A Quilt from the Heart

When we think of trash-to-treasure articles, we usually think of restoring furniture or something that we need to sand and buff or paint. Not so long ago, I received a trash-to-treasure item that tugged at my heart strings.

I love the idea of recycling old things to make something that can be of use again, but the item I am writing about is one that was literally pulled from the trash after being in the weather for some time. Being the "certified dumpster diver" that I am, I occasionally see something in someone else's trash that is worthy of saving. This time, I found some old handmade quilt scraps in the trash. The old quilt blocks had been sewn by an elderly lady who recently had gone into a nursing home, and the family sold most of her belongings and trashed the rest. There were many already pieced into blocks, but most were torn or just worn from being out in the weather.

I saw the potential in the old quilt pieces and pulled them from the trash. However, I am not really a quilter (although I wish I were), and I didn't know what else to do to save them. I knew that my mother loves to piece quilts and had lots of respect and love for such hand-pieced items. They surely had many hours of hard work put into them. So, I decided to take them to the safest place I knew to get them dried out and see if something could be salvaged of them--to my mother.

After a thorough cleaning and repairing of some pieces that had come apart, June, my mom, decided to take the old pieces and make quilt blocks out of them. However, all she told me was that she would try to salvage what she could. She didn't tell me what she really had planned. Mom took some iron-on material and attached the old quilt pieces to 12" x 12" white blocks. Then she set the blocks up with a beautiful lavender-colored material to make a gorgeous quilt top and two matching pillow shams. Still working in secret, she hand-quilted the quilt top into a lovely new quilt.

Can you imagine my surprise last Christmas when I opened a large box from Mom and found that completed quilt and shams? Needless to say, I had tears in my eyes, and it will be a Christmas present that I will remember and treasure forever. Our family shares a wonderful time at Christmas, enjoying each other's company and talking about Christmases from yesteryear. This one will remain a very special one due to the trash-to-treasure quilt that my mom made with such love for a daughter who does her best to see beauty even in things that someone else may only see as useless trash.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sherry