Quilting Memories

I think I'm a bit of a romantic. Last week I was reading the last page of the June 2007 issue of the American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. It contains a short article on a quilt that Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the U.S. made when he was 10 years old while his mother was dying of tuberculosis.

I love the history that is behind each quilt, whether old or new. I love how lives are woven together through the making of quilts... or anything really - a loaf of bread, wedding or baptismal dresses, birthday or Mother's Day cards made by children.

That is what makes the art and craft of quiltmaking so rewarding. The magazine article points out that Calvin Coolidge's quilt certainly wasn't perfect. Some of the blocks are facing the wrong direction. It didn't need to be perfect. But it's a wonderful job done by a 10 year old spending time with his mother.

I think that is the heart of our clubs like Saturday Sampler or Thimbleberries. And it's certainly a part of best friends or mothers and daughters shopping together and making quilts together.

It's also a little bit of the romance that I was trying to capture in my latest quilt, Wish You Were Here. We, at the shop, are really starting to enjoy this year's Shop Hop Theme fabric. I know that it is so similar to last year's theme fabric. But the more I look at it the more I really like it.

Wish You Were Here is a little bit like a giant postcard. You know those old Route 66 postcards? It's kind of like that. The Shop Hop fabric is in the sashing rather than the blocks. But the blocks pull out some of those fabulous colors in the fabric. And there's a little surprise on the back. I really wanted it to be a little bit like a postcard. The whole back becomes the "label" of the quilt. Take a peek the next time you're in the shop.

And join us in our excitement for the Shop Hop. Grab the arm of your best friend, mother, sister, or son (as the case of Calvin Coolidge) and put your memories into cloth.