It’s week 2 of the photography project I’m doing this year, Project 52. This week’s theme is “House on Fire”. I participated in this project at the beginning of last year, and we had this same prompt last year as well and my answer really hasn’t changed much.
The theme “House on Fire” refers to thinking about what you would take from your home if you had 10 minutes to evacuate in case of fire or natural disaster, and then capturing that in a photo. Last year I thought about this a lot and came to the conclusion that we really don’t own a lot that isn’t replaceable. But one of the few things we do have that I couldn’t ever replace are the stacks of quilts my mother has made. She is an amazing quilter and in case of fire, I absolutely think I would be running from room to room gathering up all the quilts she has made for us over the years. But I didn’t want to take a picture of a stack of quilts again. So this year, I included just one of her quilts in my image to represent all the quilts that I would save, and I added a couple of other things that I would grab from the bedrooms as I gathered up the quilts – our passports, just to make it easier to get our lives back in order, and one of my daughter’s American Girl dolls, Addy. The day my daughter was born, my sister was killed by a hit-and-run driver, so they never got to meet. However, my sister’s memory lives on in our home, and this year my mom passed down my sister’s old American Girl dolls to my daughter. My sister’s favorite was Addy, and Addy quickly became my daughter’s favorite as well. I’d like to think that bringing a familiar favorite like Addy would help make things easier on my daughter in the aftermath.
And here was my picture from last year. These are most of the quilts at our house. We’ve added since last year.
If you’re interested in my mother’s quilts, please go to her web site, Sewn by Cindy.
This post is part of a blog circle. Please continue on in the circle to see how other photographers have responded to this theme.
Danielle
What beautiful quilts. I would treasure these as well!
Jude
What a tragic story – it’s lovely that your daughter still has that link to her aunt through the dolls. I can definitely understand why that would be something you’d want to save.
Maidenmet
Thats a really love Celt keepsake for your mother to give your daughter.
Susan
Brought tears to my eyes. How wonderful that she has the dolls! As always, love your mom’s quilts.
Trish
Wow, what a story
Tara
Beautiful quilts, thank you for sharing your story.
Michele Kendzie
Those are beautiful quilts. What a wonderful connection between your sister and daughter, with the dolls.