Discover Vintage America — November 2011

My quilt story

Most of us have played the “what if” game. As in the “what if there was a fire in your home, what’s the first thing you would snatch if you only had mere seconds to escape” game.

We’re talking cherished items, not the family pet or your firstborn.

Photographs? Your laptop? Your vintage music collection? The car keys?

Me? I would grab the copper and aqua satin quilt my Grandma Ross made me when I was a child. Make that two quilts; she also fashioned a tiny one out of the same material for my doll.

After all, almost everything else could be replaced, right? Even photographs could be replicated, thanks to technology (and my mother’s many photo albums).

But not my Grandma’s quilts.

But even if they were destroyed in a fire, I would still have the memories.

The memory of Grandma leading me and my two younger sisters to the tiny brown wardrobe tucked in the corner of her kitchen and opening it to reveal the stacks of shiny fabric inside.

The memory of her asking us which cloth we each liked best. As the eldest, I got first choice: I wanted blue and gold. My sister Diane selected baby blue and rose; my youngest sister, Donna, ended up with red and white.

Grandma stitched each of us a 28 by 32 inch quilt in our chosen colors for our dolls. Unbeknownst to us at the time, she also stitched three full-sized quilts for us and gave them to our mother. As adults, my mother surprised, and delighted, us with them at Christmas one year.

Grandma Ross was one of my best friends. She died when I was only 8 years old. Yet, so many memories of her sustain me. Even now, 44 years later, when I run my palms across these satin squares stitched with my grandmother’s love, I conjure her spirit, smell her scent and remember what it was like to be wrapped snug in her arms.

‘tis said everyone has a quilt story. This is mine.

How about you? Do you have a quilt story? If so, please share it with us. Submit your story to editor@discoverypub.com or by snail mail at 1501 Burlington, Ste. 207, North Kansas City, MO, 64116.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Rhiannon Ross can be reached at editor@discoverypub.com.

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