Nida's Garden Quilt

Some of my readers will remember when I was taking care of Jerry's Mom who had Dementia.  We had to move her to a Memory Unit at a Living Center.  After we moved her, I "moved in" to her home which was majorly packed from ceiling to floor and wall to wall with everything in the world.  Nida was the Queen of the Pack Rats!

Now, don't get me wrong.  She wasn't messy or dirty.  Everything Mom kept was very clean and put safely in some kind of container.  I wish I had pictures of the containers of shoes she had.  I can't believe I don't have one.

Hold on.....

These two pictures are of the SAME bedroom.  Mom had Dementia/Alzheimer's for years before we finally realized we had to do something for her safety.  She was forgetting to eat, and that was causing her to pass out.  Mom, of course, didn't remember any of what was happening.  She kept bringing boxes home to put things in to move OUT of her house; but she never removed a single thing, and the boxes were everywhere!

Notice the shoe boxes.  Every box was labeled and had shoes inside, shoe stretchers inside the shoes and one of those little packs that keeps shoes fresh.  There were many, many more behind the mirrored cabinets on the left.  Some of the shoes were from the 50's and were SO PRETTY.  5" high heels.  She had purses to match some of them.  She had hats.  She had some fancy dress-up clothes from the 50's too.  I BET I could have sold those things.  I didn't realize at the time how many people are into "vintage" clothes.

ANYWAY, I moved into this house as soon as I cleared out one of the bedrooms enough that I could get into one of the beds to sleep at night.  Day after day after day I would just sit someplace in the floor or on a stool, and I would look at every single thing in every single box to determine where it needed to go.  It took me many months.

After a few weeks, I was able to open up one of the many card tables I found there.  I set it up in the living room and GUESS WHAT I DID WITH IT??????????????????

Yep.  I set up a mini-sewing room.  I took an applique quilt kit that I had bought in Springfield, MO many years earlier, and I decided to work on it at night.  I was there all alone, and I needed something to do.  I finished all 12 blocks while I was there.  I finished the last one as we were clearing out the house for the buyers to move into.

Here are some close-ups of 3 of the flowers:

THEN, all the blocks went back into a box until a few days ago.  Terry was here, and Terry is ALWAYS quilting something, so I kind of got in the mood to quilt something too.  I pulled out the 12 blocks, and I put them together.

Here is the UNQUILTED top looking very crooked, but it is actually very straight.  It is SO HARD to photograph quilts and have them come out straight.

OH!  I forgot to tell you.  Jerry's Mom, Nida, LOVED gardening and gardens.  She and her Mother used to spend zillions of hours working in her large yard.  She had gardens around the entire house and all around the yard.  We found dozens of boxes of Miracle-Gro and bottles of bug killer in the laundry room and the garage.  She used to win the City's Green Spade Award for her gardens.  I found pictures of she and her Mother in newspaper articles holding the Green Spade Award.

Hence, the name of my quilt:  Nida's Garden

I better start pinning this quilt on the longarm.

Hugs, Joy