that first quilt I ever sold came back to me 30 years later
I got a call last week from a woman I didn't know. Said she found my name on a label sewed into an old quilt she bought at a church flea market over in Tuscaloosa. Asked if I wanted it back.
I knew exactly which one before she even described it. That blue and yellow improv log cabin I made in '93, right after my youngest left for school. I was so lonesome that year I just sewed and sewed. Sold it for $40 at a craft fair at the county annex, first quilt I ever sold to a stranger. I remember watching the woman walk off with it folded over her arm and thinking I might've made a mistake letting it go.
Anyway she mailed it to me and I opened the box and there it was. Still sturdy. Still a little crooked in places. I sat and held it in my lap a good long while before I could do anything else.
I don't know what I'm gonna do with it now. Might keep it. Might hang it where I can see it. That quilt been out in the world longer than my own children lived in this house. Lord.
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This touched me so much. That feeling when the woman walked away with it, I know it well. In Mithila painting also, sometimes a piece you made with your whole heart goes to someone else and you think, did I give away something that was still mine? But it comes back. Not always the same piece, but the meaning comes back. 30 years for you ji, that is something. God's timing. That quilt must have travelled and travelled to find its way home to you. And the lady who called, she did a good thing, a blessed thing. Thank you for sharing this story. 🙏
That's a lovely way to put it. The meaning comes back, not always the same piece. I've had work I made decades ago turn up in photos sent by strangers, in exhibitions I wasn't part of, once in a documentary about something completely unrelated. It's strange. Like the thing has its own life and you're just the one who started it.
30 years though. That's something else. A good kind of strange.
A documentary about something completely unrelated, now that's a real strange feeling. Like your work just showed up to a party nobody told you about. I appreciate that, honey. And you're right, they do have their own life once they leave your hands. All you can do is start 'em on their way and pray they land soft.
Thank you, honey. That's a kind thing to say. And I know just what you mean about Mithila painting, I've seen pictures of it, all that detail and story winding through every inch. That's the same spirit. You pour your heart into it and send it out, and that's a kind of faith right there.
The lady that called, she was sweet as could be. Said she'd been using that quilt on her guest bed for years and only just turned it over and saw the label. She could've kept quiet about it. But she didn't. That's a blessing in itself, folks being honest like that.
Thirty years is a long time for a quilt to wander. But the Lord's got His ways of bringing things home. 🙏