Legacy

(My great grandmother's quilt top)

I always heard that my great-grandmother had tried her hand at quilting. It wasn't something she did regularly, as she preferred millinery and dressmaking, so when my grandmother found this and gave it to me, it was confirmation. I believe that as artists, we are not always comfortable with the method, but it's by trying it that we can create something beautiful. My great-grandma and I were very very close and her loss devastated me. Having this, knowing that she stitched it, that she touched it, that it was something she created, makes me so happy.

Yesterday, my two little cousins Brianna and Talani (ages 11 and 5) came over. They wanted to learn to sew, so I thought I'd teach them. I had beautiful purple fabric of my great grandmother's. "This was my great grandmother's and she taught me how to sew," I said.
"And now you will teach us what she taught you!" Brianna said. I was so touched by that.

"I'm sure you'll find a good use for it," my grandmother had said when she gave it to me recently. I did. I taught two little girls how to sew for the first time in their lives and when they finished they were so proud of themselves that they were beaming.

I was too.