May.... May was a very special month for me. Two wonderful things happened, first I took a little day trip and went to Vashon to visit my mom, it was a wonderful trip! More on that to follow... Secondly I was ask to design, piece and quilt a very special quilt, Val, the Mom called me one day and ask if I would design and make her daughter a memory quilt for graduation! I was honored and thrilled as much by her asking as by her comment that she has lots of ideas, and no follow through, but she does have a large check book! :) I got the details from her, and went to work designing some tops for her to look at. The only restrictions. The fabric was to only be Maroon and Grey ( the daughters college colors) But they had to be subtle. Also she wanted to pack a LOT of photos on to one quilt. She came over a few days later picked the design she liked and went shopping. I loved the fabric she chose, and she then started sorting photos and printing them on the photo paper (5 packs of paper were used on this quilt!) I started piecing the maroon and grey during this time. Once she gave me the photo papers, I rinsed them following the package directions, and immediately had a problem, two of the sheets lost almost ALL the color, called Val and she reprinted them! So, I trimmed and sewed and sewed some more.. and this is what we have..
I love the center of this quilt, the two center blocks are a baby picture, and her senior picture. The Block directly above the senior picture is of grandma and grandpa,
There are prom pictures and pictures of her dog, pictures of her travels (let me tell you this girl has TRAVELED) there are pink flamingos and of course pictures of her and her mom, I fell in love with this quilt and felt like I got to know the daughter, it was a lovely experience.
Val decided that she wanted a warm and fuzzy backing... I suggested a grey Minkee... Oh yea good choice. Now I LOVE quilting on Minkee! No sarcasm really I do. BTW, my husband is holding this up, it is a HUGE quilt!
There were close to 100 pictures on here!
There was no way this quilt would fit under my poor little nine inch machine, so I rented time on the Jewel at on of our quilt shops, this is a lovely machine! I was very pleased with it, but did have some really WEIRD guy start taking to me and commenting on my quilting, He had NO CLUE what he was talking about, and would NOT leave me alone, finally Daren the sewing machine repair guy came over and ran him off... YUCKY. Anyhow this is me working on the quilt.
And just a close up so you can see the beautiful fabric she chose!
And some of the quilting on the back.
This is the label, Val chose the message, I did include my name as the piecer and quilter and the date I finished the quilt. Oh and did I mention, I got the phone call about this quilt on the 1st of May... Notice the date... graduation was June 4th. Whew nothing like a deadline! I and drew the feathers around the edge of the label to match the feathered boarder. All in all I was totally pleased with how this quilt turned out, it was my first paid job.
So during this frantic month, we also took a day trip to Vashon. This is where I grew up, well about a mile from here actually. This is Quartermaster Harbor, we use to swim here when I was child.. Vashon is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I NEVER want to live there again! But it was a nice visit.
The best part, Torrie and I went together and spent the day visiting places from my child hood, and she was actually interested and excited. This was one of our best days. (Is she not the prettiest thing ever.. OH and she is way smart too!)
WARNING! Torrie took the camera for most of the day, there are a TON of pictures of me.. more than I have ever had before, so this post is loaded with ME!!! And no trip would be complete with our Scooch the Pooch!
Yep, me again.
And one more, this one I am walking along Burton beach, oh it has another name now, don't know what it is, growing up we always called it Burton beach, it was just a short bike ride from the house, we could go swim and hang out. Growing up on Vashon was "different" the Island is small in every way, size and mentality and small town, the people are nice (if not a bit hippyish- OK a LOT hippyish) but it was a safe place to wander around, we rode our bikes EVERYWHERE and never worried, bad things did not happen on Vashon... at least not that anyone talked about....Oh the reasons I LOVE and HATE the place...BUT, to not finish on a down note... I did find one of the best jewels ever on Vashon... The Island Quilter.. is a lovely little quilt shop with over 7,000 bolts of fabric!! It was the never ending maze of color and delight! I was in love oh my word! If you are ever in Washington and you want to spend a lovely day "away" take the ferry to Vashon Island, stay on the main road till you hit town (very little town, no stop lights, be sure you know your stop sign etiquette) and look for The Island Quilter, it is worth the price of the ferry ticket just to go. Plus Vashon is just beautiful! (did I mention that all the fabric was just $9.50 a yard)
I will have to post pictures of my purchases! I budgeted $150 but could have spent twice that there was such a selection.
So that was May, stay tuned I still have 3 more months to catch up to!
Happy quilting,
Ginny
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