“It might be easier to fail
with land in sight,
than gain my blue peninsula
to perish of delight.
-Emily Dickinson-
journal entry:
When I opened the door of the quilt shop, like a magnet the fabric drew me to it. It wasn’t ordinary chenille. It still had pencil lines on it where it had been marked before the pattern was sewn on. It came to the quilt shop with only six yards on each bolt so that it would not get flattened too much by the weight of too much wrapped fabric. It flooded me with all kinds of childhood memories for it was familiar fabric from a time gone by. Beautiful ladies robes were made from it and bedspreads. So, I swallowed hard and bought just a third of a yard of each of three colors. Red, cream and brown. From the red and the cream I made a Christmas stocking for my little granddaughter Afton. I simply drew a pattern free-hand on a piece of 12×12 paper and cut two of the red chenille. I cut two of the cream also. I used the red for the outside and the cream for the inside. I cut the cream several inches taller than the red so that when it poked out of the top I could fold it over to make an outside cuff. I finished the cream lining with cream piping. I added a ribbon,tassel and a bell. How satisfying it was to make something for little Afton that seemed familiar to me. It was probably soft when she reached her little arm all the way to the bottom on Christmas morning to pull out an orange and a tiny doll.
“Footfalls echo in the memory,
down the passage which we did not take,
towards the door we never opened.
-T.S. Elliot-