt, and I now have it on my couch and am with it every night. And there were several squares left that I found in my mom's belongings.
I've been wanting to make some faux quilts [these are not 'quilted, as I don't know how] to hang about the farm for Pie Day. I love that this piece will be part of our special day- my mother, her mother and my father too–for I'm sure he was instrumental in picking out the napkins–will all be here in spirit. The plaid pieces are from my favorite pair of Oililly overhauls I wore for years until they literally wore off my body.
We are all combined on this quilt. It is a mother quilt, a family quilt, a quilt that holds family and friends in its essence. I hope to do more of these, maybe I'll aim to make one for every Pie Day. I don't know. I have many of my father's little white hankies. Perhaps I will make a beautiful white piece in his honor too.
