A Quilt for John

When JW was young, his Tata bought a piece of property in Oracle for Wilfred to raise a family on. The place had a small house and a dumpy trailer. For a while, the family which consisted of JW, his father, mother and 3 siblings (with twins on the way) lived in the existing buildings. They slept in the trailer and would head to the house every morning for breakfast.

Wilfred’s brothers would come to Oracle and help him work on the house. JW remembers once that they had finished a wall (the house was made of brick) and when they got almost finished, they noticed it wasn’t square so they had to take it all down. Not only did this mean they had to knock down all the brick but they then had to clean all of the mortar off each brick so it could be used again.

Finally they finished the house and moved in – the trailer went away and the little house turned into “Nana’s casita” where Nana and Tata spent many weeks in the summer away from the heat of Florence.

When John and I got married, the family had to work to get the inside of the house painted so it would be presentable for a reception. The floors were all concrete except for the living room floor which was a wonderful Mexican tile (and remember that 35+ years ago, winters were quite a bit colder in Oracle). I remember when they finally got doors on the closets and how thrilled Lois was over this little thing that most of us take for granted and carpeting on the floor - oh my – that was truly a blessing. Then shortly before Wilfred died, they actually got central heating.

So with the concrete floors while all the kids were growing up, you can just imagine how cold it was in that house. Since we had the opportunity to live in Nana’s Casita when Valerie was born, I know that they definitely did not keep a roaring fire in the fireplace at night (wood was too precious) so I know they woke to just a few glowing embers in the fireplace. Because of that, each of the beds were piled high with blankets to keep you warm.

I remember one time when we lived in Blythe and we went to Oracle for Christmas. Todd had just gotten a new water bed and we had the privilege of sleeping in it. He hadn’t got the heater with it but instead there was the normal pile of blankets on top. So we spent the night rolling around and round warming first our front and then our back. Needless to say, the next night, we told Todd we would sleep on the couch and he could have his waterbed back. We also told him he should get a heater – not sure if he ever did.

Fast forward to a time when we left Arizona to move a little further north. We decided to buy a down comforter and it has been so nice that that is the only covering we have had on our bed to keep warm for the past 11 ½ years. Meanwhile, in the past several years, I have made numerous quilts for babies, gifts, service projects etc and each time I am working on one, JW asks “is this for our bed”. Then he talks about how he loved to sleep with a pile of blankets weighing him down during the night – blankets that if it got a little warm, you could take one off or two if needed where as with our comforter, it’s all or nothing. So being an old woman, I spend a lot of time every night tossing and turning, covering up, uncovering and doing it all again.

This month, I have committed to finish some of the quilts I have started. I had made some bargello quilt tops and decided that if I took one of them and added two 10” borders all the way around, I would have a 100” square quilt that would be lovely on my king size bed and the start of building a stack of heavy quilts for us to sleep under. So far, I have finished a quilt for Madison (a Star quilt in recognition of the Lakota blood that flows through her veins and her ancestors who lived on this continent long before Columbus made his way across the seas) and two small ones for service projects.

Last night, I sat in my chair finishing tacking down the last 3’ of the binding on a 72” square quilt when I got finished JW said. “So, this one is for my bed right?” “Nope”, I told him “but this one can be used for snuggling on the couch if you want?” He gladly accepted that offer and grabbed the quilt because with a temperature of -5 outside it was a bit chilly inside. Of course as soon as we got comfortable, one dog needed out and then the other and then it was time to head to bed.

I have received the backing fabric for the red and black quilt though – this is the one for JW and with any luck, by next weekend, we’ll have the 1st of several quilts on our bed and I won’t have to feel so guilty about No quilt for John. And the quilt I finished last night, I’m thinking I’ll just keep it down here on the couch. (4 quilts down and 26 more to finish – woo hoo I am at last making progress).