Mishmash – by Sheila

Those of you – poor souls – who have been following the meanderings of my body and mind in the blog during the last few weeks, will know that it is a mishmash of the past, the present and the future.

I think that may be why I like making quilts out of bits and pieces so much: they represent all of that, but are also something real and useful in themselves.

I made a small baby quilt recently very quickly to send off to daughter Gwen in Oz for a new baby, Thomas, born to two of her close friends. In that quilt are bits of fabric from some different people and I have written in the blog about most of them.  So I suppose in a way such a quilt represents the scrambled wanderings of my mind!

Quilt for Thomas
Quilt for Thomas

There is a bit of:

– Gwen’s duvet cover (pink clowns) from about 1980

– Auntie Elsie’s duvet cover (blue with daisy)

– my friend Mary’s skirt (small blue flowers) chopped off as it was too long

– fabric (round the edge) brought from Holland by my friend Gerda and her sister Els

– fabric (large blue flowers) bought from a garage next to Grandson Samson’s nursery in Sydney

– fabric (spotty) bought from Spotlight, an amazing Australian department store

– a remnant (the green backing) picked up in a salvage yard

– a dress (pale blue) I made for myself in the 1970s

– a scrap of Laura Ashley fabric (stripes) bought in a 50p bag of bits in the 1970s

And that, I think, is what the best of life is about – a melange of different people and places all brought together and somehow forming something that will be of use to someone else in the future.

I hope that is what the climb up Kilimanjaro will be about too: three different generations spanning more than half a century in age, sponsored by dozens of people from all over the world and all different walks of life to raise money to help both the homeless of Canterbury at Catching Lives and those in several different countries, whom Exodus’ charities help.

2 thoughts on “Mishmash – by Sheila”

  1. Lovely quilt! All of my grandchildren have benefited from your generosity in quilt-making so I regularly see the results of your efforts, Sheila. I’m amazed that you can remember where all the bits of material came from and that they go back so far.
    With love,
    Pat

  2. It arrived in Sydney today, funnily enough. I recognised a few of the fabrics. I remember buying the clowns I C&H fabrics.

    Onnie is also very happy with Nell. I’ll send a pic.

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