Coveting talents

A comment from a fellow blogger sparked this memory and post. I am in awe of her knitting and she of my quilting so.....

 A true story: Fifteen or so years ago a couple of my mothers college classmates were all in town at the same time so my mother hosted a coffee party. All these women graduated in home economics, married, stayed married and raised a family of 3- 5 children. One taught high school home economics and started a nutrition/ early childhood education program for teen moms, one moved to the east coast and was involved with fundraising for various charities, my mother married a farmer, raised 4 kids and took up weaving. They each went to their siblings where they were staying and shared their feeling of inadequacies and awe at what their classmates had accomplished over the years. I know this because my mother shared those feelings with me then I heard it from a girlfriend who is a niece to one of the gals and said her aunt said I can't believe what G and J and L have done with their lives and all I've done is..........then I saw a neighbor who was the sister-in-law to the other gals and told the same story. We had a good laugh and I reported back to my mother.

My mother's weaving started with rug weaving on her grandmother's loom, then she took some weaving classes and needed a 4 harness loom then an 8 harness loom. And weave she did. The coverlet on the bed is a double weave meaning she wove that blanket folded in half then opened it. The pink is an overshot pattern, that just means a complicated treadling pattern to raise the warp threads so the weft can make the pattern. She made each of my kids a baby blanket, this is also a double weave but the bottom warp and weft threads were brought to the top to make the designs, I believe she hand picked all the pink yarns because it couldn't be done with the treadles. Heirloom treasures, gifts and talents--Ann--