Something to cling to …

 

when I was a child

my mother’s skirt was

something to cling to

reassurance hidden

in its folds encompassing

someone who made our

everyday routine into an

act of love and sacrifice

elevating the mundane

to something precious

something I still cling to

now she’s gone …

(c) Rita Summers 2016

Thinking of entering this in Remade 2016. Still need to make a jacket and a shirt to go with it!

memory lane 3

family reunion quilt, featuring signatures from my family collected at my late dad’s 80th birthday in 2008

i provided a permanent pen, and everyone signed their names on applique hearts which i had prepared beforehand

my 4 sisters and i then edged the hearts with blanket stitch (by hand), and added other embroidered details

later i machine pieced the quilt using scraps from my stash and curtain samples

a special thank you to pam jarman of quilt top quilting who stitched the layers together on this rather large quilt

memory lane 2

quilt made in 2001 – in memory of my mother, henderika afiena niebuur, nee hulzebos

started just before she died of cancer and completed 2 months later

hand appliquéd; hand quilted

pencil drawing by my dad, jan hendrik niebuur, on the left

in loving memory

one reason i made (and still make) quilts is to honour someone

the 2 quilts in this post were made to honour my parents

folk art flowers

i made this quilt as an expression of love for my mother – i started it just before she died from cancer in 2002, and finished it about 2 months later

she was a very thrifty lady, so i used mostly scraps and remnants from my stash

it helped me cope as i grieved

[hand appliqued, hand quilted, machine assembled; original design inspired by roberta horton’s free-cut applique methods and gwen marsden’s liberated log cabin ideas]

dad’s quilt

i never gave this quilt a name – it’s always been known as ‘dad’s quilt’

this photo shows it hanging in the old church i initially rented to operate as a gallery and studio (to find out more about that, click here)

it tells the story of his life and is in bright colours because he liked them (i also made a book to go with it)

he proudly put it on his bed in his new house and showed everyone who came to visit

in this photo, we had just shown it to him for the first time – it still hadn’t been quilted

he died last november, and the quilt is still on his bed while we wait for his house to sell

lots of good memories …

p.s. – a lovely thing happened about 2 years after my mother died

her quilt was commissioned as a project for a quilting magazine

it also appeared on the cover