THE QUILT

Here's a kinda neat story about something that happened this week.
I love looking at quilts on Ebay and on Shopgoodwill.  When I was looking through the 6 pages of quilts for sale on Goodwill, I noticed a blue and white one with the title "Family Quilt".  I clicked on the description and then on the pictures.  Someone had made this quilt using actual pictures of family members in addition to newspaper articles also about members of the family.  One of the pictures was labeled with "Darren and Donna" and their last name. I always am sad when heirlooms get away from a family so just for the heck of it I googled Darren, found someone by the same name with an email address in Atlanta.  I sent him a short email telling him about the quilt.
He responded with "send me your phone number" which I did. When he called he had already had his company's IT security person check my email for "demons" and told me I had passed the test. He then told me that indeed it was he pictured on the quilt, along with his twin sister who had died several years ago in a car accident. He had never seen the quilt before.  He said he would check it out with his Mom and thanked me for the email.  Last night I got this email from his Mother:

To Susan Skinner,
Thank you so much for taking the time to track down the family on the quilt. I have no idea how you managed to find my son Darren . He forwarded your email to me out here in Oregon. I recognized the quilt as being a special retirement gift given to one of Darren's uncles in California in 1989. I saw it only at that time. He must have passed it on to someone else before he passed away in 1998 in the state of Washington. It is a most interesting puzzle. We very much want to have it back in the family and are bidding to buy it. I cannot thank you enough for being a "sucker for family heirlooms" and following up on the mystery. You are a special person. We plan to "pay it forward" and will be watching for the first opportunity to do a good deed for some other family.


Many thanks,


Donna _______
Gold Beach, Oregon

I can't tell you how often I have seen quilts with labels such as "Made With Love for my Grandaughter " - or other affectionate words, on auction sites or in thrift stores. I always wonder why these precious gifts were under-valued and got away from their recipients.  My love affair with quilts has been long. It started with a retirement gift of a gorgeous quilt to my Mother from the lady who cleaned for her.  So much work goes into a handmade quilt!  It was passed along to me. I will be hanging on to my quilts and then I can only hope my kids have some appreciation for them and the ones I made for them and am still making for them.