I was hired by a lawyer to be his legal assistant/secretary/gopher in 1993, before my husband and I had children. The gal who called me about the attorney’s selection of me had the last name that was my maiden name, Spencer.
On my first week of work in what was literally a broom closet converted into an office that we shared, I just *had* to ask her about her last name. Once I found out that it was her married name, then we talked about her husband’s family. And this information gave me goosebumps! Her husband’s parent’s names were the EXACT first and last names of the oldest uncle and his wife on my paternal side of the family. NO WAY! I knew that my aunt and uncle had already passed away, so I knew it wasn’t my immediate kin. But, then I was shocked to find out that her husband’s name was also one of my first cousin’s names. (queue the Twilight Zone music). We were both thunder-struck. Though, her now ex-husband was probably kin to us somewhere down the proverbial genealogical tree – it was fun to share Spencer stories.
Then, she got pregnant and she and her husband moved to the north of Austin and she went on about her business of being a working woman, wife and expectant mother many miles away from our broom closet. I attended a baby shower for her, just before her daughter was born in December 1994. Unbeknownst to me, when I went to her baby shower, I was pregnant, also, and had no idea! I had been told I had a tipped girl-part and could probably not ever get pregnant – boy did the ‘practicing’ physicians get THAT one wrong! About a month or so before my due date, she and her baby girl came to my wedding shower. It seemed we found ourselves together, even when we were miles and miles apart.
And our daughters just graduated from high school in May. Our parallel journeys will continue as I believe her son is in the same grade as our second daughter, in different schools miles apart, of course.
(Another aside, without even knowing it, we both have yellow labs, too!)
Because I try to gift close family and friends with quilts when they are babies, graduates (high school or college) or weddings – I reached out to this gal and asked her if I could make her daughter a quilt for a graduation gift. She readily accepted my offer and told me her daughter wanted a t-shirt quilt. I was a bit leery, given that the first one I had made was not of the quality that I desired, I was willing to try again. I did a day’s worth of research because the first one I made had stabilizer that was way too stiff for my preference. I found a much more pliable stabilizer and had her purchase all of the necessary fabric, stabilizer and to send me the t-shirts she wanted to use in the quilt.
Yesterday, I went home from my office much earlier than usual because I just didn’t have the gumption to waste time work on the computer. I read a couple more tutorials (because my memory is not to be trusted anymore) online about making a t-shirt quilt and then got busy cutting up the t-shirts they wanted me to use. Once I had everything cut out, my youngest daughter helped me lay all of the shirts on our bed and I took a picture of them and sent it to my friend – just to make sure I got all of the shirts (front or back) that they had asked me to use.
While waiting for their confirmation, I began pressing the stabilizer to the t-shirt blocks and was VERY happy to note that the stabilizer was, in fact, *much* better than the previous one I’d used. I got down to the end of the stabilizer she had purchased and still had three shirts left to press. DRATS. She is purchasing more and sending it to me and then I can square up the blocks and begin putting the quilt together!
I’m excited about this quilt – both from a quilter’s standpoint as well as it being gifted to a young lady I made a baby quilt for 18+ years ago. The only problem? The college she is going to is that one in Texas whose colors are maroon and white….and that is what the quilt fabric has all over it. 🙂
