May will be with us soon and this month I have created 2 mini quilts in honor of National Teachers day May 4 and National Nurses Day May 6. My Mother and Grandmother were both nurses and I come from a long line of teachers and nurses, so much so, that in my teenage years it almost seemed like a curse, one I was determined to escape.
The closest I came to nursing in my 20’s was the year or so I spent working at Greater El Monte Community Hospital. I was that girl at the nurses station who answers the phone and hands the doctors and nurses the charts on TV, at least in shows where they still have charts. I had no medical training at all but it was my job to copy the doctors orders (by which I mean interpret their horrible handwriting into something that could be read by other humans) into the charts, medication dosages and frequency, tests to be performed, the works. I’m still amazed something so important wasn’t the job of a trained nurse, on the other hand, to this day I can still read just about any handwriting!
As I write this today I can’t help but think my ancestors are having a good laugh at my expense. I was so determined to chart my own path one entirely different from anyone else in my family, one that took me from Sales Rep to CalArts student to Theater Costume Designer, Massage Therapist to Quilt Artist to Quilt Show Vendor, Speaker to… so many exciting and seemingly unique career shifts. All that time I thought I was doing my own thing and blazing my own path - it has all led here - Where I find myself at last both as a teacher, sharing what I love in quilting and taking delight in the accomplishments of my students and no, not a nurse, but a healer just the same, with my massage therapy practice.
So, Mom, my first Teacher and life long Nurse, and all the other teachers and nurses that came before me on our family tree, these quilts are for you.
For a limited time get the FREE mini quilt image PDF by using the code NURSE or TEACH respectively at checkout. Limit 1 coupon code per order.