When You Gotta Quilt, You Gotta Quilt ! |
Once upon a time there was a little old lady who, at the ripe old age of 73, had a sudden urge to quilt. She didn't want to make a quilt, she just wanted to quilt. |
This was not rational at all, for quilting was not among her talents. Her mother was the official quilter in the family, and no one could approach her mastery of the art. The little old lady was lucky enough to have several quilts that her mother had quilted, and they were pure works of art. |
No, she just wanted to go through the motions of quilting. Crazy. So she went to Wal-Mart and bought a quilt. Not that she needed it. She already had several quilts artfully displayed around her cottage, and others to keep folks warm. But what the heck - it would not break the bank - the quilt she bought was only $29.96. She figured that was cheaper than therapy. |
Another reason that the whole idea was crazy was that she already had a myriad of hobbies. She was not sitting around bored, wondering what to do with herself like some little old ladies. Besides that, her fingers were crippled and would not take well to quilting. (She knew that crippled was no longer a politically correct term - but her fingers were definitely crippled.) One pointed in the wrong direction at all times, although it still functioned well on the keyboards of her computer and her piano. This one poor finger had gone astray before she started getting treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and there was no turning back. Her other fingers were pretty pitiful looking and quite often painful, but they still worked. Just not for too long at a time. |
Nevertheless she still had the urge to quilt. So she bought this ready made quilt. It said handmade on the label, but she had serious doubts about that. Anyway, what she proceeded to do was start outlining flowers in the blocks on the quilt. Oh, this was fun! This was challenging! This was therapeutic! There must be approximately 48,523 flowers on this quilt. Maybe more. She could quilt on this quilt the rest of her life, and never finish the project. She could pick it up at any moment and start at the edge or right in the middle. It didn't matter. She could work on one side awhile and not get back to it for weeks. |
Sometimes she used a quilting stitch - at least she thought it was such - but sometimes she might use an embroidery stitch. Sometimes she just let the needle go where it wanted to. No rules. No regulations. Just fun. One thing was for sure. She would never be inducted into The Quilting Guild. |
Of course she had to keep this a secret. If her mother ever saw it she would be horrified. If any of her kids knew about it they would think she was crazy. Why would anyone want to spend so much time on this usless endeavor? She didn't care. |
It had a side benefit she hadn't expected. Seems quite often when she sat down, her cat, who was not the most affectionate cat in the world, would appear and want to play with the thread. So they would play with the thread for awhile, and then the cat would settle down for a little nap on her lap. She enjoyed these times immensely, and would always put the needle safely away and let the cat rest on her and the quilt. Oh, the joys of old age. |
She set a limit, so as not to let her fingers get too tired at any one sitting. She decided she would just thread her needle twice any time she sat down. Two lengths of thread should do it. But sometimes she was just so fascinated with the way things were going she would break her own rule and keep on going. She was quilting. Sort of... |
So if you should be going through her things when she's gone, and you should come across this quilt that seems to have come from Wal-Mart, but also seems to have a lot of hand-stitching on it, I can just hear you saying, "Oh, it's just a crazy quilt. Just a crazy quilt. Toss it out." She'll take no offense. |
Author - Garrulous Granny aka Beth Bankert Story is used with written permission from Garrulous Granny. |
Page made by Grannyooops 08-23-01 |
Beth Bankert remembers playing under the quilting frames as a little girl in the olden days. She can be reached by e-mail at garrulousgranny@hotmail.com |
This syndicated article was in our paper in July. It touched my heart deeply and I knew it belonged on a nice page to be shared on the internet. What better story could be on the first page of my new website ? ~ We Seniors ~ I realize it is a long page, but to me, it is worth the time to read it. It was sure worth the time to me to type it. I hope that you enjoyed it. |
Please sign my guestbook so I know that you have visited.. Thanks, Carole |
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There is more. Keep scrolling. |
It's getting too late for this Granny. Time for me to roll in to bed. Goodnight All. Sweet Dreams. I hope you enjoyed your stay. |
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Click on the flag above to see the site of a man that makes stained glass flags. They are beautiful. My daughter saw one of Berts flags in her doctors office. |
