Cheshirepat

A long, long time ago (ok, it was only the mid-90's) I moved away from family, and brought my sewing machine. I decided that I had an interest in quilting. I learned to piece with scissors and templates, like many here. I wanted to make my Very First solo quilt - for my beloved grandmother who had given me the basics of using a sewing machine on her old Singer 301. I wanted it to be warm and snuggly, so I backed it with a soft plush fabric (we did not have the Minky brand back then, I don't know what it was called?). Proudly, I finished it and I brought it home myself one Christmas, and, and of course, she was very pleased to have something her granddaughter had made herself. I had a vague memory of taking a picture of her with it one day, but I've never seen it since. My grandmother eventually passed, and I'd asked my mom to please keep her quilt - she said she would absolutely do so because my grandmother had loved it so much.
A few years ago when I began to assemble an album (here) of all my completed quilts, that one crossed my mind. I called home to ask my sister to take a picture of it...and never got a reply. A recent visit home (and a quiet look in linen closets) established it was no longer at Mom's place. I asked mom if she recalled what happened to it, and she seemed to be crushed when she confessed it had gone mistakenly to the local charity donation truck some years ago. I was SO sad to find that out. Came back home and started to look for the picture again -no luck. Last night, my sister asked me why I'd asked about that picture of our grandmother and the quilt...I told her, 'well, because I never took a picture of it, and now it's gone'. She said, "Ok, are you sitting down?" Yes, I said. "I have it *right here*! It wasn't *that* quilt that got donated - mom just wanted me to remove a stain from it, and it ended up under a pile of things to do!" (You have to imagine her pile is quite high and things do get lost on a regular basis!)

I can't believe it, but it's like a gift to me that its still with us. I begged her to send me a quick photo, which is below. It's definitely a first quilt - awful piecing, no quilting to speak of and sadly some (inexpensive at the time) fabric has faded and is coming apart. But it's *here* and my heart is full. As you can see it's a simple half square triangle pinwheel pattern of some sort - actually two sets of pinwheels, but I can't seem to find another like it on the web? I wonder if the pattern has a name, or if it even existed? Anyway, as she texted the picture to me my sister said, 'she always used it'. I don't think there can be a better ending!