Sentimental Treasures

My grandmother's handiwork, crocheted lace handkerchiefs.
(Click picture for larger view)

"And there were times when one yielded quite shamelessly to the sentimental. They were more likely to be times of crickets, I think, than of birds - when it was impossible not to feel, like another essence of the sunlight, the bittersweet of life that lingers about old houses, and places where men have died, and things that forgotten hands have touched." ~ H. G. Dwight, Atlantic Monthly, 1912

My grandmother loved to crochet and quilt. She could look at an afghan and replicate the pattern on her own. Her quilts were pieced and finished by hand and she left each of us several examples of her handiwork. I have about six of these linen handkerchiefs that she made with crocheted lace borders. The work is delicate and intricate and required total concentration. These are precious because they were made before the Alzheimer's took its toll on her mind, before she could no longer remember how to write her name much less crochet. These represent my grandmother before she no longer knew my name.

Submission for PhotoFriday topic "sentimental". (end of post)