Reasons not to leave home

My daughter Danica makes quilts,
Five days before I left home Danica showed me a quilt top she had just finished for a little boy who was about to move into his first big bed. It was a scrappy quilt, made of leftovers hence the name. In shades of blue with a splash of red it was stunning, and with hundreds of pieces of fabric there were lots of interesting things for this little boy to find while he waited for the time to get out of bed. Can you find a car? A face? Well done, but where is the tomato? Of course I oohed and aahed over it. It was a work of art. I didn’t say I wanted one. But to be honest, privately I was just a wee bit jealous.

And by the end of the day, Danica had my own scrappy quilt under way. This was very much a rush job. All four of my girls were involved in some manner, whether it was choosing scraps to piece together, stitching (thank goodness for sewing machines, how did they manage in the olden days!), pressing or trimming. I helped too – ‘Mum, what do you call that shape!’- and I was mainly delegated to ironing, not sure why… although as the days wore on and it became apparent we would run out of purple scraps, I did choose green as the complimentary colour. That decision met with approval.

Day four and Danica and I were incredibly proud of ourselves. Not only had the quilt top been finished, but we made a visit to Spotlight and exited in record time. I mean record time – we had two side border colours and binding fabrics plus the backing fabric chosen within ten minutes. Having been known to agonise for hours over such things, this was truly a remarkable feat!

So this is my quilt, a work of art, a precious memory of us all working together on a project. I should have taken a photo of us all holding it. And as I go forward on this trip, I have a task – I need to find the bumble bee hidden within.

Now where is that bee!!