Remember Me

Not to repeat myself too often, but one of the wonderful things that has come from all the sadness of these last months has been the opportunity to reconnect with family. Some of those hours have been spent discussing what each of us knows about our family's history...much of which has passed on with my father, and now, my sister.

I was digging through my bookshelf this week and found this book, purchased long ago. I opened it, and to my delight, found carefully reconstructed histories of seven women, and the stories surrounding their friendship quilts. I knew nothing of the history of these quilts, and am now inspired to create one of my own; not a swap with friends, but one to remember each of our family members, living or not. I think it's a rather ambitious project (my tendency), but it will be a gift to leave one day for future generations. If you are a lover of quilts and their histories, I highly recommend this book.

When I read stories like theirs (mostly surrounding the Civil War period), I feel so close to those women and their hard lives, I often wonder if that was something I did in another lifetime. When I started spinning years ago, my hands knew immediately that it was exactly what they were supposed to be doing, like some sort of muscle memory. My many other fiber pursuits have fallen into place in much the same way, but not with that same feeling of familiarity.

Once, many years ago, someone told me I must be an old soul. At the time, I had no sensitivity to things of these matters, and filed it away for future consideration. Then this summer, while walking the tide pools with my niece Laurie, I was telling her that I think my grandson is an old soul...and a few feet later, look what we found in a tide pool. How's that for timing???

PS Photo obviously snagged from Amazon...my photos of the cover weren't as good!