Moms and Their Memories

 

I joined my quilt guild, the Tewksbury Piecemakers, about 18 years ago. I hadn't done much quilting but really wanted to learn. My kids were quite young then. I think my daughter was around 6 and my son was 4 years old. It seemed such a major ordeal to just find the time to go to meetings. I tried so hard to find the time to try a block of the month or anything not too time consuming.

At the holidays, the guild gave us a pattern to make a teddy bear. The guild collected them and gave them to the fire department to hand out to kids during some sort of traumatic event. I thought I would be able to handle that. It was just a pattern someone had cut out of newspaper. I pieced the front and used a solid piece for the back. You just put the right sides together and sewed them, leaving an opening. Then it was stuffed and the opening was sewn by hand.

My kids loved the little bear I made so I decided to make them each one. I had one sewing machine at the time. (I had no idea how many I would buy in the future!) My machine had been my husband's grandmother's sewing machine. It was a Singer that sat in it's own cabinet. I took that sewing machine out and started making those teddy bears. I was sewing in the family room. The kids were watching TV but keeping a close eye on my progress! They each got their teddy bear that night. They were so easy to please back then!

This is Rebecca's teddy bear today. It's been hanging around on her bed all these years and the poor thing looks it's age!

The back is even worse!

The stuffing isn't even soft anymore! Isn't it sad looking??

Here is the new updated teddy! I took it apart and washed it. I let it dry outside in the sun. I even washed the ribbon!

Rebecca picked a nice soft flannel for the back. Teddy looks nice and new again!

I thought it was appropriate to post this for Mother's Day. Repairing that teddy bear brought back all sorts of memories of when my kids were little. The years seem to go by so fast. It made me sad a little but I'm hoping we have lots of good years coming up.

P. S.  You may be wondering whatever happened to my son's teddy. It's in a bag in the attic with all his beanie babies. That's boys for you!

Happy Mother's Day!