Stitches Tell Stories

Every quilt has a story. I began this quilt in Tulsa, OK. We were preparing for the mission field and David was in school full-time, so my fabric budget was pretty limited. The best way to keep enjoying my new hobby and learning new skills was to do those $5-$10 block of the month clubs at the fabric stores. I did them all  - three different stores – simultaneously. One of those was this quilt.

We moved to Florida, then Missouri. In each place I worked a little on the quilt top but never finished. Other quilts took priority because they were gifts for other people. Eventually we moved to Quebec, Canada to attend French language school. We had to fit everything we owned for a family of five into a mini-van, which called for some serious paring down, but I managed to fit my sewing machine and quilt blocks! While we were there, I finally completed the top. I packed her up and took her to Africa, thinking that I would quilt it there.

We only have power about 30% of the time in Kinshasa. When the electricity is on I find myself racing to get laundry, school stuff, baking, bill paying, blogging, correspondence, etc done before it goes off again.  I began to wonder if I was EVER going to finish it. David suggested I send it back to the states and have someone quilt it for me. When our son came to visit for Christmas, I did send it back with him, but it went into storage for a while, waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

During our time in Florida, a friend from our college days was going to be nearby for a conference and asked if we’d like to drive up to see him and meet his family. We had not seen Darren in over fifteen years and were very excited. I liked his wife Marcia instantly. It was so fun to discover how much we have in common and we parted feeling like we had been friends for much longer than just an evening. We’ve kept in touch ever since. Once I made the decision to have my quilt done by someone else, Marcia was the obvious choice. I trusted her and I had been admiring her work for some time via her blog.

This quilt has journeyed across the U.S. and the ocean with me and I have a lot in common with her. We are both a work in progress, a slow progression getting a little closer to being useful and beautiful at each stop along the way. Neither of us are the same as we were seven years ago when I began working on this quilt.

I named her “Je me souviens,” which means “I remember,” because she reminds me that through the years I spent finishing her I made new friends, reconnected with old friends, learned new skills, travelled to new places, learned a new language, lived at seven different addresses, encountered two new cultures, faced several challenges, and said many goodbyes. She’s even more special now because of the love and talent stitched into her by my friend Marcia – a constant reminder of our friendship even though we both worked on her at different times and in different places. 

Here is a pic of the back of my quilt. It's almost a quilt all by itself! The photo really doesn't do justice to all the detail and colors. 

Marcia also graciously allowed me to use her photos. 

You can read her blog and see some of the other work she has done by clicking HERE.

You can shop in Marcia's store by clicking HERE.

Stitches tell stories, and this quilt has a lot of both!