Distracted

Not much sewing going on in my sewing room.  This summer has been just too hot, we don't have air conditioning just fans.  I have gotten distracted with family history.  I got the idea to make a memory book for my mom who has dementia.  After talking with family members and a social worker at the Alzheimer's Society I decided that maybe that wasn't the best idea.  The thought of discovering my Mom's family history was appealing.  I never knew my grandparents because they all passed away long before I was born.  Genealogy research can be very distracting and time consuming. Each time you find the answer to one question you discover questions to about a dozen more!

In the mist of all my research I thought about the parallels to quilting.  I have been using many Internet sites and family sources for information.  This I equate to going to fabric and thrift stores to find just the right fabric.  Then I have been organizing the information into a presentable form that future generations can understand and expand on.  This is finding the right pattern and preparing the fabric.  Next I have been putting the information; birth and death dates, family members etc. on cards and cutting these to fit into photo albums and finding photos of the family member to go with the information.  This is cutting the fabric and sewing the blocks together.  Next is writing a narrative to include some of the stories I have gathered from family.  This is putting the quilt sandwich together and quilting the "quilt".  The binding to all of this is the insight and love I have gained for the family members who are the foundation of my past.