The Patchwork Quilt By: Valerie Flournoy and Illustrated By: Jerry Pickney

Flournoy, V. (1985). The Patchwork Quilt. Dial Books for Young Children.

Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration - 1986
This story is about a very special and loving family relationship between a granddaughter and grandmother. The main purpose of the story is that the grandmother wants her granddaughter Tanya to gain an appreciation for things that are hand crafted with love. I felt the warmth of the grandmother and granddaughter relationship right from the beginning of the story. I automatically made a text to self connection to their relationship to the special relationship that I had with my Granny Fox. She was an avid sewer and antique doll restorer, and along with my mom crafting and my Grandpa Fox work working in the shed, I was surrounded by crafty people nearly every Sunday in Yorktown. I remember when I was a young adult in college, my Granny’s MS set in more and more, and she began to feverishly make small sewing projects, from doll size quilts to patchwork pot holders. She knew she was losing her ability to be nimble and gifted with her hands, and wanted to leave her mark through sewing as much as she could. I thought about that when Tanya’s grandmother became ill while in the midst of a long term quilt project, and I knew how Tanya felt when she knew that she needed to carry on the project, as part of handiwork skills that must be practiced and past on from one person to another, to someone who cares enough to be dedicated to the meaning of the task at hand.

I thought of Tanya’s quilt the same way I thought of my Granny Fox’s projects, as pieces of love that have permanence. I liked how the author brought out the points about how she reused different, worn fabrics that truly were snapshots of memories in old things, and it states, “A quilt won’t forget. It can tell your life story.” Instead of having to completely give up a favorite pair of pants, for example, grandmother can still squeeze out a permanent memory from them by cutting them up for patches. I still have my Granny Fox’s pot holders in my tea towel drawer in the kitchen, and I know the origins of some of those pieces of patchwork. My favorite cloth in the patchwork was leftover pink gingham from where she made a dress for a bisque antique doll that she made me as a young girl. That fabric resurfaced 15 years later in that particular pot holder of mine, and although I don’t use them because I don’t want to mess them up, a permanent piece of her is in my kitchen, along side the jelly cupboard my Grandpa Fox handcrafted for her years ago. As for Tanya, I was relieved when her grandmother recovered, so that way the message of the story is conveyed to children without being scary or too sad. A touching, peaceful story that spans generations.