Cowgirl Up Quilt Finished

My goodness! When a person moves through the day at 1400 mph, some things get forgotten. And I, unfortunately, forgot to take a photo of my finished quilt I made for my niece's wedding.  Here is the best photo I can come up with when it was on the frame.

Not to brag, but I think it turned out really nice actually! I used a pattern I bought from Melissa called Dizzying Diamonds, and the red background fabric really stands out. For the backing I used a plain brown down the center half flanked by a brighter red fabric that had rope lassos laced through it. Fun, fun for a true cowgirl!

Here's a photo I took before the rows were sewn together. Gives you a little idea what it looked like.


Speaking of that, here is a photo of her as her dad is walking her down the aisle. Notice she wore her favorite cowgirl boots under that lovely dress!

Here's a pic of my favorite girl, my daughter Jessica who flew in for the wedding. Always such fun to spend some time with her. Here she is writing out the card to go with the gift. The quilt is wrapped up in a huge gift bag which was sitting right next to her, just out of camera shot...... 

And this is a pic of my baby brother and I.  He had lung cancer and just had a major surgery three months ago to remove part of his lung.  Public Service Announcement:  If You Smoke, STOP NOW!  I was so happy to be able to spend time with him. So happy.

And to finish off this post, I'll just share one other photo of the newlyweds.  Turned out her colors were blue and I fit right in!

So, you can see I took a lot of pictures. I just forgot to take a pic of the finished quilt. But honestly, I did get it all bound, hand-stitched and out the door last week. Hope she liked it!

Smiling big this week,
Barb

Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes, Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things and Show Off Saturday.

The Joy of Quilting

Sometimes we get an opportunity to do something that is just plain fun. 

This was the case last month when I had the privilege to custom quilt a t-shirt quilt to honor a special person who has been instrumental in providing a sense of 'community' to our small town of Hailey and the Wood River Valley in southern Idaho for more than three decades.

Collage of the Northern Rockies Fold Festival Quilt 2014

For the past 32 years, Pete Kramer, a.k.a. PK, has served as the volunteer coordinator to bring the Northern Rockies Folk Festival to town. And the best part? It has always been at an affordable price so locals can bring their kids and families, coolers and picnic baskets, lawn chairs and smiles, to the city park to listen to two days' worth of down-home, foot-stompin' good music under the stars.

We've lived in the valley for 31 years, and haven't missed too many of these summer outdoor concerts. But, being about the same age as I am, PK had gotten tired of  this exhausting volunteer effort, and so decided to step down as director.  When PK's wife, Cheryl (a quilty friend I've gotten to know through our quilt guild), asked me if I'd be interested in quilting up this t-shirt quilt which she was making for PK to commemorate his many years of service, I was tickled to help out!

Unveiling of the NRFF Quilt

An emotional presentation of the quilt by PK's son.

Aside from the great sense of community that I received from playing a small part in this 'thank you,' I just had a great time doing custom quilt work in each of the t-shirt blocks.

I tried to match the quilting with the theme of the t-shirt logo. Each year had a different logo, so each block is different.

With all these different quilt blocks, I ended up changing thread colors about six or seven times - whew!

This is a shot of my free-hand quilting of a treble clef and a musical note. I added these all around the outside border.

PK took to his quilt right away!

Anyway, I was pleased that he and Cheryl liked the quilt. Life throws you a few curve balls now and again. So it's especially nice to be able to celebrate the good things that make us smile.

Barb
Remembering to always quilt with a BIG smile!

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday,  Thursday Favorite Things by Katherine's Corner, Let's Be Social, Linky Tuesday