Memory Quilt —"Star Memory Quilt"
Honoring, Celebrating, Sharing
In memory of Jo Cox, 1922 - 1995
My mother spent her life making beautiful things and was a working artist for most of her career. A fine arts graduate of Ohio State University, she had many jobs over the years. During WWII, she worked as a cartographer in Washington, DC for the OSS, helping to make maps for the Normandy Invasion. Later, she worked for a department store, sketching ladies fashions for newspaper ads. By turns, Mother was a sign-painter, jewelry-maker, graphic artist, calligrapher and art teacher (I took her class in 7th grade.) When I was little, she was a puppeteer working on local television in Cleveland, and doing Punch and Judy shows in the schools (I was her assistant).
From the time she learned to sew, she made most of her own clothes and those of her four children. In her 60s, retired with my father to the North Carolina coast, my mother discovered quilting and it was the chief passion of her last decade. Working entirely by hand, she made bed quilts, wall hangings and vests, applying all she knew about color and composition to fabric, and winning many first-place ribbons from her North Carolina guild.
Mother taught me to sew as a young girl and gave me her old Singer sewing machine when I turned 12, but the best gift she gave me was when she taught me how to quilt in my 30s. Mother taught me how to do everything by hand, with great care and precision. She never stopped sending me fabric and little sketches with ideas for new projects, or reminders of how to attach a bias binding. It meant so much to her that I loved this craft too, that I obviously wasn't doing it just to please her. We lived hundreds of miles apart, but quilting kept us close.
When she died, I inherited an increased passion for this extremely satisfying pursuit, as well as her amazing stash. Using the scissors and other tools she gave me, employing all the tricks and techniques she taught me, I feel her blessings every time I make another quilt.
- Meg Cox