A memory quilt

Most of the sewing, embroidery, knitting and craft I know I learnt from my mum.   Mum usually had something in her hands, she loved knitting and sewing for her family, as I've mentioned before, one of my first memories was going off to sleep listening to the sewing machine running.   Right up to a couple of days before she died she was crocheting a shawl.   Mum was self taught, she would buy a book and sit patiently reading through the instruction before she would make an atttempt at  whatever it was.   I haven't met anyone else determined or patient enough to sit for an hour or more untangling knots in wool or cottons like she was.   During her younger years she had sewn and embroidered a stack of doilies and tablecloths, but it was in her seventies when she wasn't as active as she had been that she took up the needles and cottons again and stitched small embroideries onto pieces of calico or homespun, just for something to keep her hands and her mind active.   I was visiting one day when she showed me a small box of these beautiful pieces and asked me to incorporate these into a quilt.   I found a pattern for a small table runner which I thought was perfect.    Once finished I was very excited to give it to her,  she loved, it but gave it back to me, something we had made together for me to remember her by.    This little quilt sits on the hall table, I walk past it numerous times a day and always look at it and admire the stitches sewn by my mother.