Dragonfly Stitches

Do you ever wonder when you meet someone what makes your personalities either click or clash?  A chance meeting, what makes you stop and talk to someone?  Is it their smile, the look in their eyes, the cute shoes they are wearing…

I met Diana completely by chance several months ago.  Dawn passed Diana’s name onto me because she was looking for someone to make two quilts, one for each of her boys out of their old sports t-shirts and jerseys.  I have to admit I kind of snickered to myself, two t-shirt quilts, really…so I asked Dawn again just to be sure and she was confident this is what Diana wanted.  So I called Diana and we agreed to meet the next morning.  I am so happy I made that phone call, I met such an amazing and caring woman who wanted to do something special for her boys…I suppose I should say grown young men.  The boy’s father passed away unexpectedly (they were no longer married—which I think her doing this for the boys and the sentiment behind it makes me hold Diana in such high regard, I truly hope to be the kind of person she is in my future-I am working on that by the way…daily).  Diana had been holding onto the shirts from their childhood days, and now she knew just what to do with them…she wanted a quilt.  That’s where I came in…

We spent some time together one Saturday morning going through the shirts, which ones to use, the whole shirt or just pieces, what color to bring out to make the actual quilt, because I didn’t want to just sew a bunch of squares together, it needed a story, each shirt needed to be separated from the next…I chuckled to myself, because they both had pink shirts…bright pink shirts (my favorite color) and she wanted both front & back used from that specific shirt (so guys when you wonder why the pink shirt, while I was delighted as it put a little of my personality into the quilt, it was your mom that wanted it not once but twice!!) and to top it all off most of them were from Tamarack Dental and my M-F is a dental office…it was meant for me to make these quilts! 

The prep work of the t-shirts takes the longest (& it’s a little scary cutting up something that isn’t yours and you can’t run to the fabric store if you screw it up).  I got the first few blocks together and emailed a picture to Diana so she didn’t think I forgot about her, and then I was on a roll.  The first quilt was completed so we needed to choose a backing, so we met at the quilt store again…do you know what touched me the most (well besides the warm and caring nature of this woman that I had just met- we hugged on our first visit-love that!).  She went around the quilt and touched each and every block and it almost looked as if she relived a small fleeting moment of their childhood and happy times as she touched each one.  Tears were rolling down my face the same time they were welling up in hers (yes, I am wiping them away as I write this as well, I just feel truly impacted and inspired by this woman after just a few brief meetings). She seemed very pleased with my work and so the second quilt was started and made just the same as the first with a slightly different border fabric so they wouldn’t be exact.  When she saw the 2^nd completed quilt, she touched each and every block again the same feeling as the first!

After a little more time passed than I promised, I am happy to say that I am meeting with Diana to give her both completed quilts this Saturday, I am so excited.    

So Diana, thank you from the bottom of my heart for adding to my journey of becoming a better person, you are one of the most selfless and caring mothers a child could have, your boys are lucky to have a mom like you (but I am certain I don’t need to tell them that).  I hope our journey doesn’t end here, besides maybe when the grandkids come I can have the honor of making their first quilt!  Enjoy the quilts and can’t wait to hear the boy’s reaction to their gift!

Xoxo, Emma’s mom