My Mom has been the inspiration for many of the items I’ve submitted to AWMOK. Here she is in the early 50’s with her brothers.
Today I talked to her and thanked her for sending me the last two quillows she’d kept. Mom is known for being wildly focused on whatever she was into at the time. She told me on the phone that once she started making these, she just couldn’t stop, producing over 60 one year.
This one has a homey pattern typical of a grandma’s decor.
With a floral pattern that many might find pleasing.
Open it up, the pillow becomes a quilt.
She had this one in the back seat of her buick for years. She told me she was originally going to hand-stitch all the months of the year on quillows.
She stopped at “January,” which gives way to a wild veggie pattern once you unfold the pillow into a quilt.
I guess she wanted to remember what fresh veggies looked like in January.
Here she was a few years ago with her brothers, my uncles.
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Allee Willis
You know I love those quillows your mom makes! I really love this excellent documentation you’ve done of them here. For anyone not intimately aware of the quillow here’s Mark’s original submission where I fell in love with the big Q’s in the first place: https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/2009/12/09/quillow/.
My favorite one here is the one with the vegetables.
I can’t believe that she made 60 in one year. Do you have any idea how many she made in total? And do all your family members who received them still have them?
Mark Milligan
She keeps pretty good records, hand written lists of what she’s done for whom, so I’ll ask her if she knows the grand total. I really can’t fathom many more than the 60.
I would guess that everybody, all her kids, kids-in-law, and grandkids still all have theirs. That would be a fun next step, to ask them all to send pictures.
Mom is a serious student of the genre that she’s into at the time, so I’m sure the quillow pattern was from a book or magazine she subcribed to.
Allee Willis
Would LOVE everyone to send in their quillow photos!
denny
I never knew what a quillow is. I really love Mom’s orange pedal pushers in the top photo and who is the little guy peering out of the window?
Mark Milligan
Denny it’s my sister Kay looking out the window. :)