A new craft group has been set up in my local area and Jo, one of the group, makes quilts. Stunning pieces of work that brought me back to my father's skill with needle and thread. He came from a line of stone masons and had very clever hands...
QUILT MAKER
My father
could cut fabric with either hand
taking
cognisance of grain, warp, weft and diagonal.
I remember newspaper
triangular patterns,
his
tailor’s chalk left white crosses in its wake.
He figured
dimensions in his head, but cut
with
precision - no strip or machine quilting then
when we
cranked the handle that thrummed out blocks
each with
its own story to tell.
He finger-pressed
frocks and cast-offs that conjured up
memories -
sharp and ephemeral the way scents do -
pin-stitched
and back-stitched, summers pinioned.
He knew
that if pulled along the diagonal
the fabric would
stretch
as memories
do now across the bed.
❤️
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