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when all the stars met and were sewn together. This was useful art. The patterns and values were here teaching me to select, organize, rearrange, and place in a format. Granny did this without a Fundamentals of Design 101 class. She would cut fabric, piece it together, sew, and it was to be used for her grandchildren. The quilt was a lesson in recycling, salvaging, and reclaiming. The fabric came from old shirts and fabric left over from making a housedress. There were bags of fabric pieces with odd shapes and patterns to be smoothed out over her knee. Which pieces of fabric would be chosen and woven into her creative design?

My grandparents were the West, via Oklahoma. They were part of the great migration of 350,000 Okie farmers moving away from their failures. Moving west to try to find work they drove together with their two children, my mother and uncle. Driving a 1926 Model T Ford across some of the same roads we had just driven they parked in Phoenix without jobs or money. Their first home was located under the Salt River Bridge in Tempe where they lived for a year. It was when America was kinder to people on the move. They weren't homeless they were down and out. My grandmother knew how to survive without a tent and camping equipment. They slept underneath their car, built campfires, cooked using a black iron skillet and looked for work during the day. The dust was still on them from Oklahoma and it never could be washed off. They took the dust with them.

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