Gonna Take A Sentimental Journey

My aunt made this beautiful star quilt for me when I graduated from High School.





It was on my bed for a long while~ but now sits tucked inside my cedar chest. It was starting to wear thin, and I didn't want it to wear out.

My aunt pieced the quilt top, and then my grandma did all the quilting by hand.



My grandma was an excellent seamstress and quilter. She was able to take very tiny stitches. I tried my hand at a few stitches too, but couldn't do them as neat and tiny as grandma could.


She taught me that the size of the stitch didn't matter, so long as they were all uniform.

This week, I had a great opportunity to see family and friends that I haven't seen for a very, very long time! It was wonderful to see so many people that hold a special place in my heart. Many were old ward members from the ward I grew up in.

The occasion, however, was bittersweet as we were all gathered to pay honor and respect to my dear aunt who passed away the week before.

She was kind and loving~ She always greeted me with a hug and a kiss and always told me "I love you, honey."

When I was in Young Women, she was our camp leader one year. That was the year we all got giarrdia!!! (That's just a fancy word for diarrhea) It was quite the event trying to get home as we had to stop every couple of minutes so someone, or everyone, could run for the bushes!

My aunt and uncle came to visit us when Curtis was in the hospital, even though it was so hard for them. Years ago, my cousin was killed in an industrial accident just shortly after graduating from High School.
Their visit meant so much to me because I knew it took a lot for them to be there.

She was loved, and she will be missed.

This quilt holds many, wonderful memories for me~ of my aunt and my grandma! It's a double bonus! So glad I have it.

A CRAZY QUILT

They do not make them anymore,

For quilts are cheaper at the store

Than woman's labor, though a wife

Men think the cheapest thing in life.

But now and then, a quilt is spread

Upon quaint old walnut bed,

A crazy quilt of those days

That I am young enough to praise.

Some woman sewed these points and squares

Into a pattern, like life's cares.

Here is a velvet that was strong,

The poplin that she wore so long,

A fragment from her daughter's dress,

Like her, a vanished loveliness;

Old patches of such things as these,

Old garments and old memories.

And what is life? A crazy quilt;

Sorrow and joy, and grace and guilt,

With here and there a square of blue

For some old happiness we knew;

And so the hand of time will take

The fragments of our life and make,

Out of life's remnants, as they fall,

A thing of beauty, after all.

~Douglas Malloch