Memory Quilt

My mother was celebrating her 80^th birthday in January 2001 and I decided to make her a memory quilt. My mum had her hair done every Friday morning and I took the opportunity to go into the house and copy down the names and addresses of her close friends and other family members. I contacted them all and asked them to make embroider, cross stitch or paint a 6 ½ " square of quilters muslin which I had included. Expecting only half to complete the task, I was pleased that all but one returned the blocks. Luckily I had holidays over the Christmas to get the quilt together. I printed photos onto fabric of our family and mums brothers and sisters and the centre piece was mum and dad's wedding photo. I machine quilted it and it was ready for mums birthday on January 10^th. We went to dinner at a local hotel and I had let everyone know the time and place, mum was expecting 8 people to be there and was pleasantly surprised to see 50 of her family and friends waiting to celebrate with her. The staff at the hotel had set up an area covered by a curtain where I could hang mum's quilt and while we were waiting for the birthday cake the quilt was unveiled. Mum was thrilled with the quilt and it gave her great comfort in her final months as she wrapped herself in it when she had her afternoon nap. As mum's final Christmas neared she wrote a goodbye letter to all and asked me to include a photo of her and the quilt that everyone had contributed to. Later I froggy stitched the quilting and re quilted it as I was not happy with the quilting. My sister in Queensland is looking after it while we are travelling around.