Comforting Quilts

I don't know the man this comfort quilt is going to. In fact, I only met his DIL a couple of times when we both lived in LA. He had a stroke. She nominated him for one of the comfort quilts when I made the offer on Facebook.

As I mentioned before, the pattern says it is easy. Easy, but time consuming. It is ready for the layout process, and then needs to have rows pinned & numbered and pieced. Pressing goes on with each seam to keep it flat. 

I received one of my Mother's paintings in the mail today. She's in a MN nursing home. One of the residential activities is painting. She says she loves painting. I believe that its like those adult, late night restaurant sessions set up all over where groups of people come for wine and snacks, pay their fee and learn painting techniques. This one is based on the work of Fernand LaBelle. 

Its good. She did a good job even though I don't know what the model looked like. She said it reminded her of the barn on the farm she grew up on, and she knew I liked Birch trees. That is huge for her right now because some days she doesn't know who I am.

In one way, following someone else's quilt pattern is like the group painting process. Only, we get to select the fabrics and colors.

Mother has changed in many ways since her fall & subsequent move into nursing care. I don't remember her ever participating in art forms. I don't even know how she remembered my love of Birch trees. We had them in our front yard when I was growing up but not on the farm near that barn.

I've been considering all sorts of things about this painting of hers and quilting of mine. After talking with her about her painting classes and this piece in particular, I picked up a flat rate envelope, put postage and addresses on it and sent it to Brother asking him to send the painting to me. I did not want to take a chance that it would go elsewhere. It became extremely important for me to have it in my studio.