This is a "virtual quilt"
created as a tribute to
Rosa Johnston
my Gramma who taught me how to quilt

When I was a little girl (back in the dark ages before the invention of the wheel, as my kids would say) I would spend most of each summer on my gramma's farm. Sometimes I would get to go to a quilting bee with her and there I would play under the "tent" of the big quilt frame with the other kids. When I was a little older Mema gave me little scraps of fabric and taught me to sew them together with tiny running stitches. She said that was how a quilt began.

My little projects always seemed to get discarded or laid aside as new adventures unfolded. So my little sewn together scraps never became quilts. I know now it was because I did not possess the patience to keep sewing till the pieces grew into a quilt.

Over the years the influence of my grandmothers love and patience taught me many lessons. This beautiful woman who worked with my grandfather to carve out a living from a grade school education, several acres of fertile land and a remarkable love for her family and neighbors has touched me more than anyone else. Her strength, her courage, her sweet smile........all are dear to me. But more than anything else, I am thankful for her teaching me about patience.

Now I have the patience to make quilts. Mema went to Heaven to be with the Lord right after her 92nd birthday in February of 2000 and I love her more than I can ever express.

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