Reflection
By Jane Hartfield
My father died last March. He
lived over 98 years and influenced me in so many ways. He was a man of great
honor and especially integrity. I cannot possibly describe him in a short
paragraph. However, I can reflect on his life and how he was ever a part of my
life.
He lived in Winnsboro, LA, all
of his life and on Lone Cedar Road about 50 years. There is a huge oak tree at
the end of his driveway. It was in front of his parents’ house originally. I
must have taken 100 pictures of that tree. I just love it. During the past year
as my father’s health was declining, I was going to Winnsboro more frequently.
On one of those trips, I was at the house by myself and had noticed an unusual
cloud formation. It had been raining. When I went outside to take a picture of
the clouds, there was a puddle on the driveway that reflected the oak tree in
the twilight. I was able to take several photos with my phone. I have never
seen that before or since. That is the picture on the front of the quilt.
I had to ask for help printing
the photographs on fabric. I have tried it before without success. However,
Teresa is very good at it and agreed to help me. She gave me the confidence to
do it myself, but I am not sure my printer is up to it. I decided to print the
picture of Daddy Ed and the picture of the whole tree as well as the
reflection.
Of course, the next step was
finding the right fabric. I thought that Stonehenge was good, but I wanted to make it more of my own. So,
using the thermofax screen Andrea had made for me of Daddy Ed’s handwriting, I
printed all over the background. I fused the reflection picture to the front
and decided it needed more. So, I added the picture of Daddy Ed which had been
taken last December. It may have been the last time he played Dominoes. Then I
had to quilt it. It is probably hard to see on the front, but I thread sketched
the tree avoiding stitching through the pictures. It is much easier to see on
the back. Then I fused the picture of the tree to the back and scribble
stitched around the edges.
