What does a quilt really mean to someone…..

Quilts mean different things to different people. The designer, the quilter, the receiver – they all have a different feeling of satisfaction over the pattern, the workmanship, the design, the colors, etc. This is a story about what one quilt means to me.

My DH and I were scheduled to take a Hawaiian cruise and I knew we would be 3 days at sea once we left the mainland until we landed. Because of allergies I would be spending most of the daytime inside. I would need a fairly large project to fill ALL that time.

I had told an acquaintance I would make a quilt for her and what a great time to work on it. This is originally a paper pieced pattern from Jennifer Chiaverini. Since I’m a hand piecer I cut out all the strips, packed everything I needed and off I went – oh, I remembered some clothes too.

During the 3 days I pieced the entire center medallion of the quilt!

When we were landing my DH said, “Well, you’ve spent all this time working on quilting but now it’s time to forget about quilting and enjoy the vacation.” I agreed and we happily left the ship.

In the welcoming structure all the walls were covered with Hawaiian quilts – it was one of many shows / displays we would encounter. DH resigned himself to a bit of a different vacation than he envisioned.

– This cruise took place one year after 9/11. After the initial shock of that tragedy, people were organizing drop points for quilts to be “donated” to the survivors or to the families of people who had not survived. Since I knew if I hand pieced and quilt something I would never have it ready in time so I turned out 2 paper pieced quilts in record time, had them machine quilted (the dear long armer was so understanding and moved me to the top of her list) and sent them off without another thought.

While on the cruise I was sitting in one of the public areas working on my piece when a woman approached and said “It was you!”

This lady then explained – she thought faith had brought her on the same cruise with the woman who had made the 9/11 quilt she received. She had lost a son and about 2 weeks afterwards she got a package with the simple explanation that her loss was enormous but someone wanted to let her know she wasn’t alone during these trying times.

She was so moved by this gesture she couldn’t put it in words but simply said that quilt got her through one of the worst periods of her life. She would bury herself in it and felt that someone cared enough to understand and offer her some comfort. She told me she would keep this quilt and cherish it for as long as she lived. That quilt meant so much to the family that her other children would fight to sit under it when they came over.

Because the quilt was not signed, this lady was sad she couldn’t contact the quiltmaker to thank her and tell her what the quilt meant. When she saw me working on a quilt she believed it was a miracle and thought she actually came face to face with the maker. I promised her I would publish this story whenever I could so whoever the quiltmaker was – and the other hundred or so who made and sent quilts – would know what those quilts mean to the people who received them.

It’s taken me a long time of working on that quilt – little by little – over the years but it’s almost finished now. I have since lost contact with the person the quilt was originally for and now have to decide what to do with it.

Thinking about the things this quilt has seen and heard with me and the emotions it invokes when I think about them, maybe, just maybe I’ll just keep it until I hear of someone somewhere needing some comfort….but I don’t think I’ll sign it either. ....

Keep Stitchin'

Geri