Each of the quilts I have sewn has a story. Sometimes the story is in the fabric selection process. Sometimes the story is in the arrangement of fabrics or in how I quilted the pieces together. Sometimes the story is the fabric itself, especially if it was shared with me by someone else. As I am cutting, piecing, stitching, layering, and binding, I most likely am thinking of the person who will receive the quilt, and the stories shared with that person are woven into the quilt.
In Mooshka: A Quilt Story, author and illustrator Julie Paschkis takes quilt stories to another level. Karla is a young girl who loves Mooshka, the quilt sewn for her by her grandmother. The amazingly different thing about Karla's quilt is that it talks to her! It says, "Pancakes" before breakfast in the morning, and it tells her stories at bedtime. Each fabric piece (or schnitz, says her grandmother) has a different voice and takes Karla to a comforting place in her family's history.
I love that idea. I might have believed in that when I was a young girl. Maybe that's why I like to infuse my own quilts with stories.
You are a multi-talented woman!
ReplyDeleteisn't fascinating the many ways a story can be told?
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