So here is a baby quilt top. We went to Springs Creative sale a few weeks back in Rock Hill, SC. I bought this panel for 20 cents. It was a book panel, but I just had to make it into a quilt. Actually there were 5 panels for a dollar, but this was the only one I liked
Here up close is one of the pages...cute!
With my mother stable now, I still cannot think clearly. It has become more than my mother now. Her close experiences with decline and death in the past 9 months has brought my own mortality to the forefront. Totally would have liked to skip that part. You see when my mother dies, I will be the oldest member of our family. That is a scary thing. Not only is my own demise a nearer possibility, but the responsibility of the keeper of the flame..."matriarch"...jeeze...and all that goes with that. It brings me to one of the most important books I have read..Julie Hall's book...see below. I read it a few years back and realize that I need to look at it again. It is not just all my mother's things, but now my things that my children will not want. Julie says that in the estates she processes, 90% of the attic things go directly into a giant dumpster, not looked at and not cared about. My mother has done things right. When she moved into assisted living, she divided her valuables amonst us...she gave us her things while she was still alive. She moved from a 5 bedroom house in Arizona, to a 2 bedroom apt here in Charlotte to a room in Assisted living. When we moved her from Arizona, her attic was completely empty At the time I was disappointed, but I came to be grateful. No one really wanted Grandma's pig collection and no one really wants my mother's poetry book collection (other than the books she authored) and who will want my fabric or my great collection of quilting books and antique quilts...How many quilts does a person need, unless you love them so much like I do..?? So it is not just the junk in my head and my heart that disturbs me now, but the junk in my house. UGH!!!
2 comments:
We are on the same page.
I've been (very) slowly going through my Mom's, my family's stuff for, well, we are beginning the 3rd year, now. Every greeting card ever received, not just by my parents, but by both of their parents was still in the house! ugh We don't have children, we have a nephew & niece we love & who get the valuables, but the rest ....
I have a very low tolerance for 'holding onto' things these days.
Hi, Diane. Great idea for the baby quilt--the use of fabric book pages with the text included is so pleasing. I've been through the cleaning out stage (I'm the eldest of the family now, too). Now I'm working on my mom's genealogy project and trying to pull together all the old photos into some kind of useful digitalized form. Time-consuming, but I'd like my grandchildren to have this history available to them. I keep trying to down-size...it may be a losing battle! Thanks for commenting.
best, nadia
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