As I was waking up in Beijing one morning I realized that I was staring into a closet full of quilts. In all of the excitement of getting there and travelling around it had taken a bit of time for it to register just what I was looking at, and the longer I looked at them, the more I realized what a time capsule they represented. I knew I needed some pics to share with you so I tried to get a few without totally disturbing the entire pile.
On the very bottom was a
Dresden Plate that mom had made using old men's ties. It is rich in colour and each plate is beautifully embroidered with a feather stitch - onto wool blocks, if memory serves me correctly.
Sitting just above it (you can see just a corner of it in teal/green/purples) is the
Log Cabin that I made for their wedding gift. This thing is huge. Michael is a very tall man and we don't like our quilts skimpy in our family, so I wanted it to be large enough. Even though it was made on the machine I remember sewing on it and wondering if I would ever finish it. Had it been pieced by hand they likely still wouldn't have it, and they have been married 20 years...
The orange quilt on top of that one is from Denyse Schmidt. She and Lili became friends when Michael and Lili lived in Connecticut and when it was time for them to move to Helsinki, Denyse made her a quilt as a goodbye gift that Lili had admired from one of her shows. Hard not to like friends like that, isn't it?
It's beautiful slabs of various orange fabrics with narrow winter white strips running through it and lined in a blue/grey. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good shot of the front but love the quilting pattern that she used on it.
On top of the pile was another one from mom, a
Postage Stamp chock full of all kinds of wonderful scraps. I remember her stitching it in the car on a road trip down to Connecticut to visit with them, so it's fitting that they now have it. Sorry it's a little fuzzy but you can make out the X and O pattern that she quilted it in.
And last but not least was the quilt that we slept under. This is another one that mom made; she was very prolific. The bed was covered in luggage when I took the shots so I only got one corner to show you, but all in all there are approximately 12 strips of geese.
Actually, they are HST
Flying Geese and hand pieced as well. Lots of love and scrappy goodness in one little closet....M
4 comments:
Great memories and wonderful quilts! Thanks for sharing.:)
Wasn't it a treat to discover all those beautiful quilts on the other side of the world? I also enjoyed the experience of seeing so much of mom's handiwork in that bedroom and sleeping under some of those stunning quilts. I managed to take a few photos as well so will send them along to you. Unfortunately, photographing the quilts didn't occur to me until my last day there so no promises as to the quality of the photos. Precious memories indeed.
A time capsule, indeed.
I don't think that there is anything that is more beautiful that a closet of folded quilts. Each of yours is a treasure and has its own little heartwarming story. I love your Mom's Dresden plate quilt - so precious!
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