Alisa's Thoughts & The Grandma Quilt

My sister Alisa is one of those women who has a beautiful, strong, and fierce fully, graceful presence.  She is creative and conveys her thoughts and emotions through the things she creates.  She arranged the flowers for Mom's casket and other flowers displayed during the funeral.  She embroidered handkerchief's for our entire family with the word's "I love you" in my Mom's handwriting.  Recently she entered a writing contest on the topic of quilting and I wanted (with permission) to share her entry here.  She has a strong and powerful voice to match her creativity and I feel blessed to be able to share her words below.

I have always wanted to be able to create things that are beautiful and useful.  Growing up I learned to embroider and crochet, and enjoyed making projects for myself and others.  After I was married, my husband's grandmother took me under her wing and taught me how to quilt.  I loved the quiet contemplation and peace it afforded me.  I love to make quilts, big and small.  I have made them for friends and family, big enough for a queen sized bed and small enough for a doll.  It has always been fun and relaxing, but recently it became more to me than that. 

 About two months ago my mother was diagnosed with cancer.  She was going to have to go through the difficulty of chemotherapy, and I wanted her to have something that she could take with her to symbolize the love and support of her seven children and eleven grandchildren.  I turned to quilting.  I had all of my siblings send me hand prints of their kids, and I embroidered them on the quilt in their favorite colors.  The quilt had the name of each child and grandchild and in the middle was emblazoned our family motto during this difficult time, "Be Strong."  This quilt was able to keep her warm and as comfortable as was possible during her first round of chemo.  That would be its only trip with my mom to chemo.  Devastatingly, she passed away only a few short weeks after the quilt was completed. 

Before she died, she stated very clearly that she wanted the quilt left in her home for any of her grandchildren who visited to wrap up in and know that it was a 'hug from grandma'.  Her chemo quilt has become the Grandma quilt, and was used often in those first few days after she left us.  Quilting gave me the comfort of being useful and productive when there was nothing I could do to help my mom.  In turn, it gave my mom a way to leave a token of her love behind with us when she passed.