I always liked to do crafts from the time I was younger, but never thought of myself as a crafty person. I started scrapbooking a few years back and have gotten pretty good at it, so I think. I've made several scrapbooks of my children, vacations, and such. My children love looking through them and I must say, so do I. Last February when my brother was tragically taken from us, my sister's and I divided his belongs out amongst us, which contained shoes, kitchenware, blankets, pillows, clothes, and even kittens(lol) I got the bonus and ended up with the two kittens, Smokey and Mojo. He didn't have much, but he had enough clothes that three out of four of his sister's got a good hand full of clothes. My sister Tracy and I getting most of them because we had older boys, that we thought might be able to use them. My son picked out a few things he liked out of the big bag of clothes of his I had, but really couldn't use any of the work clothes, me looking at this big bag of clothes thinking, whatever am I going to do with all these clothes, and yet not wanting to give them to anyone else that might be able to use them, because they were my brother's of course. I couldn't bare the thought of just storing them down in the basement, then it hit me! I remember hearing of people having memory quilts made out of lost loved ones clothes, but then to send it out to have one made would probably be a pretty penny! Then I remember my aunt just started making quilts, so I asked if I bought the fabric and gave her the clothes, and paid her to make one, would she, but then the wheels in my head start spinning. If she showed me how to make a memory quilt, just maybe I'd be able to make it myself, not only would this quilt be made out of my beloved brother's clothes, but me who touched, smelled, and designed the quilt. It was I who would add the blood, sweat, and tears to the quilt. It would be forever tainted with my blood, sweat, and tears, and I assure you, there was a lot of tears soaking into the quilt as I was making it, but was I capable? Sure I started working in a sewing factory at the tender age of sixteen, but I've never in my life made a quilt! So, off to JoAnn fabric store I went and picked out the fabric that I found most to symbolize my brother. My brother trimmed trees for a living and loved his job, so, I picked out a fabric that resembled tree bark for the back, and for the front a marbly brown/beige fabric, it had to fabrics that symbolized the outdoors in some way. There was no finding fabric with trees on it, until months later after the quilt was done, then I found fabric with trees everywhere I went! Every Tuesday during that summer my aunt and I would have a sewing day. We'd have snacks, wine, and adult conversation, while both our younger girls had each other to play with and swim with. The first step to making the quilt was I had to choose which clothes I wanted of my brothers to make the quilt, that was a very hard decision in it's self, because I wanted to use every single piece of clothes I had of his! This was to be a queen/king size bed quilt, not a eight man tent(lol). The next thing I had to do was take the clothes I was using and cut them out into 12x12 square, which was also hard because now I felt as if I was destroying my brother's belongings, and thinking this should not be, he should be wearing these clothes, as I was getting flashbacks of me remembering him wearing all these clothes that I am now destroying! Once I got passed that I worked day and night on this quilt for my own selfish reasons. I wanted it done so that I could display it on my bed as soon as possible, so I could be wrapped in his love and warmth each night I went to bed. I started the quilt in the middle of June and by the first week of August it had been finished. I displayed it on my Facebook wall and a girl we went to school with, suggest I enter into our school community fair, and I did. I wasn't looking to win anything for it. I simply wanted to display it for all Oley Valley High students and the residents, in memory of my brother, a student who graduated from Oley Valley High. The community fair runs a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We had court the Thursday the fair opened, so after court my husband, my sister, and I went down to the fair for lunch and of course to check out the quilt! To my surprise it had a blue first place ribbon pinned to it! The quilts fame or mine didn't end there! Some following weeks later after the community fair, I got a call from out local newspaper about wanting to do a story on this quilt. The story in the newspaper was titled.... Thread of brother's life goes on in sister's quilt. On November 18, 2012 I received an envelope in the mail from House Of Representatives in Harrisburg, Pa, It had a laminated picture that was in the local newspaper of me with the quilt, and a little note from State Representative Mark Gillen. It reads... Brooke, You really inspired others by the very public way you choose to memorialize your brother Tim. I am very sorry for your loss but I am pleased that you have risen to such a positive productive place, please continue to communicate with our office on issues important to you. Mark I will honestly say that after my brother was murdered, I had a lot of anger, hate, bitterness, etc. Making this quilt seem to be a little help therapeutic wise, don't get me wrong it will be a year next Sunday and there is still anger, hate, bitterness, etc and that will never go away. For anyone who's lost a loved one to murder! Those who have, have to find a good outlet to deal with the way we lost our loved ones, and the emotions that come along with it. Within this year I have made four memory quilts for family members out of our brother's clothes, and I plan to continue to make the memory quilts and scrapbooks.
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