"Memory"

When the theme "Memory" came up, an older quilt came to my mind. It was done in 2009, and it is FULL of memories of my childhood and my mother (who passed away in 2005). The finished quilt never made me happy, it was done, but ... well, I was just not happy with it. The fabrics are scraps from the clothes of my mother and my own hand-dyed fabrics; the bigger rectangles and squares were cut from a picture I took with my very first camera on a walk with my mom and our dog.
Here's a picture of that quilt before I took it apart:

It was not quilted, just tied with buttons from the button-box of my mother. I got rid of all the buttons and separated the layers. Added a border (from a fabric I inherited from my mother in law) and enlarged the back.
Than, I quilted it - finally I had an idea how to quilt this one (and the ability to fulfill that idea!):

Next came an overlay ... done on organza, with help of a tear-away-stabilizer on the back. I got a scan from the verse my mother had written into my poetry album when I was a child, enlarged it and stitched it by machine onto the organza.
Now the organza is mounted on top of the quilt. And I have finally a quilt that I love and that puts a smile on my face.
The verse is German ... and it speaks about what my mother wanted for me and my life. She wanted laughter (that word appears three times in that verse!), she wanted happiness and sunshine for me. I'm pretty sure that most mothers want these things for their kids, of course - but when I read that verse again after she passed away, it meant the world to me. And it helped me to get along with my sadness.

Here's a detail shot:

Thanks for the opportunity and the nagging to made this quilt finally into a piece I love ! It will live on the wall in our bedroom ;-))