3. Clean up any accidents immediately. Washable quilts can be cleaned with cold water. My quilt, with delicate cross-stitching fabric and thread, would need to be dry cleaned by an expert.

4. Before you wash, test fabric to see if colors are going to run. Use a white towel and cold water to test each color.

5. Do not put quilts in dryer or hang them over a clothesline. They should lay flat between two sheets placed on grass in shade.

When I was a young, married woman I discovered a box of fabric in my grandmother's closet along with pattern for a quilt that had been published by Kansas City Star in 1920s. Grandma told me she had bought fabric when my dad was born and had just never made quilt. She told me if I wanted to make it, she would pay to have it quilted for me. I accepted challenge, and without knowing anything about quilts (or anything else!), I cut and assembled all of pieces. It was beautiful, and I remember pride I felt in knowing that I had sewn every stitch, but even as I laid it across my daughter's twin-sized bed, I could see how thin and worn fabric had become. I wish now I would have used pattern and bought newer, more sturdy fabric, that would have lengthened life of quilt, but that was just one of life's lessons I had to learn.

Going through process of piecing that quilt helped me to have a deep appreciation for all of time and love that goes into each stitch. As I worked on it, I tried to imagine my grandmother as a young mother and wondered what life was like for her. Was motherhood as challenging for her as it was for me? Did she ever imagine that she would have a granddaughter who would treasure this old fabric and bond it gave to both of them?

Buying a bedspread is fast and fairly inexpensive because they are mass produced, but you can't expect it to give you you same warm feeling as when you run your hands over stitches of a quilt that was made by you or someone you love. When your hands caress fabric and stitches of quilt you have painstakingly created, memories of past are guaranteed to rush into your heart. If that quilt was made by someone who loved you, you will feel a connection that seems oblivious to time.

Copyright 2002 Joyce Moseley Pierce http://www.emersonpublications.com Joyce is a freelance writer and owner of Emerson Publications.She is creator of "All They'll Need to Know," a workbook to help families record personal and financial information. She is also editor of The Family First Newsletter, an ezine for families with young children.

Joyce is a freelance writer and owner of Emerson Publications.She is the creator of "All They'll Need to Know," a workbook to help families record personal and financial information. She is also the editor of The Family First Newsletter, an ezine for families with young children. http://www.emersonpublications.com

If you don’t know answers to these questions, now is a good time for you to start thinking about them. What are some things you can do to be better prepared for these situations?

1. Talk to your spouse (and don’t forget your parents) and explain importance of working together to put this information together now. Accidents aren’t something we schedule!

2. Gather important papers. Include birth certificates, pre-paid funeral arrangements, military records, current bank and credit card statements, wills, safe deposit information (bank, box number, authorized signers, contents), employment information - insurance, savings plans, retirement accounts, etc., savings account statements, stock certificates, loan agreements, automobile titles, health and life insurance.

3. Discuss disposition of personal items. This will help avoid family feuds when it comes time to decide who should get grandfather's watch or mother's pearls.

4. Make copies of these documents and file originals in a safe place. A fireproof safe at home is recommended so you'll have access to them on weekend. You might even consider scanning them and saving them to a CD.

5. Keep information up to date. Decide to go through these records at least annually to make sure information hasn't changed. Take this opportunity to discard outdated information.

6. Make sure someone in your family, and a trusted family friend, knows where this information is stored so it can be retrieved at a moment's notice. The fireproof box is a good place to keep it along with your original documents, but be sure to put it back each time you update information.

You are doing your family a disservice if you don't prepare this information for them while you're able. It doesn’t make sense to provide for them throughout your life, only to leave them struggling when they need your guidance more than ever.