 |
| ||
 |
News
 Their quilts are gifts of love By Mike Marsh The hundreds of thank you cards have been postmarked from towns and cities across the state of Washington. Cosmopolis, Federal Way, Mt. Vernon, Snohomish, Shoreline, Olympia and Seattle to name but a handful. There are also thank you cards addressed from out-of-state places such as Salinas, Calif., Aurora, Ill., Franklin, Wisc., Glen Head, N.Y., Fridley, Minn., and Toronto, Ontario. Each thank-you card shares a few things in common. They are all addressed to Nancy Campbell and her mother Maxine Campbell and they are all gushing with thanks and appreciation for the one-of-a-kind, handcrafted baby quilts the mother-and-daughter team have sewn over the years and given as gifts. “We are so excited for our first baby ... and your thoughtful gift just adds to the excitement,” says one note. “Thank you for your special thoughtfulness and very special gift of love,” says another. “Thank you again for your beautiful gift ... it brings us much happiness,” says yet another. The other thank-you cards echo similar sentiments, as well as how comfortable the quilts are and how the children they are given to are becoming more and more attached to the quilts as they grow older. And that’s a lot of children, says Nancy Campbell, who along with three brothers was raised in Central Park by Maxine and her late-husband Gail Campbell. Since Nancy and her mother began sewing together back in the 1970s, they have completed 687 quilts. Each one has been given as a gift to family, friends and friends of friends. And while Nancy and her mother Maxine say they get great happiness knowing that their quilts provide a little bit of added comfort and joy to parents and children, they also cherish the unique relationship they have formed over the years through quilting together. “We are best friends,” said Nancy, who says their friendship gets stronger and closer with each quilt they work on. Maxine smiles in agreement and gives her daughter a hug. “And we make a pretty good team,” she adds. Sewing the Seeds of Love Nancy Campbell remembers well the beginning of her and Maxine’s sewing partnership. “We started doing this in the 1970s and I was in college,” explained Nancy, who attended the University of Washington and played basketball there. “I came home one time and I was putting a quilt together.” Maxine saw the quilt her daughter was making and, being a sewer herself, was immediately interested in the project. “How did you sew it?” Nancy remembers her mother asking. Nancy explained to her mother that she had rented a sewing machine and the she was making the quilt to give as a gift. Unaware until then that sewing was becoming a hobby for her daughter, Maxine produced an old sewing machine she had purchased at a garage sale and gave it to Nancy. “The best darn thing I ever did was giving it to you,” said Maxine, who is sometimes affectionately called Pex. According to Nancy, she took the sewing machine back to college with her and has “been sewing ever since.” So too has Maxine, who began helping Nancy with her quilting not long after. It was not only a chance to sew, which she had always enjoyed doing, but also a chance to work on projects with her daughter, says Maxine. Nancy saw the same opportunity and was delighted when her mother broke out her 1946 Singer sewing machine. “My parents bought it for me,” explained Maxine. “I was pregnant and I was poking at this old-fashioned machine and I wasn’t supposed to do that.” She’s been using the Singer ever since, she says. “It’s got a lot of miles on it,” laughed Nancy. And it continues to log miles. SEE YOU ON SATURDAY Over the past 30 years, Nancy and Maxine have gotten their sewing routine down pat. Every Saturday morning, Nancy drives down from her home in Seattle to visit with Maxine. With her she brings stacks of material collected from fabric stores, garage and estate sales or given to her by friends who know she is always on the lookout for unique patterns. Nancy and Maxine then discuss what fabric they want to use and design the pattern for the quilt. “There’s a rhyme and reason to it for the most part,” said Nancy. During the course of the next week, Maxine, who moved from her home in Central Park to Channel Point Village in Hoquiam last year, sits at her 1946 Singer and sews together the square pieces of fabric to form the front of the quilt. “Just whenever I feel like it,” said Maxine of her routine. Once back in Seattle, Nancy, who has worked at Ocean Beauty Seafood for the past 27 years, takes the fronts that Maxine sewed the previous week, adds the stuffing and sews on the back. When a quilt is completed, Nancy then sews on a tag that reads: Made Especially for You by Nancy Campbell. Considering that Maxine played a big role in its creation, Nancy wishes her mother’s name was also on the tag, but can’t convince her to do so. “I always say she has to put one on that says Maxine Campbell, but she says no,” said Nancy, nodding to her mother. Because Nancy and Maxine work in spurts, it’s hard for them to say how long it takes to complete a quilt from start to finish, but 687 over the past 30 or so years isn’t too shabby. “It can be tedious,” admitted Nancy. “But we’ve gotten faster over the years,” added Maxine. So fast, that Nancy says she has some catching up to do. “My mom sews one quilt front a week,” she said. “That’s 52 fronts a year over 30 years.” Given that Nancy has put the finishing touch on almost 700 quilts, that leaves many more to complete. “I have plenty to keep me busy,” she laughed. “We need more babies to give them to.” GIFTs OF FREE LOVE Nancy and Maxine Campbell both have a lot of fond memories of quilting together, they say, and appreciate the thanks they get from others who have received the quilts as gifts. But when they ponder the fact that they have completed 687 quilts, they shake their heads in disbelief. “It just happened,” laughed Maxine. “I would have had no idea that we made that many together,” added Nancy, who keeps track of every quilt and who it was given to. “I would think maybe a couple of hundred.” It started off as an easy way to give gifts to family members, but it has taken on a life of its own, she says. “It started with sons and brothers,” said Maxine. “Cousins ...,” added Nancy. “Friends and strangers,” chimed Maxine. To be sure, Nancy and Maxine have donated quilts to senior citizens and the needy; they’ve given them to church clothing drives and to just about anybody else who asks. But there is a catch. “We never sell them,” explained Maxine. “They are just a gift of free love.” And according to Maxine — and the hundreds of thank-you cards they have received over the years — those gifts of free love have made their way around the globe, from England, Holland and Canada to Haiti, Mexico and Thailand. “We have baby quilts all over the world,” said Maxine, “and we’ve gotten lovely letters back from people saying thanks.” Told that she must really enjoy quilting to be doing it for so many years, she answers somewhat sarcastically. “I did,” she laughed, mentioning arthritis in her hands, “but then I started going haywire.” “But I’m still doing it,” she announced happily. “She’s a warrior,” said Nancy. “It’s a work in progress,” she added, giving Maxine another hug. “And we’ll keep doing it for as long as we can.” Mike Marsh, a Daily World writer, can be reached at 537-3952, or by e-mail: mmarsh@thedailyworld.com. |
||
 |
|
|
