The Andrew Quilt

I had decided to take a few photo's of Andrew's great big room and once I started taking the pictures I felt quite sentimental about it. Thinking that this would be his last room at home - his personality is all over this room and the photo's would be a record of him from childhood - as a teenager and then a young man. He still has many of his childhood items in his room. So I ended up taking quite a few pictures - years from now I can look back on them and remember when he decorated the wall with the posters of his favourite rock stars. When we moved here he wanted to paint the room a light grey colour to set off his mostly black and white collection of pictures. He was and still is a big Elvis Presley fan - as you can see the part of the ceiling that is a little lower has a bunch of Elvis pictures.

When Andrew was 11 years old - Andrew and my mum went on a week long trip to Memphis to see Graceland. They both were such big fans of Elvis - it was the year of the 20th anniversary of his death that year, 1997. They really enjoyed the trip - saw the Memphis Belle, Suncity, Graceland, the Peabody ducks. So I think of that when I see those pictures of Elvis up on the wall.

The very first year that we moved here he had a girlfriend named Molly. The wall just beside the door and to the left of Kurt Cobain was full of pictures of Molly that Andrew had taken in Photo class at highschool We used to call it "The Molly Wall" After they stopped seeing each other the "Molly Wall" came down of course. He also writes a bit of poetry - and finds bits of poetry for his walls -- we call it "Teenage Angst Poetry" So there is a bit of that on the walls as well. I just hate the thought of this all coming down right now.

This is the "Andrew Quilt" This is the first quilt I ever received. It was given to me (Andrew) just after he was born in 1986. A woman that lived down the street, who I really only knew in passing -- Hazel, was her name. She came down and gave me this quilt she had made. It contains all kinds of bits of flannel fabric scraps - some from children's pajama's from the 60's I think -- little rocket ships and things. I have no idea what the batting is inside it - it is a bit lumpy and the backing is another sort of unknown fabric. On the back is Andrew's name spelled out in flannel rocket fabric. Isn't it the most wonderful quilt. I couldn't tell you another baby gift I got - but here 20 years later, on a chair in his room is his "Andrew Quilt" We always called it that. And it has always been in his room.