I understand that a purpose of a sabbatical is renewal. To that end, I want to think of memoirs more broadly than a written text. Artifacts tell a story of their own--or contribute to a story that can be told in another medium. This page, then, is devoted to artifacts--some of which are sort of non-text memoirs, and some of which are components of memoir making.
I comment on each as a sort of artist statement--what it is; what I did; and what contextual information will enhance understanding of the artifact.
Non-Text Memoirs
Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
Wedding Quilt
This king-sized quilt is called "Scrappy." I completed it in December 2007 as a wedding gift from Mom and me for Katie and John (Mom's grandson and my nephew), who were married March 3, 2007 in Ft. Worth. The wedding colors were pink and brown, so I tried to pick that up in the quilt. I also wanted it to fit into a variety of decors, and with the combination of design and fabric, it could easily be country, contemporary, or Asian. The quilt is machine pieced and quilted.
Mom and I used to quilt all the time. I liked to piece, and she would do the hand quilting. In addition, when we lived in Paola Mom quilted at least two days a week at Holy Trinity Catholic Church or at the Senior Center. Quilting was what gave her a her life after Dad died; the quilters became her social network. Mom quit quilting a decade ago, and I had moved away from it of late to knitting. Changes in our family--engagements--brought quilting back into our lives. I selected the fabric, and Mom and I agreed on the pattern, which I executed.
She dogged me to get started on the project, but by the time I did, she was in the nursing home. After one day of piecing, the sewing machine, which Mom and Dad had bought me as a college graduation present in 1968, died. She laughed when I told her that I had hunted the town for a machine that was nearly as simple as my old one--that didn't require an engineering degree to operate and a bank loan to fund. Fortunately, I found one that could even use my old bobbins, so the rest was simple. I set the machine up in her bedroom and used her bed to lay out the pieces to keep the pattern straight. The result is a quilt that can be Asian, folk, or contemporary. And I have to say that I appreciated the distraction the quilt making afforded as I adapted to being home without Millie.
She did get to see (or, at least, feel) the quilt top (shown here), though she never saw the beauty that the machine quilting added. I finished tacking down the binding on my breaks from the hospital because I wanted to get the quilt to John and Katie by Christmas. John W. first saw the finished quilt the Friday he came up to visit Mom in the hospital for the last time. I guess this qualifies as the last quilt that Mom and I worked on together.
* * *
Michael,
my younger nephew, and Ryan Mustian were married in May 31, in Austin, with
colors of nile green, pewter, and ivory. I tried to draw on those colors
with this quilt, which will have the same pattern as John and Katie's, though,
with different colors and color configuration, will look very different in their
Fairway home.
Mittens
This
illustration is typical of the type of felted mittens I make. The
procedure is to use 100% wool, knit very large, and then felt by washing in a
machine with hot water and cold rinse. The mittens tighten up to half the
original size or smaller, and they look like felt. The nice thing is that
such mittens are almost air and water proof.
Millie always liked the felted mittens as gifts, and she was always concerned about her "guys"--the four male aides who cared for her so well when she was in the nursing home. So she asked me before Thanksgiving to start mittens, to "keep their hands warm." Mom's stroke slowed me down, but I finally got all four pairs--two black tone and two brown tone--to "her guys" a month to the day after her funeral. I hope as they wear them that they will remember how much she cared for them as they cared for her.
Muffler
This knitted muffler illustrates the pattern of the two I made as gifts for Mom's helpers. The pattern is diagonal, which allows the muffler to shape itself around the wearer's neck. Alternating rows of four wide create a ribbed look at an angle. The illustration is in a natural yarn flecked with brown and black, but the two I made had very different yarn.
Mom was obsessed with her hair. As I said to the social worker at the nursing home when Mom first moved in, "Get the hair dresser here before the physical therapist. If you want the therapy to work, the hair has to work." Mom had a standing weekly hair appointment with the stylist who had a shop in the nursing home. Because Rachel did nothing but gray hair, she had the fine points of that texture under control. Mom was a happy camper--at least hair-wise. For Christmas, Mom wanted to give Rachel something personal and nice, so she asked me to knit a muffler, using a diagonal pattern that nestles the neck. The pattern is illustrated here, but the scarf I made Rachel was in a silk and wool (very soft) varigated tan into browns into greens. I started it in the nursing home, so Mom could see/feel it in process. Later, to ease my nerves, I kept it with me in the hospital and finished it in the palliative care room. There was something very soothing and, at the same time, final about the the process of finishing this scarf. It was a thank-you wrap for Rachel and, at the same time, a "wrap" of a different sort for our association with the nursing home. I gave it to Rachel the Monday before Christmas, the day we moved Mom's belongings out of the nursing facility.
At the same time I finished up a heather brown muffler for Maria, who had been Mom's helper when she was home. Maria had volunteer to help me with my dog, Bandit, on the day of Mom's funeral, so I made her a "goody" bag with the muffler as one of the treats. When we arrived back home after the funeral, she had the muffler draped around her neck.
Jack's Quilt
This quilt is constructed by selecting images from an overall print fabric. These are of stylized cowboys, similar to the type found on lunchboxes in the 1950's. Each square has a border added, and then the squares are alternated with cross-hatch chenille in baby blue. A narrow border of red and a wide border of blue paisley finish off the quilt, which has ticking as backing. The borders and cowboys are hand-quilted and the chenille is tied in red. This was completed in mid-February, 2008 and given to the baby at his baptism.
Mom and I planned on a quilt for Jack's christening that would
maybe not fit the "baby" and "christening" bill, but would be closer to the
first quilt I had made for his dad back in 1981. That was a crimson and
blue (for the KU Jayhawks), khaki, and muslin quilt that he used for years. I wasn't quite sure what pattern I would use until I found
this pattern in a quilt store in Louisburg, KS. It
has crimson and blue and khaki, and the cowboys are perfect for our little
Texan.
