Quilt therapy

Talking to my Mom can be surreal.
I phoned her recently. She knows that I will be coming to visit in a few weeks and will be there on her birthday. She asked when is her birthday. I told her and she asked, "Isn't that the same?" "The same as what?",  I replied. "The same as my birthday."
Well, yes, yes it is.
When dealing with a loved one with dementia, you have to keep your sense of humor, it helps to keep your heart from breaking.

I have been really missing my Mom lately, so I wanted to start on a project using the shirts that I showed you a while ago. Before I started on them I got the binding on the little opal quilt; I hope to have it done by next weekend. I started to sash the square plates but ran into a problem because my plates aren't the same size (grrr). So I see some seam ripping in my future. Thanks to everyone for your help with the sashing problem. I look forward to showing you the dark, solid olive-y green that I am using; I think it was the perfect choice.

I had been thinking that my next project would be with a stack of fabrics from my stash, making something like this quilt I love from the Scott Heffley collection. (If you don't have Bold Improvisation, I highly recommend it.) But I wanted to start cutting on the shirts. I have been *anguishing* about what to do with them. I thought it should be simple, maybe Rail Fence, maybe Roman Road. A cross block, a string block? So I finally had to get a bit stern with myself -- THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE NOR IS IT BRAIN SURGERY! IT IS JUST A QUILT! MAKE IT!!!



So I went with one of the designs I had sketched early on -- sort of a crooked Roman Road. I pulled some solids to go with the shirts; they make me think of the multi-colored pants that my Mom used to get to go with her colorful shirts. It is a bit emotional working with these fabrics but I think I am going to love this.

 

I also have a stack of her dresses (have I mentioned that my parents never got rid of ANYTHING?) that look as though they were always meant to be together. With these, I am thinking of doing something with squares, rectangles and quarter- and half-square triangles that will (I hope) give the look of houses.