In 1997 I was a happy, stay-at-home mom. My two kids were in school and I finally had some time to myself during the day. I started quilting as a creative hobby. I made about five quilts for friends at church who were having babies. I decided that it was time I lavished some of my talent on my own children, so I started a quilt for my son. He was 12.
I chose his old blue jeans as the quilting material. This involved ripping open the double seams of his jeans, pressing them, cutting them into strips and then sewing them back together. I tried a tumbling block pattern. I liked it because if the light and dark pieces are chosen correctly, it gives a three-dimensional geometric effect. I sewed a sample block. It involved 60 degree angles and precise piecing. The result was a pattern that was much too complicated for bulky denim fabric.
Next I tried a Roman Square pattern which was three rectangles sewn side by side. Simple pattern with minimum seams, it was perfect. Then my world fell apart. I went through a divorce and suddenly had to face single parenting and rebuilding my career to support my family. All thoughts of quilting flew out the window.
A few years later when I had a week off at Christmas, I ripped apart more jeans, cut more strips and sewed a few more squares. During the rest of the year it was hard to find the time and the project box would sit in the top of the closet until the next December. Some Christmases, I didn’t get the box out at all. Every summer I would say,
“I’ll finish this in time for his next birthday.”
After his October birthday passed, I would say,
“I’ll finish this for his Christmas gift.”
Several Christmases passed and I said,
“I’ll finish this for his high school graduation.”
In between I made progress on the quilt. I cut out and sewed all 88 of the Roman Squares that I needed. He became engaged and I thought,
“I’ll finish this for his wedding present.”
I didn’t make the wedding deadline. About five years ago I had a flurry of activity and got most of the rows completed. I laid them out on my bed in the order that they were to be sewed together, but my vacation time ended. I rolled up the rows, and put them back in the box. The next time I sewed a few more rows together and then had to roll them up and put them away again.
In November, 2008 I said,
“I am going to finish this quilt.”
I thought that I could get it done by Christmas.
It was a normal December: hectic and overloaded with too many activities, so I said,
“I’m not going to stress myself out by pushing to get this done by Christmas, but I will get it done.”
So, every spare moment after Christmas I crammed in a little sewing time. I got all of the rows of the quilt assembled. I returned to work after New Year’s. I kept sewing in the evenings. I sewed on the side
triangles and the border. I worked on Saturdays and assembled the quilt top, batting and backing. In desperation, I temporarily abandoned writing in my blog and machine quilted the assembled pieces. Then I sewed on the outside binding.I finished the quilt on January 26, 2008. On the following Saturday I handed over a wrapped package and I said,
“Son, this is your graduation, wedding, Christmas, and birthday gift for the last twelve years.”
My 24 year old, married son, father of my three year grandson said,
“Thanks, Mom.”
