| As a southern girl, sewing was a rite of passage. You | | | | fence, the clang of cow bells heard from the field, |
| never questioned if you should learn, it was a matter | | | | watermelon juice circling the curve of a sticky, ashy |
| of when. Though I possess the skill, it was rarely put | | | | elbow. |
| to use. One day, while shopping for a quilt, I went | | | | I am convinced that if today's youth were taught to |
| back to my roots. | | | | occupy their hands with more than buttons on a |
| Searching for a quilt with an ethnic feel, I went to | | | | video game, they would learn patience, pride, and |
| several department stores. I found nothing that | | | | develop confidence. And just maybe, we would have |
| appealed to my sense of color, style and culture - | | | | fewer troubled youth today. As Grandma used to |
| nothing that spoke to my soul. So, I gave up, went | | | | say, "Idle hands beget the devil's work." |
| to an African fabric store, selected fabrics, and made | | | | At nine, you don't relate to that sentiment. But as I |
| my own. | | | | designed, cut, and sewed, the hours zoomed by. I |
| As a child in rural Alabama, this routine restored | | | | felt as if I was lost in a good book, only I decided |
| memories of the first quilt I ever made. I was nine | | | | the characters, the plot, the ending. |
| and in fourth grade. Around this time, my | | | | Now that Zola (my sewing machine) has unleashed |
| grandmother made a quilt for each of her | | | | her magical powers, she refuses to occupy her once |
| grandchildren as a Christmas gift. Now, my nephew | | | | familiar place in the bottom of my old college trunk. |
| of nine sleeps on that same quilt. Tattered and | | | | She sits atop her new surroundings proudly, |
| re-stitched in several places, it remains a familial | | | | beckoning me, as if to admonish my idle hands. |
| favorite. | | | | There are days when I tell Zola to leave me alone, |
| While making my most recent quilt, I rediscovered | | | | but in no time at all the fabrics in all their fanciful |
| that quilting is more than sewing, it's a bond from | | | | colors and patterns beckon, and we are one again, |
| generation to generation. Wrapped in my | | | | creating in unison, literally sewing the seeds of our |
| grandmother's gift, I feel her presence. Hair askew, | | | | destiny. |
| laughing in her lap, I'm nine again, with all its incumbent | | | | This article courtesy of |
| joys. | | | | You may freely reprint this article on your website or |
| Cutting and stitching, there is a powerful rebirthing of | | | | inyour newsletter provided this courtesy notice and |
| a time gone by - the smell of honeysuckle on a | | | | the authorname and URL remain intact. |