Every Quilt Has a Story 3
The Story of A Quilt by Janet Simmons Pike
In Memory of Catherine W. Simmons
February 23, 1938 to January 27, 2012
My mother, Catherine, was very excited about the birth of her new great-granddaughter. This was her granddaughter, Kendal’s first baby, and Mom knew she was having a girl and that her name would be Catherine as well. Mom was planning on making a baby quilt for her namesake, and as soon as sonography confirmed it was a girl, she rushed out to buy the fabric for this special quilt. She had seen a technique on “Sewing with Nancy” and told me she was going to make a “column quilt”. I could not envision the technique she described, as I was just beginning my quilting journey.
Unfortunately, this particular quilt was not to be; as Mom’s life suddenly and tragically came to an end as the result of a horrific traffic accident on January 27, 2012. When we walked into my Mom’s house that night and after the accident, lying on her dining room table was the pile of fabric she had selected for this quilt, just waiting to be cut out and made into a beautiful quilt. A quilt she had envisioned for her new great granddaughter…her namesake.
Once we were through with all the formalities of the funeral services, and everyone had gone home and we were starting to adjust to all the new realities we were facing, I knew what I had to do ... .I had to start and finish what Mom had envisioned. I had to use my hands to do this; since her hands were no longer available. Going through some of Mom’s things, I found her notes she had written down from watching Nancy’s TV show demonstrating the technique. Her note taking was sketchy and was written in a way that she could understand-not anyone else! Because of that, I did some research to try to figure out how to do this technique. I found out it is also called “quilt as you go”. I had never done this technique and at this point, I was a very “beginner quilter”. After ordering the book and video and watching it several times, my brain just could not grasp the concept. I suppose I should have reached out to someone like my quilting friend Iris, or to some of those in the local quilt guild; but I did not. I felt extreme pressure from myself to complete this project. I was also running out of time as there was a scheduled baby shower for Kendal and I wanted to have it ready for that.
Due to my frustration and exhaustion and all the other emotions of grieving my mother, I decided to make the quilt in columns or strips, but not do the quilt as you go method (because I could not!). In hindsight, it would have been ok not to make this quilt or to ask for help-it would have been ok! All that pressure was from myself and no one else and certainly my Mom would have never said or done anything to put me in a situation like that. My brain and emotions were numb and simply could not handle being able to step back, relax, take a breath, take some time, and then try to tackle the technique.
Instead, I improvised and did the best in my meager ability, to what I thought my Mom was trying to create. The end result turned out to be a simple, but beautiful baby quilt! It was made with love for Mollie Catherine through my Mother’s vision and my hands. Every time I see a photo of Mollie as a baby on that quilt, I am forever reminded of my loving mother, Catherine Simmons, who loved her daughter, granddaughters, and great grandchildren (those alive and those she never got to meet) more than life itself. She would have said: “Janet, it's ok, don’t worry about it”. And in the end, it was…..“ok”!
In the following days, months, and years since her death, I have become a more confident quilter and have made many baby quilts. And more importantly, I realize how quilting has helped me through the process of grieving, as quilting did become “my therapy”. Quilting soothes me and calms me down and I can think random thoughts, focus intently on a subject, or be so focused on a project that I forget about anything that may be troubling me.
Now, I have a passion for making baby quilts, with many of them being donated to the Hope Women’s Resource Center, in Beaumont, Texas, where my daughter (the one that was carrying Mollie) works to counsel abortion minded women. Every woman who comes through the clinic gets to choose a handmade baby blanket that has been either quilted or crocheted by volunteers. The ladies that make these items pray for the women who will receive them and for the baby that will be wrapped in the blanket. The blanket is a tangible gift that allows the life of the woman’s unborn child to be acknowledged and celebrated.
On reflection, just as my mother started the circle of acknowledging her unborn great granddaughter through a baby quilt, I have continued that circle of honor and acknowledgement of babies, some that I may know, and many that I do not; with the hope that they will know that they are loved, cherished, and wanted, just as my mother would have loved and cherished her babies!