As part of the interview, I was asked to have a quilt at hand to talk about. That sort of posed a dilemma because there isn't much of a story behind most of my quilts. I don't make quilts with political statements, and there are no Deep Hidden Meanings. What I chose was the quilt "Nine". I made this as a tribute to my late mother-in-law, who raised nine children. My husband is the oldest; his youngest sibling is only 4 years older than our daughter. My inspiration for the quilt came from the priest who was giving the eulogy at the funeral service. He talked about the "coat of many colors" that she wove as she raised nine unique individuals. With those words, the idea for this quilt sprung almost completely formed in my head, and unfortunately, I tuned out the rest of what he said. Many colors, all woven together, yet making a cohesive whole. That is the family that I have married into.
This is the quilt. There are nine panels, and inlaid into each panel is a strip with nine different fabrics. Everything is similar, yet nothing is identical. The edges are uneven to represent the different personalities, yet the panels are joined into one unified piece.
Even though siblings and their families live on both coasts and in the Chicago area, we meet once every three years at the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week-long family reunion. At last count there were 39 of us, in three generations. Since that reunion, we have had one marriage and one new baby. With both parents dead, my husband and I are the elders of the group (and that is a might scary thought). We have been doing this since 1973, and the babies on that trip now all have babies of their own.
We also have t-shirts made to commemorate the event. My son designs the logo and we have them printed up in all sizes from baby XS to adult XXL. We gather on the beach and pose for a group photo. As the years have progressed and the group has expanded, the camera has had to be positioned further and further away. Notice how nicely we have positioned ourselves, to make a balanced group.
My husband and I are seated in the center, the places that were always occupied by his parents. We are now older than his parents were when we first started these trips. Egads, I'm making myself depressed!
