I just realized today that the guy I left almost 2 years ago either has or got rid of the beautiful bird quilt that I made for my youngest child while I was pregnant with him. I worked on that quilt during my lunch breaks, 15 minute breaks, in little bits of time because I worked full time during that pregnancy. It's made completely by hand, with curved piecing, from a pattern I made by adapting it from a pattern with four birds meeting in the center of each block. I'd link to a picture of this type of pattern, but it is uncommon and hardly ever seen. I loved that quilt, wasn't done with it, and it belongs to my son.

People always say, "it's just stuff, let it go, get over it". But you know if it was their quilt that they'd labored over for hours and days and years until holes were worn through the skin of their fingertips and that thing was sewn full of memories, love, etc...they wouldn't say that. They can only say that because it isn't theirs. So I think it's sort of callous and thoughtless of them.

I was upset about the biggest and nicest quilt already, the one I started when Daniel Haugen was dying of cancer. I'd poured so much love and pain into it and that quilt was a real masterpiece. It took me over ten years (not of continuous work obviously) to finish it. It's beautiful, wherever it is. But because you've eclipsed him, I was able to let it go. I resented the loss of such a beautiful thing but it didn't have as much hold on me.

The bird quilt however...and the others (at least one other, possibly several!!)...it's no longer an incident where one quilt, wrapped in a pillowcase for safekeeping, could have been mistaken for a pillow. No, he kept a number of my quilts. That's purposeful. He says that everything that was mine is legally his now, despite repeated requests for him to return it. I ask you (all): if I stole something, claimed I didn't have it for over a year and just refused to return it and then announced it was mine once the year was past, would that seem OK to anyone? That's stealing, regardless of time. If he kept it and then threw it away or gave it away, that's still wrong. A decent person doesn't do such things.

I want my quilts back. Every single one of them. If they're gone I want to know where they went and how so I can track them down and do what I can to get them back.