quilts for friends

Don't you just love it when you find a new quilting friend?  or find out that someone you know quilts?  Suddenly you have all sorts of things to talk about, fabric, patterns, machines, classes, the list goes on.  A whole new world opens up with a special bond.  You have similar daily quests and challenges, similar budget issues and space problems.   It's just so fun.

Well, being city folks, (I've been watching too much Andy Griffith today) we have always arranged for our teenage boys to go away for the summers to work on a farm or ranch to learn what "real work" is like.   Our youngest son went to  Safford, Arizona for several summers. 

 Here he is with his boss, Jerry.

 And posing with his "BIG" muscles in front of his tractor. . . hmmm

We were so grateful to the 2 families that provided a place for him to live, and who gave him a job.  Little did I know that his boss's wife is an avid quilter!  It was so fun to find this common thread with my new friend Brenda.

Recently, she told me about her daughter Katy (plaid shirt), who is a senior in high school.  Katy has 4 dear friends she has made through her years of life.  One from preschool, one from middle school, one is a cousin, and another joined this group just a few years ago.  They have been there for each other through the thick and thin of those high school years.  And now as best friends, they are in the glory of their senior year together.

My friend Brenda is very grateful for the good values these girls all share.  They've been a good support for each other, knowing how to bring out the best in one another.  Brenda wanted to express hers feeling of gratitude, with a quilt for each of the girls.  

Just before school started, she had a party for these girls and their parents, and presented them with their quilts.  My, oh my!  What a special treat.   That's about how many quilts I make all year.    

Since these girls are all somehow involved in music, the quilts are quilted with a treble clef design by Brenda's friend, Wanda Ginn in Central, AZ.  They are string quilts, made with fabrics from Moda's Me and My Sister Designs.  (Those sisters are always laughing, I met them a few years ago at Market in Houston). They even wrote about these girls and their quilts in their blog.  See above link for better up-close pictures of the quilts, and the darling pillow cases to match.

Each quilt has 100 quilt blocks!  I haven't made a string quilt before, but Brenda says she used the flip and fold technique. They are string quilts sewn on an 8.5 inch foundation and arranged in a "God's Eye" pattern.  

Beautiful girls, beautiful quilts . . .   similar in their pure beauty and devotion to do good and yet each so individual, just like their quilts.  There's bound to be a future quilter or two in that bunch!  

Great job, Brenda!

WIP:  New Sewing room.

As for my own WiP, I was expecting a new sewing table to be delivered yesterday.  This week I have been hard at work, re-arranging the whole upstairs of my house to create my own sewing room, so that my dining room could once more be a real dining room.  At 3:30 in the afternoon when I hadn't heard anything, I finally called the company only to find out that my table was back ordered . . . again!  

Needless to say, I had a BIG PITY PARTY.  Hubby had to bring home sushi for dinner and then I had to exercise last night to work off the extra calories.  No more about that.

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