I could tell immediately that the quilt being shown was made from the fabric of men's dress shirts.  I had worn some of those same shirts.  As she held up the quilt I can't say I was overly impressed - but then the story was added.

Her father's health was failing and he had been put in a home to provide the care that was needed.  No one likes to just leave a loved one in hospital gowns.  Doing that somehow feels like your giving up.  Somehow you are turning your loved ones over to the illness.  Such as the case with her father.  Her mother wanted to keep his spirits up by providing him "his clothes" to wear.  Unfortunately, her father was not able to get into his shirts even with his best efforts.  So, her mother, would lovingly slit the shirts up the sides so that he could get them on and wear them in some degree of comfort.  

What does one do with the old clothes once events pass and the tears dry.  You can't keep these old shirts - they are all slit up the side.  But, a quilter thinks differently.  They inherently know what to do.  So, these shirts made it into this not so dazzling quilt that we were now seeing in "show and tell" time. 

At first, I thought that this quilt would bring back the bad memories of those tough times with an ailing loved one and the pain of the final loss.  But then I realized, this quilt was not a sad memory - by no means!  This quilt is a tribute to the love between a mother and father - for better or worse.  This quilt captures the depth of love that the mother poured out upon the father even in those tough times.  How wonderful a tribute this daughter created in this quilt of "shirts."

I then realized the fabulous beauty I was seeing in the quilt!