Originally Posted by maryb119

I finished a quilt for my MIL for my husband. She made her first quilt when she retired from teaching 3rd grade. She used ivory muslin and stitched a candlewick design in each block. then she put them together with 2 inch lace between the blocks and had the church quilters hand quilt it. It was beautiful! She had it on her bed when we were all there for a family dinner. We all asked "where is mine?" She was worried about a fight over the quilt after she died so she started in making a quilt like it for each of her 8 kids. She made the next one herself and then asked me for help. I cut blocks and serged the edges so they didn't fray when she embrideried them. I sewed some tops together and sewed lace on some and even hand quilted one for her. This took a long time for her to get them done. When she was 89, she ws going into a nursing home. We were visiting one night and she asked me about my quilting and I told her what I was working on. I asked about her quilting and she started to cry. She said she would not get the last one done before she died. The last one was for my DH because he is the youngest. I asked her if she would like me to finish it for her. She said "Would you?" and the tears were falling for both of us. She told my DH where to find the partially finished blocks and the cut blocks and the pattern books and sent them home with us for me to work on. She moved into the nursing home the following week. In the next 2 months, we spent a lot of time visiting her and her health took a down hill turn. We lost her at age 89 1/2. It took me about 6 months before i could get out the quilt to work on it and when I did, one block was missing. I put it away for a while. Later when we were going thru the house and getting things sorted, we found the missing partially finished block in her sewing basket. I knew I had to work on that quilt. I decided not to candlewick embroidery the untouched blocks and use the embrideried blocks she finished. That way the only embroidery on the quilt was hers. I quilted in a design in the unfinished blocks because quilting is my thing. It turned out beautifully. Sometime, I could actually feel her presense when I was quilting. It took me over a year to hand quilt it but my DH got his quilt from his mom. The rest of his brothers all treasure their quilts and now he has one too. My MIL was a wonderful woman and I loved her dearly. I miss her everyday but the quilt is like a warm hug from her.