“Quilts Celebrate Rites of Passage.” That’s what guest lecturer, Julie Silber, pointed out in her Saturday evening presentation, “Keeping Them in Stitches.” Quilts tell stories of the women who made them and of the people those women lived with. They often represent values that are important to society: babies, marriages, friendships, social organizations, religions, and death.

Making and sharing handmade quilts for life events has been a familiar tradition for generations. It is a tradition that is understood by young and old alike. Just recently, a local elementary school was celebrating its’ 60^th anniversary and part of that celebration included presenting a patchwork quilt depicting the schools’ milestones.

Sometimes, quilts intended to honor special events, fall a little short in design and execution.  Julie pointed out, that just as with life, quilts aren’t always perfect and some of those imperfections can lend themselves to some pretty humorous results. She spent well over an hour amusing her audience by sharing photos from quilts spanning 60 years (from the late 1800’s to the 1940’s) that depicted the shortcomings of their creators. Whether it was unusual color combinations, mismatched patterns, or silly messages embroidered in the quilt, Julie’s examples reminded everyone that just because things don’t go as planned, you can still have a rich experience.  

The next time your quilt project doesn’t turn out exactly how you expected, don’t get discouraged. It’s story will still be appreciated – one way or another.  

What story does your quilt tell?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2013 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Road 2 CA Blog, Road to California. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.