The theme for the this week is PATTERN -- things with regular or irregular patterns, zebras, ladybugs, kilts, strips, checks, dots, spots, hearts, sewing patterns, blueprints,...

I love quilts and have quite a collection of them. The pattern in this quilt is "Grandma's Flower Garden." After my mother-in-law passed away a few years ago, we were cleaning out her house and found a bag of quilt pieces. Pinned to them was a note which read "pieced by Grandma." My husband's grandmother was very special to him. She lived with the family for several years and since dh was the baby of the family, grandma spent a lot of time taking care of him. This gave the quilt extra special meaning to know Grandma had lovingly pieced it.

There were some stains from critters on some of the white around the pattern. I needed to find someone to remove the stained parts, put on a new white path, and finish the quilting. All of the piecing and the quilting was done completly by hand. Quilting is an art that is dying I'm afraid (at least by hand). It was very hard to find qualified people to hand-piece and quilt the rest of the project. It took over a year to get it done, but the final result is lovely. Grandma's Flower Garden is a true tribute to the Grandma who created it.

Until we meet in the teachers' lounge again,

Linda W. Kelley

www.Christian-Parenting-Source.com