Quilt and Road Repair

I woke up this morning with a splitting headache. I believe the past few days have been too stressful with the moving of Dave's mom to assisted living and cleaning out her apartment from 20 plus years of stuff from the no-throw generation.  More about that later.  By 7:30 am was feeling a bit better after taking some medication and applying warm compresses to my poor head. All was quiet  but a few moments later the old familiar beep beep beep of the heavy equipment started in!  They are resurfacing the road past here and it's only a few feet from our house. 

I decided it was a good day to dig out an old quilt top I've had forever  to repair a few big holes it had when I acquired it. I needed something to work my hands and soothe my achey head.  And something to counter-act all the energy going on outside. 

The quilt top is a beauty of an old thing. Little nine patch squares all hand sewn together. The fabrics are what call to me. Old homespuns in mostly blues and browns. Look closely and you'll see a brown, blue and bittersweet plaid so faded and worn. 

My steam iron glides smoothly over the wrinkled fabric. The boys outside ( who by the way love their jobs... I asked them..LOL!) layer a load of sand and gravel.  My thoughts turn to the contrasts in our work.  It's kind of the same in a way too... we are both repairing something with skill and love. 

For my repairs I chose a reproduction civil war fabric with indigo blue flowers and creamy background.  On this all plaid quilt I thought the contrast of a flower print would be fun.  Then my thoughts turned to  the maker of this quilt. As she sat and hand-stitched her homespun squares what was going on outside her door?  Were the men-folk with tractors or perhaps horse-drawn equipment making her smile as her needle and thread made tiny and neat little stitches.  

The boys and their big trucks and graders work on!  Happy and content to be making another road safe and usable for years to come. 

Repairing my old quilt today gave me a sense of accomplishment. The hand-work soothes the mind as well. Perhaps now I can focus on tasks ahead. In another post I want to share with you some of the goodies we found while we dug through the years of accumulation at his mother's place.  I know... don't need to be dragging home more "stuff".  I did restrain myself for the most part.  But a few things were too good to pass up. 

Hope your day was filled with good energy and the works of your hands soothing as well!

Cathy G