Which words does the speaker use to compare her mother to a painter? Why do you think she made this comparison?

The words used by speaker to compare her mother with a painter is when she says that her mother 'sat at [her] canvas'.

By making this comparison, the speaker is conveying how well-matched her mother is able to sew pieces of different clothes altogether into a masterpiece just like an artist.

Explanation:

'My Mother Pieced Quilts' is a poem written by Teresa Palomo Acosta. The poem is about the poet's mother's talent of weaving old cloth pieces into a beautiful canvas of fabric. The speaker notes that each piece of cloth resembled old memories.

The speaker compares her mother to a painter in stanza 5. By using the words 'in the evening you sat at your canvas', the speaker is comparing her mother to a painter, who uses different colors to paint a beautiful painting. The speaker says that her mother in evening sits to sew the fabrics into one piece, sewing the lilac purple of easter with the red plaid of winter-going-into-spring.

The poet is comparing her mother to a painter, because her mother uses different fabrics from old clothes and sew them together into a beautiful masterpiece just as an artist uses different colors frrom his palette to paint a beautiful art.

the present continuous is a verb tense which is mainly used to indicates that an action is in progress at the moment of speaking.  

it is formed using: person + verb to be (am/is/are) +verb + - ing form  

example: i am studying at this moment .

in addition, the present continuous is also used in order to express things that will or will not happen in the near future.

example: i am having dinner with some friends tonight.

the speaker sometimes   uses it   to express that an action is repeated and it causes irritation on the part of the speaker

example: my sister is constantly complaining about everything.

learning how to embrace the effects of colonialism is one of the central ideas of the play.