Friday, July 15, 2011

Memory Bears

These are my "Memory Bears".  I make them out of cloth that brings to the heart a good memory.  Two of these bears are from my memory.  They are made from pillow coverings from pillows our Nona made before we 3 grandchildren were born, back when my Mom was a child living in Penn.  The pillows were stuffed with feathers from Nonas' geese.  We slept on these  for years and years.  As they went flat they all migrated to me.  I still slept with them, all four of them stuffed into one pillow case.  It was only about 8 years ago that I finally gave in and got a new pillow.  But I could not give up my Nonas' pillows.  So I made my Mom, Sister, Brother, and me a memory bear. I used the feed sack cover for each and stuffed them with the feathers from their pillows.

(The bear on the left is one that I made with all the leftover feed sack material from all the bears.)


This one was hard to make. :)   My Mom had a beaver coat (real beaver pelt) of my Nonas'.  She couldn't figure out how to divide it between the three of us.  I told her I could do that!  And did :).   My Mom, my Sis, and I all have a memory bear from my Nonas' coat!  It is sooooo soft!  Who knew beavers were that soft!

And since then, I make these bears for people from whatever they bring me.  I made my Aunt one out of my Uncles favorite shirt.  She said it comforted her at night.  A tangible feeling of still having my Uncle next to her.
I have made them out of chenille robes from loved ones, shirts, cutter quilts.  Well, you get the picture :)


This one is mine.  I love still having the comfort feeling of my old pillow.  And stuffing it with the original feathers, well I still have the smell of my old pillow too.  I love it!


This one my Granddaughter said was hers.  "This teddy is mine, huh Gramma?"  Of course it is yours, Sweetpea.  Of course!  It has the bowtie that your Daddy wore to his senior prom on.  Of course it is yours.

The quilt in the background was made by my Grandma Kelly for me before I was born.  It was made in 1955.  I love that my Sweetpea naps on it.  I think my Grandma smiles from heaven when she sees her great-great granddaughter napping on the quilt she made.

Grammas' Helper

This is my granddaughter Azaria.  She is 2 1/2 now but has been coming to Grammas studio since she was about 8mos old.
It is such a blessing that she is actually interested and loves to go to Grammas studio.  She loves to "quilt" with my big machine too.  I let her push it around with the stitch regulator on so it makes a noise, but no needle action.  She gets a "kick" out of that.  When I have a visitor, Azaria pushes her chair over to the Longarm (Libby), and shows my client how she quilts.  So cute!
Now she likes to sew by herself.  (of course she needs Grammas quiet help)  But does a great job and shows a lot of interest. That makes my heart sing!