A Memory of Stars - Slice Fifteen

         The March Slice of Life Challenge is with Ruth and Stacey at the Two Writing Teachers blog 

       My mother, grandmother and aunts all created quilts.  My mother was also an artist and loved originating the designs while my aunt created the tried and true quilts that many made, like Sunbonnet Sue and the Log Cabin designs.  Both were crafts people in unique ways, and showed me by modeling that if I chose to, I could do anything.  I did do quite a lot of sewing and crafting during the years I stayed home with my children, but when I returned to teaching, it became harder to find the time.  I admire anyone who takes the time to persist in such a large project as a quilt, like my mom.

One birthday, after my family had moved a few states away, and visited only a few times a year, I received a large box from my mom.  I figured she had packed a gift for me, along with some other 'add-ins' for the kids.  When I opened it, there was this quilt.  I hadn't known it was a project because the last time I'd visited, she had been working on one of the quilts where you embroider squares, then put them all together.  The added surprise is that this quilt displays so many stars.  I have collections of several kinds of stars in my life, in jewelry, cookie cutters, and so on.  This special affinity for stars started with a tease from a grandfather who constantly told me I was so special because I was born with a star on my birth certificate!  Of course, as a young child, I believed him.  It was only in my adult years that I actually saw my birth certificate and realized that what he said was just a loving phrase.  However, my mother remembered this from so long ago, and made the quilt for me-full of stars.  She was a special mom!

The first round words in Ed DeCaria's Madness! 2012 (Kids' Poetry. Under Pressure.)  have been sent out and 64 Poets are busily writing poems.  My poem is in that first round.  Second round words are up today.  It's very exciting!