To listen to this post in French, click below
Three times a year, my friend Fazou summons me to the meeting of her quilting association, Paris Patch. I can’t even sew a button properly, or claim I can’t, much less do any quilting. But I enjoy taking photos of those quilting ladies. They are extraordinarily creative and the atmosphere reminds me of those days when Gitta, my mother was sitting in her favourite armchair and knitted, crocheted or sewed (three activities that I took up as a young woman but have no patience for any more).
She too had a sewing box I distinctly remember, red with a black and white design, and unlike the one in the photograph, it had legs.
The owner of the sewing box you can see here, told me she’s had this box for the last fifty years. In the box, you can see a small pin-cushion that spells: maman. Her now fifty-two years old daughter did this for her mum when she was a first year school-girl.
When Gitta died, I went through her personal things and was moved to tears when I discovered she had faithfully kept all the poems I had written on her birthdays and on Mother’s Day.
Thinking of you every single day darling Claude. Much love to you!
Comment by goldenlucy — November 21, 2006 @ 4:30 pm
We mothers save the most sentimental things. Our Christmas trees here at our house are saved from being the colour themed perfection that I admire in the department stores by the inclusion of years and years of child-made Christmas decorations. My husband has every Father’s day card ever made for him in a stack in his bedside table. He says it will be the first thing he’ll save if there is a fire.
Comment by Peggy — November 21, 2006 @ 5:59 pm
I have my mother’s sewing/quilting chest; it took me a year after she died to go into it. These boxes are powerful stirrers of emotions.
Comment by tut-tut — November 21, 2006 @ 9:09 pm
I have all my mother’s sewing stuff too, and that box is a veritable antique treasure-trove of needles, and thread and labels and buttons. I love to look through it all.
Comment by kenju — November 21, 2006 @ 11:48 pm
I remember my mother making quilts for all her grandchildren. My daughter-in-law was sweet enough to display my son’s on their bed. It meant much to me and to my memory of my mother’s sewing.
Comment by Maria — November 22, 2006 @ 4:21 am
My mother never had a sewing basket, but my paternal grandmother did. I remember seeing it all the time as a kid. I loved all the needles, threads and other paraphernalia she kept in it. My grandmother was an avid crocheter and made the most beautiful lace tableclothes and such. I have a little sewing basket, but I’m really not a sewer other than embroidery. I must have been pretty impressed with my grandmother’s work since I love crocheting and knitting so much.
Comment by Joy — November 22, 2006 @ 6:03 pm
more remarkable photos, claude. i loved the close-up of hands sewing. forwarding this to a younger friend who quilts; know these will delight her too.
realize that i’ve missed some other enticing recent posts. in spite of your claims otherwise, you cook! and elegantly.
Comment by naomi dagen bloom — November 22, 2006 @ 7:46 pm
It’s obvious that sewing box holds many precious memories for your friend.
When my mother passed away…I was quite surprised to find a beautiful tin I’d bought her at Fouchet in Paris, that had been filled with cookies, and now contained every single postcard I’d ever sent her from Paris. I had no idea she’d saved them. So I can relate to you finding those poems.
Comment by Terri — November 23, 2006 @ 1:58 am
My niece has the old treadle sewing machine that was my mothers, along with the silver thimble she always used. I could never get use to using a thimble.
I have a cedar chest filled with quilts she made in her young days before she became legally blind. Also, have tops for quilts that have never been quilted.
Yes, I, too, gravitated away from sewing many years ago. I admire them, but have never done quilts.
Buffy at “Arrrgh!!!” has an interesting quilt as the home page of her blog.
Comment by joared — November 23, 2006 @ 11:08 am