You can’t go home again, but I was able to get back to my native Iowa over the holidays. And I wasn’t able to escape Texas. There, on the living room wall of my mother’s home, hung a small quilt she had made using quilt blocks from Kerrville.
This story began a few years back when Kerrville resident Lois Charter was a show where I mentioned that my mother made quilts for all of her nine children. Lois was a quilter herself, as well as a native of Iowa. She corresponded with my mother a few times, and when Mom came to visit, we were invited to spend some time at Lois’s home.
Sometime after that, Lois sent me 1000 one-square-inch quilt blocks she had accumulated, with instructions to pass them along to my mother. I did so, and did not think much more about it (I have many hobbies - quilting is not one of them).
So it was a special joy to walk into the farmhouse and see those 1000 quilt blocks transformed from piles in a shoebox into a one-of-a-kind wall hanging.
I cannot imagine the patience and skill required to work on such a project. My mom has been doing it since 1958, when she got her first Singer sewing machine. While modern moms learn by taking classes, Mom learned by watching her grandmother. She sews pieces together with the sewing machine, then hand stitches them to the batting and backing.
She has no idea how many quilts she has constructed. She made at least one for each of her nine children (“some have more than one”), plus lots of baby quilts for her 25 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.
I tried to interview her, but she didn’t have much to say. In her life, quilting and sewing are simply what you did. Along with making clothes, canning vegetables, and baking bread - which she still does.
She can’t even say how long it takes to make a quilt, but acknowledged that one of the more elaborate creations took a year. Of course that is in between regular chores of running a home. Her work became more efficient when the last of the children left home, as she could use one of the bedrooms as a quilting room, complete with quilt frame to keep the working pieces organized.
Like quilters everywhere, Mom uses whatever material comes her way, from old jeans and flannel shirts to pieces of polyester to the thousand quilt blocks from Texas.
Mom’s quilts are elaborate. Mine features the Texas star. My brother’s quilt has the actual notes of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” quilted around the edge.
“I look at that now and think, wow, I really did a good job!” she told me.
Why do you do it, Mom?
“I like to create things,” she said, adding, “and the kids love them.”
xxx
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