MeMaw's Quilt - The Rolling Blog Hop Reveal

A while back, my friend Christine at OneKissCreations invited me to take part in a rolling hop -- she'd send each of us a goodie package with a mystery component and some additional beads, and we could create something to share on our own schedule within a certain time period.  I love Christine's sense of humor, sense of style, and sense of creativity, so of course I said yes.

The package arrived, and, with great ladylike grace and restraint (snort), I ripped it open to discover the mystery component. And my thought process was something like, "Spools! Spools? Hmmm, spools....."

The image that kept coming to me over and over again when I thought of spools was one of my maternal grandmother, who spent a couple of years (or at least it seemed to me, although given a kid's sense of time, it probably was only a several months) making a pair of quilts, which she then gave to me and my sister.

So my creation was going to be a reflection of my grandmother, who we called MeMaw, her style, and her quilt.  Here's a little bit about my MeMaw -- she and my grandfather had a farm, although she also worked in town.  She had gorgeous snow white hair, long legs and a terrific figure (which, sadly, I did not inherit), a great smile, and always took care to dress with flair. She had an incredible strength and spirit.  I so wish my children could have known her.

Anyway, here's MeMaw, and here is a section of the quilt she made for me.

See what I mean about dressing with flair? She's wearing a silk dress and
fab jewelry, even though the infant me might have spit up or done
something else messy at any moment.  The lady had style and guts!

The quilt is queen-sized, and I have yet to find a square that has a duplicated fabric center.

And I'm happy to introduce to you MeMaw's Quilt Necklace.

I decided the best way to capture the idea of the quilt was to wrap the spool in a quilt of beads.  I made a right angle weave base, and added every small bead I could find in my stash to the open squares.  There are gemstones, crystals, Czech glass, and pearls in there -- hopefully a faithful reflection of MeMaw's love of sparkly jewelry.  For the neckstrap, I braided some beautiful sari silk that I had from another swap, AntiquityTraveler's blogoversary hop.  The color was a perfect mimic for the background of the quilt.  I will admit to having had fifteen different kinds of fits trying to figure out a clasp, since the silk wasn't long enough to allow me to loop it over, but I finally came up with one that I was happy with.

I tried really hard to do like MeMaw and not repeat any beads
in the squares, but there are a couple of duplicates.

The Quilt on the quilt

Thanks, Christine, for letting me play along!  And if you're interested in seeing what the others have created (and the results so far are pretty eclectic, kind of like the artists involved), here's a list:

Janet

Cynthia

Kim

Therese

Tanya

Bobbie (aka MeMaw's granddaughter - you're here)

Liz

Maryanne

Karin

Lisa

Hope

Erin

Christine