Mom Awesomeness

My mom (the one who likes to leave witty comments on my blog posts like, "what wedding?") is always a driving factor behind my sewing, knitting and crafting. She is the one that taught me to sew and knit orginally and the one that I ultimately go to when I am stuck on a project. Her advice, which usually starts with, "Now Kate, let's think about this..." has gotten me out of many a crafty jam, and just when I think I know it all about sewing or knitting she goes and learns something new and then happily shares whatever it is (because she knows I can't stand to not know how to do something) in her patient manner. She has finished two great projects lately, and since she has yet to venture into having her own blog I told her I was going to share her finished objects on mine. The shawl above is an example of how she can seriously rock some knitting needles, but it is the quilt below that shows the true depth of her skill and heart.

T-shirt quilts are a pain to make to begin with... the fabric is stretchy, it all has to be backed with stabilizer, you often have all different size squares from cutting around the t-shirt art and sewing it all together gets thick and hard to push through your machine. We both cringe at the thought of making t-shirt quilts, but this one is so special that there was no way she wasn't going to make it. We have a family friend that had a daughter recently lose a long battle with cystic fybrosis, and this quilt was made out of her t-shirts for her sister to take to college. My mom struggled with this quilt from conception to completion, not just because t-shirt quilts are challenging to make, but because the emotional investment and pressure to do a really great job was pretty intense. I am so proud of her for finishing this quilt and for how great it turned out. I know it was a journey for her, and I think it really shows how a quilt can be so much more than the time and fabric invested in it.