[tri-wings] The Comforting Quilt

I was going through some old videos and came across one from the 1997 SOFT 
Conference in Utah. At the conference they were making SOFT quilts led by Kris 
Halliday (the founder of SOFT and mother of Kari who had T-18)
Kris told the story of the comforting quilt, I think the people in the story 
were her family. So I sat there last night and transcribed it (with some 
editing) and thought it was so beautiful that I should share it with everyone. 

The Comforting Quilt

 

A quilt is more than just a blanket that you wrap around you. It is made up of 
stitches and fabric and memories and love. The stitches of love that are put in 
there by the individuals 

 

Quilt making was the old time way of getting to know each other, your friends, 
your neighbours and even your family. But what went into making a quilt was 
much more than just thread and material. It was also the stories that were 
shared and the emotions too. Sometimes there were tears, sometimes laughter. At 
times people would also prick their finger and find that there was even a small 
drop of blood that ended up on the material and that too was shared. It was 
those threads that bind a quilt, that make a quilt.

 

Yes a quilt is much more than just a blanket that you wrap around you.



What follows is the story of a quilting teacher. This teacher would teach her 
students not just about quilt making, she would also teach them about life.

 

One day the teacher held up a quilt for the class to see. The quilt was simply 
phenomenal ? the colours and the patterns that were in this quilt and the 
fabrics were simply beautiful.

 

As she held it up the class gasped and said ?ohhhhhh its just beautiful?.

 

The teacher said ?yes it is magnificent, but do you notice that this quilt has 
been cut in half?.

 

The class moaned and asked why, why would anyone cut such a beautiful piece of 
work, such a wonderful piece of art. Why would anyone cut a quilt?

 

So the teacher went on to tell them the story of the quilt which dated back to 
1852. She told them of a time when there was a family, a family with a very 
special, and much loved mother. The mother was a quilt maker, a clothes maker 
and user of materials. She had pieces of material from many occasions in her 
life. From party dresses, from her grandmothers apron, from christening dresses 
and wedding dresses. She had it from bedspreads, she had it from every walk of 
life.

 

She had saved those pieces of material and with her daughter Katherine she had 
made this quilt. As they made the quilt they were bound by all the memories, 
the emotions, the tears and laughter. It was a wonderful thing within the 
family and they called it the comforting quilt.

 

When Katherine was 13 years old her mother had another daughter. This was a 
special moment for Katherine, something that she had been waiting and goping 
for ? a precious little sister. They called her Lucy and Katherine loved her. 

 

But tragedy struck the family and when Lucy was 3 their mother died. And so 
Katherine became the mother of her little sister Lucy. 

 

Shortly after the mother?s death the family decided to head west. To a new life 
of hope and promise. And so the family headed across the plains 

 

As they travelled Lucy would miss her mother. Katherine would comfort her and 
at night she would wrap her in the comforting quilt. Lucy would run her hands 
over the fabric and say to Katherine, ?Tell me about this one?. And so 
Katherine would tell her about the party dress that her mother had made, of the 
party that she wore it to. And Lucy would fall asleep drawn into the binding of 
the quilt. 

 

The next night she would say to Katherine, tell me about this one. And 
Katherine would tell Lucy about her grandmother?s apron and how she remembered 
her grandmother in it.

 

Sometimes after Lucy had gone to sleep Katherine would wrap herself in the 
quilt and she herself would cry until she fell asleep remembering the better 
times and the memories that the quilt brought to her. Of her mothers love and 
the safety that she remembered not the hot dusty and unknown plains that she 
was travelling across. 

 

As time went on the comforting quilt became the bind that held these two 
sisters together, as they joined and came together at night to go to sleep. 

 

One day Lucy became ill and Katherine became desperate to know how to care for 
her. She rode in the back of the wagon that her father was leading and stroke 
Lucy?s hair, sing to her and try to comfort her.

 

This went on for a few days when they came to stop just above a creek. 
Katherine left Lucy in the wagon asleep while she walked down to the creek to 
get some water. The journey was hard, it was hot and she sat in the cool 
refreshment of the water, letting the dust of the journey wash away. As she sat 
there a wonderful feeling of peace came over her. It enveloped her and somehow 
she knew that everything was alright, she was at peace within her heart and 
gave a sigh of relief.

 

As she carried the buckets of water over the hilltop she saw three men digging 
a grave beside the wagons and wondered why. As the realisation dawned on her 
she dropped the water and ran furiously to the wagon only to find it empty. 
Katherine fell back against the wagon and stumbled out. She found her father 
sitting on a log holding the still body of her sister Lucy. 

 

Her father said to Katherine that it was alright, that Lucy was at peace. 
Katherine looked at them both and as her heart broke she began to weep. 

 

Two women came over to Katherine and said just how very sorry that they were 
for the loss of her little sister. They then told Katherine that they needed 
something to wrap Lucy in so that they could bury her and asked her if she had 
anything.

 

With sadness in her step Katherine walked slowly back up to the wagon where she 
found the scissors and the comforting quilt. With tears streaming down her face 
she cut the quilt in half and handed it to the women and then helped to 
lovingly wrap her sister in it.

 

Our lives are like quilts, pieces of fabric made up of emotions, of events and 
people. Tiny pieces of our lives that bring us memories and that draw us 
closer, they are the threads that bind us to each other, that bind us to our 
children. 

 

And some of us must cut our wonderful brilliant quilts in half and give them to 
our sweet and precious children as they leave us. It is our quilts bind us, the 
threads that keep us close and the memories that keep us strong.

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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