Join us this week to celebrate your Mother, including any woman who has taught, inspired and supported you. We will be sharing photos and stories all week from our members and supporters.
QA office manager, Debby Josephs, with her mom and family
Debby Josephs, QA Office Manager
My mother, Marjorie Grant, was a remarkable, beautiful, incredibly smart woman who graduated from high school at 15, graduated from Wellesley at 19 where she majored in art history and had her first job after graduation in the library at MOMA. My mother was always an artist but somehow apparently was convinced by my father that she could be a clothes designer as well. They took the huge step in 1954, with four kids, to start their own business, Midge Grant Inc. Mom was the designer and Dad was the manufacturer. They had a showroom and factory in NYC and I always loved visiting both. They started modestly designing and selling aprons – I still proudly have one – and Mom evolved into a sportswear designer with six lines a year. They were in business for about 30 years. This photo was a publicity shot for some publication and I’m the bad posture girl in the pic. I wish there had been DVRs back then in the 50’s because we four kids, and Mom and Dad, went on a live Hugh Downs tv show modeling those early aprons!
Quilt Alliance executive director Amy Milne with her mom, Sylvia Milne.
Amy Milne, QA executive director
This is a favorite photo of me and my mom, Sylvia (who is now 84 years young and lives on Bluebird Farm in Morganton, NC). She taught me to sew and knit (and retaught me to knit when I forgot). I can describe in vivid detail the sewing boxes she has owned over the years: how they smelled, how the compartments were organized, and what you could find on the very bottom of the box if you were lucky, and persistent (a single peppermint Lifesavers clinging to the bottom of gritty wrapper). I cherish the fabric scraps that she has given me and the garments that she has passed down to me. A great joy for me was to make Mom a quilt in 2014 from the fabric scraps of the curtains she made for her very first house. Here’s the Go Tell It! recording about that quilt (yes, humbly juxtaposed against quilts in an exhibition of Gee’s Bend quilts) :https://youtu.be/
To participate in the Mother’s Day StoryShare Week:
First:
- Join or renew your QA membership, or
- Purchase a gift membership for your mom, or
- Make at least a $30 donation on our website or via our FB page.
Second:
Follow this link to submit your story and photo.
We will notify you when your Mother’s Day StoryShare message is posted!