A quilt, in most cases, is used to keep warm on a cold day, however, others might find a quilt to be a memento. Patricia Mitchell thinks of the latter when creating quilts for her customers.
A former resident of Cordell, Mitchell now spends her time on her new business where she constructs quilts that oftentimes contain memories for the one receiving the quilt.
“It kinda keeps a person’s memory alive when you give them back something like a keepsake that they can use rather than have tucked away in a box,” she said.
Dubbed a “memory quilt”, Mitchell collected her childrens’ clothes throughout the years to use as fabric to construct the memory quilts that they could have as a keepsake. “My daughter took hers off to college with her,” Mitchell said.
For over 50 years now, Mitchell has been sewing quilts either for family members such as her children and grandchildren, or even her growing clientele base as she has begun to create custom memory quilts for those interested in purchasing one.
Most recently, the Beacon’s very own Charla Ingram purchased a quilt from Mitchell. Ingram’s quilt included band and festival t-shirts from her past, as well as ticket stubs from concerts that Mitchell was able to print onto fabric to include in the quilt.
“I called her and asked her if there was any momentos that she wanted added, anything special, and she mentioned the tickets. I said, ’Oh! we can do this,’” Mitchell said.
For Mitchell, it’s about getting to give people the memories in the form of a memento that they can physically have with them and put to use.
“I end up praying over each one,” she said. “I had a customer about a month ago who, she and her mother stood there and cried whenever they got it because it brought back all the memories of their parents because it was mom and dad’s clothes. So when they received it back, then they could go down that memory lane when the parents wore those clothes.” Recipients of the quilts aren’t the only ones affected emotionally by Mitchell’s creations as she said she experiences many emotions not only when presenting the quilts but also when making them.
“My reaction is, like I said, I get very emotional with it because they have their memories and they want to share those memories. So it becomes a part of me as I sew it,” Mitchell said. “So I can cry and be happy with them, or I can grieve with them through the making of the quilt. They’re quite often a healing process for the family members.”
Overall, Mitchell has made multiple quilts throughout the years either for family members or customers interested in their own memory quilts, and though she said they take much work to accomplish, she enjoys the process as she continues to learn and better perfect her craft.
If you or someone you know would like to order a memory quilt made by Mitchell, you can con tact her at 580-210-9066 or bldvamp@yahoo. com. You can also visit her Facebook page, My Favorite Quilts, to see examples of her work.
Mitchell does, however, mention some things you should know before buying a quilt.
“Before you contact any quilter or seamstress, have some general things in mind. Check around and find out what the cost of fabric is. I hate for someone to think, ‘Oh, it’s outlandishly expensive!’ Like they think you’re taking advantage of them when they haven’t actually priced the fabric themselves. So they need to kind of do some investigating on their own to find out what it costs,” she said.
“People are overwhelmed when they don’t realize what the actual cost is. It isn’t what I charge extra. It’s just the cost of the yardage and the batting and things like that. Because, like everything else, the price of that stuff has to be tacked onto the customer.”