Tag: friendship quilt

Quilter’s Save our Stories

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Have you heard of Quilter’s SOS- Save Our Stories?

Quilter’s SOS is a part of the non- profit organization, 
Quilter’s Alliance. This is a snippet directly from their mission statement.

Quilt Alliance is a nonprofit 501c3 organization established in 1993
whose mission is to document, preserve, and share our American quilt
heritage by collecting the rich stories that historic and contemporary
quilts, and their makers, tell about our nation’s diverse peoples and
their communities. 

 Pretty powerful mission
statement.

 Mark Dunn, president of Moda fabrics is on the executive
board of this organization and it’s many causes are near and dear to all
of us here. Recently the board members were visiting the Dallas offices
of moda as they were training more board members to document stories of
quilters. 
Barbara Brackman and myself were the “guinea pigs”.
photo courtesy of Quilt Alliance
We were both asked to bring one thing that could tell our story. 
Do
you know how hard that is?
I finally decided to bring a quilt top that
was in 
the works. It was in the works for over 20 years. The 
quilt top
was part of a friendship swap that I had 
participated in 
many years ago
with my sister, 
Angie Tardy 
and 11 other friends. 
The quilt top/pieces was actually Angie’s 
and I had been working on finishing the quilt top 
for one of my sister’s kids. 
This quilt top was pretty iconic in my life 
because my sister passed away from melanoma 
in the late 1980’s. We were both married the same year as well as learned to quilt that same year. 
If we were not talking about family, we were planning 
what our next quilting project 
was going to be. 
The Alliance documented the full interview
 and you can read it here.

 The  quilt patten is a double Irish Chain and the only rule in the swap was we all had to use the same pink solid as the background. Each of us chose a different fabric to use as our setting fabric. As shown above, Angie choose a romantic floral by Concord fabrics. Those of you that have been quilting for over 25 years are sure to have owned a piece of this fabric.
Why did it take me so long to finish the quilt top? I would like to say that Angie’s boys were 6, 4 and 2 at the time so they probably were not interested in a pink floral quilt. Maybe it was to painful to work on, I don’t really know.

Kadence snuggling
Advance time 25 years later and my nephews are all grown and married, so now was the time to finish the quilt and have a little therapy. I gave the completed quilt to my nephew Kirk and his precious family. Kirk sent me this picture of his daughter, 
Kadence with the quilt. I think my sister would be thrilled
 to know that her granddaughter owned 
something she had made.

A few months later, Kirk sent me a picture he had found of Angie actually piecing this quilt top. Of course you can barely see the quilt pieces on that colorful bedspread.(so 80’s)  
I will treasure the picture as it completes the circle on my Quilter’s S.O.S.

If you are interested in the vision of the Quilt
Alliance—that quilts and quiltmakers are an important part of American history
and deserve to be documented, preserved and shared in a permanent archive—please
become an Alliance member. Membership information can be found on their
website: http://www.quiltalliance.org/support/.

Thank you to Quilt Alliance-Alliance of American Quilts for letting me permanently document my story for future generations.

thank you Kadence for being such a precious model

the baby maker

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Have you ever seen the movie, The Proposal with Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds

and my idol Betty White?

Betty White is classic in this movie as the future grandmother in law to Sandra Bullock, even faking a heart attack to make sure the marriage actually happens. If you have seen the movie, then you certainly know of the “baby Maker” scene, where Betty White gives them a quilt to sleep with, aptly named the baby maker.
My oldest son was married end of September. Yes I know I have shown these pictures before but this is another opportunity to show off my new daughter in law and my proud son.
Okay back to the quilt. Grant and Misty didn’t really have a color scheme so I struggled with what I should make them for a wedding  gift. It had to be perfect! I decided to do a friendship quilt using charm packs of assorted naturals. I sewed a few fabrics around the squares and instantly fell in love with the quilt. I knew they would love it also and certainly be surprised. I think this is about the time I decided to make it a friendship quilt. I secretly got addresses of family members, friends, co workers, old college buddies etc. and mailed each of them a square of fabric, a pen and a return address envelope. Then I waited and waited.
Have you ever been so excited to work on a project that you just couldn’t sleep?
Well this was one of those projects for me.
 I waited and waited for some blocks to start arriving so I could sew. This is also when I learned of several change of addresses as envelopes were returned as undeliverable etc.
Their wedding invitation was printed on a hankerchief with lace edging.
It was the perfect size to cut and use as one of the squares adding such a keepsake to the actual quilt.
One of the first squares to arrive was from Nate Miller, a local 6 year old friend of my sons. He drew Grant and Misty along with the two kids, dog and a butterfly that he thought they would have after they were married. Sounds like a perfect life to me, right?
My best friend gave them a platter with the weeding invitation printed on it. How cool was that? She always has the best ideas.
I had to add some grey squares as that is one of her favorite colors and it certainly added a vintage feel to the quilt.
The fun thing about sewing each of these squares as they arrived was that I tried to hand pick some of the fabrics to co ordinate with their friend’s  block. I was able to add a 30’s print with little kids on it.
After all it is named the baby maker.
Kate Benz sent in a wonderful quote from Mother Teresa.”It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.”
I was able to use some of the fabrics that I had bleached and over dyed for a vintage look.
Everyday I was so excited to get the mail to see how many blocks arrived and ignore the bills!!
Now I was doing all of this in the formal living room where I had moved my sewing room. The kids live locally and could drop by at any time so this certainly added a bit of adventure to the project by keeping the project hidden.
This is one of my favorite quotes. How much simpler can it be said?
If you read my posts you know that I am addicted to pinterest. (you can find me here.) If I am addicted to something I do like to share my addictions, so Misty is also on pinterest. I looked around to find a quilt she had saved and pieced the back of the quilt using that design making the quilt reversible. The perfect grey Sweetwater fabric had just arrived so I was super pumped.
Misty keeps the quilt rolled up and in a basket because she worries about any of the signatures disappearing if she has to wash it to many times. I will let you know if I see it out being used or maybe I should send Betty White over to throw it on their bed.
If you would like to get the pattern to make your own “baby maker” check out Rita at Red Pepper Quilts website. Rita does not call the pattern, Baby Maker, The pattern is named Tiffany.
Thank you Rita for the design inspiration for this project. It was perfect.