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Technical Information:

89" x 89". Center block applique inspired by Baltimore Album patterns by Elly Sinkiewicz and Jeanna Kimball. Garden silhouette, borders, and quilting patterns are original designs. Published in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, May 1996. Shown in the 1994 Richmond (VA) Quilters' Guild show; 1995 Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Williamsburg; 1995 Quilter's Heritage Celebration, Lancaster, PA; 1995 American Quilters Society Show, Paducah, KY. Currently folded up on a hassock in my bedroom. In colder weather, it can be found on my bed.

The Story:

In October 1991, I was a fairly new member of the Richmond Quilters' Guild. I had only joined because I saw an article in a local newspaper (I was living in the boonies then) about the Country School Quilters Chapter of the guild, and I was starving for creative contacts. My children were then three and one, and I still defined myself as a weaver. But quilt friends were better than no friends, right? So, in October, I attended the Guild show at the Richmond Centre. And I can remember standing in front of Dot's Baltimore Album quilt (which later won Best of Show and Viewer's Choice at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium), talking to Dot, and saying, "Nope. I could never do it. I just don't have the patience." Dot and I still laugh over that memory.

Four members (including Dot) of the CSQ Chapter had formed their own Baltimore Album study group, working their way through Elly Sienkiewicz's book Baltimore Beauties and Beyond, Vol. I. Their work was truly awesome. At the same time, I was sort of diddling around, machine piecing pillow tops for my living room, making a small doll quilt for my daughter. With two young ones in the house, quilting was so much more do-able than weaving. But I knew I could never do gorgeous work like these women were doing.

But Dot kept repeating her mantra: "Sure you can. You just have to try, and to practice. Anyone can do it." So I bought Elly's book, and tried the first block. And yeah, Dot was right. If I worked at it every day, I could do it. And my stitches looked nice, too. So I did a few more blocks from the book, and looked at pictures, and got some ideas....

I started the original center block for Daddy's Quilt in October 1992. It was based on a block by Jeanna Kimball. As I worked on it, I began to envision what the rest of the quilt would look like. Nine floral bouquets with sashing, on point.... Well, somehow I decided to put it inside a lone star. And I'm not sure how the idea for the silhouette was born. After I finished the center block, I started working on the silhouette appliques. After I did a few of those, I started on the star points. After the silhouettes and points were done, I decided to re-do the center block, changing the design and repeating more of the fabrics from the rest of the star.

My parents visited us from Pennsylvania in April of 1993. By then, if I remember correctly, I had most, if not all, of the star points and silhouettes sewn, but not assembled. I can remember laying the bits out on my living room floor to show my parents. I think it was at that point that is became apparent how much this quilt meant to my father. He'd been proud of me before, but my quilting had really sparked something in him, and he was forever asking me about what I was working on (something he didn't do when I was a weaver). But this quilt became The Quilt.

I should mention here, too, that this quilt was pieced one hour at a time. We lived in a very small house, and my ‘studio' was also my bedroom. Every evening, Mama got her Hour--time off with NO interruptions (except of the 911 variety). In that hour I'd get my work out, sew, and put it away. I still marvel that this quilt ever got made.

We moved in June 1993, into a tiny apartment, and again in October 1993, into a house with My Studio. My father had health problems off and on that whole year. I remember calling him in the hospital--I think it was when his kidneys failed--and the first thing he asked was, "So how's the quilt coming along?" (Not "how are the kids?"!) One time when my mom was visiting him in the hospital, he was talking about me to some visitors, and he turned to Mom and asked her for the picture of--my kids? Noooooo--my quilt. In October 1993 the top was finished, and I bought a frame in which to quilt it.

Daddy became very ill the week of Thanksgiving 1993. We visited him in the hospital that weekend, and he was very weak. He had drainage tubes sticking out of his sides from his lungs. Little did we know that the worst was to come. He spent the next week in Intensive Care; we were back in Virginia. All I could do was pray and quilt on The Quilt. It took the doctors quite a while to determine that his Parkinson's medication was reacting with his heart medicine, and that was why his lungs were filling with fluid. Once they stopped the medicines, he began to improve. But it was nearly eight weeks until he would come home again.

While he was ill, I worked on a fabric box for him. The lid was a Mariner's Compass block. The sides were Seminole pieced. It was an act of faith for me. Making this box would ensure that he recovered, so that I could give it to him for Christmas. And I kept quilting on The Quilt.

We saw him again the week after Christmas. We visited him in the hospital. He was so thin and frail. He'd grown a beard, all white; Mom didn't like it, but I did. We had a good visit, both with Daddy and with my siblings and family. In fact, that holiday celebration was one of the best we've ever had together. We drove back to Virginia on Sunday. I resumed quilting on The Quilt.

Daddy came home the next Tuesday. There had been a terrible ice storm and my mother had to have my uncle come along to get Daddy from the hospital. Over the next few days, he began to have trouble breathing. When he collapsed gasping on the bed, Mom knew he was really in trouble and called the Rescue Squad (there had been more snow and ice). The Prednisone that he was still on had masked the symptoms of the pneumonia. He died on Sunday, January 9, 1994.

I knew then that The Quilt was Daddy's Quilt.

Grief takes different forms for different people. I did lots of crying, of course, but my grief also manifested itself in physical ways. I have had several serious health problems over the past three years, and I believe that much of it was triggered by grief. But through it all, I quilted. I quilted on Daddy's Quilt less than a week after having carpal tunnel release surgery on my right hand. Some nights I cried over the quilt until I couldn't see to work anymore.

Daddy's Quilt was finished in October 1994. My mother came to Richmond to see it in the Richmond Quilters' Guild show. We both agreed that Daddy was very proud and pleased with the finished product.

When Daddy's Quilt was on display in Williamsburg, there was an empty chair next to where the quilt was hanging. It was really odd; I could feel Daddy's presence there more than any other place or time. It was as though he was sitting in that chair, guarding The Quilt. (1997)