There were a couple of items rescued from our mountain home, after the landslide that were nothing short of a miracle. One such item is that print, hanging above the chair.
This is a very sentimental painting, done by a friend of the family. It hung downstairs, which wasn’t a good place to be. After the slide, the portion of wall where it hung, was completely obscured by boulders and mud and there were large pieces of furniture pushed up against it.
We felt if there were anything back there, it was smashed and/or wet. And we were worried that that corner of the house might come down at any minute. It wasn’t safe to go over there. So we left it alone and tarped up the house for winter. (Noteworthy: you can see the quilt in the picture below, on the bottom, left corner.)
We found the painting the following June, right before the house was slated to come down. Scott stood on the front deck, stuck his arm in the debris and pulled on something that felt like a picture frame. It was almost completely unharmed, having survived the landslide and the winter!
Another miraculous survivor? The quilt hanging on the back of that chair. It was a gift to my Mom and Dad from my sister a few Christmases ago.
When we first arrived at the house, two weeks after the slide, this is what we found:
You can see the quilt (and the chair it rested on) has been pushed up into the fireplace. You can see a tiny piece of the quilt sticking out but we were afraid to pull on anything for fear the house would come down…
We gave up on it. We weren’t going to be able to get it out.
.
.
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In June the bulldozers knocked down the house.
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.
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When we went to see the remains of the house, I was shocked! The quilt was lying there, on top of the pile of sticks that used to be our house. How did it end up there, not even a board on top of it?
Scott climbed up and got it for me. It had survived THE SLIDE, THE WINTER AND THE DEMOLITION OF THE HOUSE! (mostly intact… but not enough.)
It took many, many washes to get all that mud out and then the real work began!
My awesome mother-in-law was up for the challenge. First we took the quilt to our local fabric store to try to match some of the fabric.
Then Sandy took the whole quilt apart and pinned the top back together for me!
It was originally a queen sized quilt but there were too many pieces damaged beyond repair, so we decided to build it back smaller – lap quilt size.
I am not a quilter. I’ve dabbled, that’s it. Everyone knew I was getting in way over my head, even suggesting that maybe I should make a new quilt for my mom… Nope, this one deserved another chance!
So I found a sweet lady who took pity on me and agreed to help me put it back together. She owns our local fabric store. Her name is Mary and she’s an amazing, generous person! I went to the shop on Saturdays and started putting it back together, with her help. I got most of the top done and ran out of time. (I had wanted to give it to my mom for Christmas.) So my friend agreed to finish it up for me!!!
I gave it to my mom on Christmas Eve and she was blown away! Here it is and IT IS LOVELY:
Now it’s a quilt from my sister, Sandy, Mary and me. And now it’s an heirloom and a true survivor.
Doodles, Dogs and Bees 