that i had neglected to fill you in on the history of the gramcracker square quilt. sigh. i’m so behind.
pretty simple deal really. gramcracker spent some time in the hospital and a rehab facility during the last 6 weeks of her life. As a family, we spent the majority of those round the clock 60,480 minutes with her.
We sang songs. At one time kelly and i were singing. I don’t remember the song, maybe kelly does. We finished and gram said. “that was nice girls. you’ll do better tomorrow”. 
We read stories and magazines and the Bible.
We shared memories and confidences and pictures.
We held hands and cried tears.
and sometimes we even argued with each other a bit. A family of lily livered unopinionated people we are NOT!
When I would stay with Gramcracker overnight, i toted my portable sewing table and sewing machine with me. and gram and I would talk fabric and stitches and quilts. when she would sleep for a few minutes, i would sew using just the light on my machine and the light that drifted into her room from the hallway. My pattern was very random and my corners do not all match up. and i’m good with that.
I named the quilt “gramcracker squares”. I quilted it very simply with just crosshatching. I made a label (i KNOW! ) using a writing that I read at Gramcracker’s funeral which I had written many years ago:
My Gramcracker has magic hands. Some people are very important. They have impressive titles or lots of money in the bank. Maybe they run a company or dress really fancy like. They live in big houses and drive Cadillacs. My Gramcracker has magic hands. If you glance at her hands, they just look regular-like. Four fingers and a thumb on each one. Some of her fingers have rings on them. Sometimes her nails are painted in real pretty colors like pink and rose. In the past years, her fingers changed some. There are noticeable “knots” and “bumps and curves” in them. Sometimes she tells me that they hurt. That makes me sad.
I have a quilt made from Gramcracker’s magic hands. It’s the very best place in the world to take a nap. If you really need to rest, just cover up with this quilt and soon your mind and body will get the rest you need. It’s a magic quilt because Gramcracker’s magic hands cut the fabric and pieced it together and then tied the 3 layers together into a quilt. Gramcracker put some of her magic into the quilt to share with anyone who needs a little magic. I learned to share real good in kindergarten so if you need to rest, let me know.
Gramcracker’s magic hands know exactly what you need. When I was little, sometimes I wouldn’t listen so good and when her scolding was punctuated with finger waving, I got the message loud and clear. The magic hands must have opened up my ears real good!
Lots and lots of babies have been cradled in Gramcracker’s magic hands. From her children to grandchildren to great-grandchildren! Every single one of them found love and safety in those magic hands.
Sometimes no matter how smart you are, you find yourself in a situation where you don’t know what to do or say. I found myself there once. My mind just couldn’t wrap itself around the problem. I couldn’t fix it. I couldn’t change it. I couldn’t control it. Gramcracker may have felt the same way. It’s a scary thing to be powerless. But Gramcracker’s magic hands knew what to do. They held onto my scared and powerless hands. That’s all. They just held me. Nothing in the world that day changed. I still couldn’t fix or control the situation, but Gramcracker’s magic hands held mine and they comforted me in a way that nothing else could.
Some people travel all over the world for fun. They eat imported chocolates in places like Paris and ride the Orient Express. They collect diamonds to wear to the opera or symphony.
My Gramcracker has magic hands.
