Memory Quilts connect us with our past →

The memory of my Mother’s Cedar Chest goes back as far as I can remember. It was always referred to as a Cedar Chest not a Hope Chest and the things she kept in were various items that she wanted to remember.

The chest contained memories of her 57 years of marriage, but I really didn’t pay any attention to what was in the chest until several years after I was married and had moved away. Inside she had put old clothes, shirts, baby clothes, drapery, ties, doilies, some jewelry and even some flowers pressed between cardboard. Most of the clothing were things I had worn growing up, rather than my younger brother and sister, suggesting she didn’t stay as focused on this collection as the years went by.

I didn’t really understand what a Memory Quilt was when I decided to take most of the cloth items and have the cut into pieces that could be sowed together. An older neighbor and good friend, Ann Reese was experienced in making quilts and the process of sewing many small pieces of fabric together to create a design for a quilt top. I took the patchwork top to my Sister in Law, Anna Marie, and she did the quilting sewing together of the three layers that make up a quilt - the top, the central wadding, and the backing.

Things that are nostalgic often are connected to missing someone or something and they evoke powerful memories because we absorbed the emotions of the event that they items are connect too. We carry the feelings of the emotion with us and each time we look at certain items we find those feelings.

The finished quilt brings back many memories and is its own piece of Family History. Being able to remember many of original items the quilt speaks to me.

The best life story sometimes doesn’t speak words.