Remembering Mama

Today would have been my Mama’s 80th birthday. Mama passed away on December 9, 2002, in Houston Texas. She was a great lady, a great mother, and a great quilter! She talked about quilting up until the last couple of days of her life while in ICU.

Up until the latter years of her life, she made her quilts by hand. When she started machine-piecing, she thought she was in Heaven. She made each one of her children and grandchildren a quilt. We all got to pick out the colors and “most of the time” the pattern.

Mama didn’t teach me to quilt. Even though I would watch her all the time, I took classes at the local quilt shop – in fact, she took them with me! My niece, Kim (over at Peach Quilting), lived with my Mama when her husband was overseas (he is in the service), and Mama taught her to quilt. She is now an avid quilter too so Mama’s legacy lives on.

I always got tickled at her because she called the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt pattern “Sue Bonnet Sue”. In fact when going through her quilting things, I found some “Sue Bonnet Sue” blocks that she had made. My niece, Kim, was expecting her first little girl so I sent them to her to make the baby a quilt.

When she passed away, I spent a week at her home (I lived approximately 150 miles away) to take care of final arrangements, etc. My comfort was to go sit in her sewing chair in her sewing room. I would sit in that chair and just look around and cry and remember so many fond memories.

I miss my Mama greatly. There is hardly a day that passes that I don’t think about her. So many times, I have physically picked up the phone to call her and had to put the phone down because I realized she was not there. But, I know she is in Heaven just quilting away, enjoying a hobby that she loved so that is comfort to me!