In the summer of 1991, my mom used my love of art to encourage me to practice reading. I got to draw a picture of my favorite part of the book as I finished each one. I drew these pictures with fabric crayons on muslin fabric. By the end of that summer, I was begging to go to the library and check out more books.
Here’s the thing. This quilt that I treasure so so much was made before Mom learned to quilt. It’s made with the cheapest fabrics available, lumpy polyester batting (which has only degraded with age) and is held together with… tied yarn in four places. Obviously her craft improved greatly with her later quilts. This one is literally coming apart at the seams.

This one is such a treasure to me that I’m going to restore it. The photo above is the “before” picture. I will carefully cut out each square, add some stabilizer to the flimsy muslin, and border each block in a similar manner as the original quilt, with higher quality cottons. I plan to use calicoes, which were the choice of quilters at that time. It’ll get new batting and backing, and be quilted lovingly in her memory.

Of course, my drawings are cute… but one of the things I love most about this quilt, now that my Mom has passed, is that the titles of every book are written on the blocks… in her handwriting. It’s interesting what’s comforting when a loved one has died. Handwriting is one of those things for me, and the love that’s obvious in this project.

I’ll share with you guys the progress I make on this as I make it. This quilt has been folded up in a box for too long.