Our family legacy

So many of you know my mom from various quilt groups and stores. She is an amazing, giving and very talented person. She blessed me with my love to sew early in life, teaching me to create clothes in mid to late grade school. It is a skill I used when my kids were little but as they got older and busier it didn’t fit. I even got rid of my sewing machine and all my notions.

My mom, however, didn’t let go that easily. When a quilt store opened in Cimarron she quickly picked up quilting. So much so in fact that she made quilts for every member of our family for years. Some years that would be 12+ quilts and more. When it got to be too much she didn’t stop. She just rotated between the various ages. Kids one year, grandkids one year. Then it switched to daughter/daughter-in-law one year, sons/son-in-law one year and then granddaughters and grandsons. When the greats started coming she made them quilts before they were born and every Christmas until she had a heart attack followed by a stroke.

Then out of the blue my daughter asked my mom to teach her to quilt, so one Christmas break years ago we spent the time making matching flannel snowmen quilts. It was my very first quilt and I was hooked. I remember clearly telling my mom, “I’m working on and purchasing fabric for one quilt at a time.” She laughed and said “We’ll see” (with her twinkle in her eye). I was adamant that I meant what I was saying but my mom knew and she was right as always. That lasted for one quilt and the stash collecting began.

I credit my mom for giving me the love of creating and am so thankful she taught me to have a giving heart that loves God. I also have a bit of my dad in me so having something I can work at as long as I wish is very important. That’s when I turned a hobby into a job and opened Honeycomb Quilts in late July 2016. The store was a place my mom and I spent a lot of time together. I can’t count the number of texts, calls and visits over quilts, fabric and patterns we have had. Time spent at the lake was spent sewing together, sometimes just her and I but sometimes three generations with my daughter joining in. Now my mom is helping her great granddaughter learn to sew and quilt.

What a legacy for our family. I have lost count on how many quilts my mom has made and given away but if you ask my dad their house if ‘taken over’ by quilts. Hahaha…probably the same thing every quilters spouse can say.

I’ve recently taken some time away from the store to be with my mom during a stay in the hospital and not surprisingly some of that time was spent designing a quilt and looking at various patterns and fabric. I love to see her eyes light up and hear her memories of quilts she has made. She has slowed down a bit but still has a quilt on the design wall that she is working on. It will be a treasured quilt from an amazing grandma that will be handed down for generations to come.