My Mother's Crazy Quilting

Over the years, my Mother dabbled in a lot of handwork.  There were a few crewel work pillows on the sofa, a couple of embroidered pictures on the wall, a cutwork scarf on her dresser, knitted baby booties and some embroidered pillowslips as well as numerous other crafty items.  She also dabbled in weaving and basketry, but never stuck with creating more than one or two items in the same technique until she started making Mandalas, which she sold through a couple of different shops. She probably made hundreds of those.  But I hadn't remembered her ever trying crazy quilting, and she never mentioned having done it when I got started doing it.  It wasn't until we were going through her house after she passed away in 2012, when I discovered the above pillow.   

At the time, I took a couple of photos of it, then added it to the Estate Sale pile.  The colors were so bright that I thought I'd never use it.  

A couple of days ago, I was going through a box of her crafting stuff that we had saved to go through later and found a bag filled with velvet fabric scraps.  When I opened the bag to look at the scraps, I found instead, the top for another pillow that was nearly fully pieced!   This one is the same size and there is a large length of the same wide lace that she edged the other pillow with as well, which makes me realize that she had intended to complete both pillows to go with one another!  How I wish I had kept the other pillow and could complete this one to go with it!

There was also a baggie of these fancy trims.


I love the bottom one!

I certainly do not ever recall seeing my mother doing crazy quilting and have only the vaguest memory of the bright pillow being on the rec room sofa when I was growing up.  It was a delightful gift to find on the eve of the 2nd anniversary of her passing.