Monday, May 11, 2009

Happy Mothers' Day



My lovely Mum passed away just over 2 years ago and we all still miss her so my DH challenged me to work on a project of my own for a change, on Mothers day. So in honour of my lovely Mum I decided to work on some 1940s star blocks. I had started appliqueing these to plain cream background fabric. It's been a WIP for some time but as I bought them as someone else's UFO I don't think the slow progress matters too much. The colours remind me of the sort of dresses Mum used to wear when we were young and there were 36 stars but I eliminated one as it had very flimsy material.
I started putting the blocks together and only got a couple of rows done as we had family commitments, but I am pleased with the way the sashing is making them look a lot more interesting. I had a lovely day with two of our children coming to visit and our son rang to say that he's cooked me a lamb roast. Unfortunately he was in Melbourne and we live 2 hours away so I've taken a raincheck.
In the evening I rang one of the lovely Mums I'd met at a Kinglake school. She's going to help us to get the quilts to families who don't have children old enough to attend school. She said that the quilts have made a huge difference to the families who've already received them and rather than us trying to give them a quilt in their favourite colours, many have decided to base their decore colours around the quilts they've received, when they rebuild. I also rang a lovely Mum who's DH was a fireman who died while fighting the fires here in Vic. We'd never met and I had tried a few other times to ring her but couldn't find her at home. When I rang last night we spoke for 40 minutes and she said that I must have known she needed a kind word. I rang to offer quilts to her and her 3 children as a thank you for her DH and their father's service to our state. We decided that it was probably meant to be that I couldn't contact her before until she needed me to ring. I always find that a kind word can do more than you think and we've decided to stay in touch. I think I got as much from our conversation as she did. She said that the firefighters have been a huge support for her and her young family and they have made things a lot easier for her. The CFA do so much unpaid work for the community and need more recognition so please pass on our sincere thanks if you know a firefighter.
It's time to get back to the machine and finish off the QS quilt I'm putting together and then post more photos on my other blog.
Hus to all and thanks for reading.

2 comments:

kaiteM said...

a lovely story Jan, and thankyou for sharing it and the beautiful photo of your lovely Mum. It's nourishing for your soul to do a bit for yourself occasionally. K.

Michele Bilyeu said...

I'm the lady in the U.S. who donated 21 bright green star blocks...same star...to the Bush Fire quilts in March. My heart told me they should go to you. Now, look here you are working on your own quilt of star blocks. I was only able to donate the blocks with no time to sash them as I was heading from Oregon to Alaska to take care of my own mother. I don't know if anyone finished my blocks off into a quilt yet but perhaps they could go to Kinglake as they are green, gold and purple , I believe.

Sometimes, a faith filled sense of direction and the stars just line up and without knowing it we make connections with others. I am thinking of your mom, and my own as I write this today. Someday, perhaps they'll both meet, somewhere over a rainbow in those bright stars above!