The Quilt We Made Together (But You Didn't Know It)

(This is the story about how the quilt came together and was presented to the expectant Mother at her shower this past weekend.)

There once was a mother who loved to quilt. She welcomed her daughter into the world in 1986 with open arms and a blue and yellow quilt. The little quilt squares were very simple, and were held together by stitched hearts representing all the love she had for this daughter. Time passed. The daughter was a happy girl with a love of life. She hadn’t wanted much to be taken away from her reading by learning to stitch like her mother. However, one June and July she took a sewing class in summer school and found out that stitching could be rather fun. Her mother was very excited and opened her scrap basket to share with her daughter! The daughter stitched together 25 2” little squares into a larger 5 X 5 square. She experimented with different patterns – a checkerboard pattern of alternating light and dark fabrics,

a mostly red and green swirl,

a square with bright colors that looked like jewels,

and a square of diagonal color stripes.

Four five-inch squares completed. And then she was done. No more stitching. Ever. Still more time passed and the daughter grew up into a lovely young woman who liked math. She went to college, married a wonderful man and became a math teacher herself. Meanwhile, the mother quilter tucked away those four precious squares her daughter had stitched all those years ago…with a secret plan of turning them into a quilt for her daughter when she became a mother herself. And finally, the time came when the news was happily revealed that indeed, a grand-daughter was on the way!

The four little 5 X 5 squares were turned into the centers of stars, for surely the heavens were rejoicing about the daughter becoming a mother herself. The future grandmother remembered a special dress her daughter wore as Christmas was celebrated in 1991 – the year a beloved father and grandfather went to heaven himself. She would use the color teal – like the dress worn at the family Christmas gathering as a special remembrance of a dear, dear man loved and missed by all. And the other strong colors in the quilt would be raspberry to represent the love this daughter had of picking raspberries on the Golden Lake road, and a brilliant yellow to represent the sunshine this daughter has brought to her mother these past 27 years. And, of course, the quilt would have to have lots of quilted hearts - 45 to be exact! Finally, the expectant grandmother needed to put her own touch on the borders of this quilt as she pondered exactly what name the granddaughter would choose to call her…would it be Grandma? Oma? Gram? YaYa? Mormor? G-Ma? Little one, my very own granddaughter, I can’t wait to meet you! The little square on the back of the quilt will have your chosen named stitched in a heart.. I love you so much already, dear one! And, that's the story of our quilt made together. Time is passing. And you are growing! Both of you!