of many sessions around her quilting frame . As the women worked , outlining the fabric flowers with small , even stitches , they talked . In time , with the end of the third winter approaching , the women finished the quilt . As a final step , Grandma gave it away , taking as much pleasure from the giving as she had experienced in the making .
As a 1937 newspaper clipping left behind in her patch box suggested , my grandmother started her first Grandmother ’ s Flower Garden quilt during a decade of economic depression and drought . The pattern was suited to the time . Its tiny patches were a way to use even the small , good parts of otherwise worn-out clothing . Moreover , defying the Depression mood , the vibrant colours of a Grandmother ’ s Flower Garden quilt offered cheer when cheer was hard to find .
Casually considered , my grandmother ’ s quilting was no more than a hobby — pleasant for her , noteworthy for the effort it required — but not something of consequence in the world . My grandmother might have agreed ; she was never one to take herself too seriously . Yet , I for one would not sell her short . Like many women of her generation , Grandma found a way to make beauty out of hardship . She found a way to assert joy where devastation was
driving it away . That must have lifted her spirits and the spirits of anyone who received one of her quilts .
More subtly , as Grandma stitched her quilts , she was unobtrusively stitching people together . The friends who assembled regularly around her quilting frame became a small community of women who would face the challenges of the coming decades together . Where loneliness might have aggravated sorrow , Grandma set the conditions for resilience to grow .
Quilt-making exercised my grandmother ’ s best self — a self that was thrifty , persistent , creative , companionable , and generous . As she made her quilts , quilt-making made her into the person she became . Perhaps that is true for all of us . What we make , but especially why and how we make it , also makes us .
Lloyd Den Boer is a retired educator who lives in Edmonton . His wife , Audrey , is the custodian of his grandmother ’ s patchwork box and the authority who guided him through the mysteries of making one of these wonderful quilts . news & views AUTUMN 2022 | 37