Throwback Thursday

I always enjoy reading Janine Marie's Throwback Thursdays posts and have been looking forward to sharing this post with you. Some of you may have remembered from an early Tuesday Archives theme posted almost two years ago, my very first quilt was this Irish Chain Quilt for my parents: 

These pictures were the only ones I had of it until this past week as my parents made their final visit of the summer.  Twenty-three years later and there it was peeking out from under their newer Underground Railroad Quilt that is on their motor-home bed. 

As my mom and I pulled it out and set it up for pictures, we sentimentally examined it's ragged little binding edges. We found ourselves lost in conversation about the day we picked out the fabric and pattern. The afternoons she'd find me sewing away as my young daughters napped, happy to see me  finding a new sense of normalcy in my life after 11 months of chemo and radiation as I fought my Hodgkin's Disease. (My hair seriously came back in ringlets...thus the crazy curly hair above.)

I'm so grateful to have had a neighbor who I could run back and forth between our homes with questions and for guidance as I learned to read a quilt pattern and sew my first quilt. Our time together made an everlasting impression on me and keeps me hopeful that I too, will someday have someone to teach our craft of quilting to one day...until then, I'll happily continue to create quilty hugs for friends, charities, our home and those I love. 

Linking with everyone at:

 

Also...

Click here to see more Irish Chain quilts.