Nightingale Goes Home

 

Me, Erik & JF.

Tony, Erik & JF.

Tony is my insurance agent. At a meeting last fall when we were discussing my retirement, he mentioned that Erik's house had. burned down last summer and that he and his fiancee had escaped with nothing. They lost everything.  "Oh my gosh, does he need a quilt?" I asked.

Tony practically exploded from his chair. "That's a terrific idea!" 

I brought out my phone and a picture of the Nightingale quilt. "This is a picture of the quilt I just finished. Would that work?" Tony thought the quilt was stunning. "YES!" 

So we made plans. I wrote the story and send the quilt out to be quilted.

Tony and I presented the quilt to Erik on Wednesday. Erik is a big guy, and was near to tears when I told him the story and presented him the quilt. He kept saying the quilt was so beautiful, and he loved it, and his fiancee was going to love it too. We took pictures. 

I then presented the printed copy of the quilt's story to Erik. "I could tell you this story, but you'd forget it. This way you can remember it and share it with Jessica." Erik said, "Wow, now I'm gonna cry." He paused,  "I thought I was in trouble when Tony called me into the office!

"Well you will certainly be invited when the house is finished and we have our big housewarming party."

I accepted that invitation right away.

Erik kept saying he couldn't believe it.

Then it was time for me to leave and Erik and the team to get back to work. "I'll be here, but I don't think I'll be able to concentrate..." Erik laughed.

It's always fun when you gift a quilt!

Fourth of July at Home in Maine

 

The Fourth of July quilt is now at home with my friend Bob, who lives near the seacoast in Maine.

We "met" over 20 years ago when I was at a seminar for our ERP software. I had recently installed an upgrade that had gone badly, and had needed some help. At the seminar I complained that the bug I had found had NOT been fixed online and I didn't want anybody else to encounter the same problems I had had. During a break, two gentlemen approached me. Their company used the same software and were planning an upgrade in a few days. Would I be willing to talk to their IT guy and tell him what to do?

Of course I would.

The next day I spent an hour on the phone with Bob, and told him what to do.

It worked, and the next week he called to thank me. It turned out we each had skills the other lacked.  This began a long relationship. If I was stumped I'd call Bob and he'd help me out. When he had questions he'd give me a call. Bob was funny and I could call him if I needed to vent, and he'd listen. Whenever there was an upgrade, we'd go through the details together and report back with our findings. 

I think it was ten years before I met him in person. Every single year on my birthday, I would get a call from Bob, and he would sing to me. Every single year on his birthday I did the same. He always made me laugh.

Bob moved from that job to another, and then another. We still kept in touch. During the pandemic, he knew I was alone and working from home. He'd call or we'd chat or FaceTime. On those lonely holidays, I'd get a text and he'd ask if I was OK.

Last spring, when I was working on the Fourth of July quilt, he texted me and asked how I was. We went back and forth, and then I sent him a picture of the lighthouse panel I had bought and decided to use on the back of the quilt.

"Which lighthouse is that?" he asked. I replied that it was probably a generic lighthouse, since it didn't look like any lighthouse in this area. We New Englanders tend to know our regional lighthouses.

We signed off, and I looked over at the quilt and the lighthouse panel.

New England.

Seacoast.

Lighthouse.

Friend.

Right away I knew I would give the quilt to Bob. I thought he might be embarrassed, so I thought some more. Then I worked out how long we had been buddies. It was 1997 or 1998. That's well over 20 years.

In all that time Bob has never forgotten my birthday. He has always made me laugh and smile. That was enough. When the quilt was done, I put it in the mail and sent it to Bob in Maine.

It arrived on Thursday.

"This is really cool," he texted, "but I expect to see a bill."

No freaking way, I texted back.

"You really are a beautiful person... Thank you, thank you, thank you."

We went back and forth. "20 years," I said, "Actually I think it's closer to 26" he said. "I should ask you how to wash it."

I told him in was in the document I sent. "Read it. There will be a quiz later."

Later I got another text, "I will get you a nice grandma rated picture of me and my new quilt. I love it, it is gorgeous. I would like to use it on my bed as a nice top cover, but it is so nice I am afraid to use it... I like the book you sent with the story. That is really cool. Did you know that one of the things my wife and I would like to do when we retire is to go see all the lighthouses in the East Coast?"

On Friday I got another text. "I want you to know I showed your quilt to several people and every single one of them thought it was beautiful and well made.

"Thank you again."

Update: I added the photo Bob sent me wrapped in his quilt.  

She Likes It!

 

This is J, who's been cutting my hair for over 32 years. I've told her about my cat Millie, my blog, my quilts, my tutorials... everything. After all this time I consider her a good friend. Good friends deserve quilts.

When I went in last night she saw my big bag. "Did you bring a quilt to show me?" she asked. 

"No, I brought a quilt to GIVE you."

"YOU'RE KIDDING."

Nope. We unfolded the quilt, careful not to let it touch the floor and pick up any stray hairs (If you don't know, you can get a sliver from a piece of hair. It's worse than a wood sliver, and harder to find to remove.) "OMIGOD, It's GORGEOUS. I LOVE IT."

Naturally I had to ask a zillion times if she really did, if the colors were OK. J was thrilled, and said repeatedly that she would USE the quilt.

I had created a PDF file of the story of the quilt, and copied it along with all the photos of the quilt I took while I was making it and a copy of the Zebra tutorial to a flash drive for her so she could study them all when she had time. "All quilts have a story," I told her, "and now you will know the story of this one." I also included a box of Color Catchers, which I give whenever I gift a quilt.

What was really funny (to me) was I had decided to gift the quilt to J several weeks ago, but didn't have enough time to complete the binding before my monthly appointment. So I sat there while she cut my hair, holding in the secret that NEXT TIME...

It shouldn't, but every time I gift a quilt it always surprises me how good I feel afterward.

Waltzing Matilda in Australia

 

The Waltzing Matilda quilt has safely reached its new home in Sydney, Australia!

I love to see my quilts in different locations, and there sure aren't any palms in New England in the northeast corner of the US.

Megan said, "the quilt is, of course, absolutely wonderful..." and that it was welcomed with "the thunderous applause it warrants." She says it has been given pride of place on the lounge where it will be used throughout the winter.

For me, this smile says it all. We make, and give, quilts because of the "Sheer Love Units" they generate.

Mission Accomplished!

Birthday

Like anybody, I love getting presents, and I love opening them. This sparkly package was at the top of the box Julie sent me to return my Flight of Fancy and Life is Tweet quilts to me after she'd borrowed them to teach a Liberated Birds class.  She had told me to expect a present, but I certainly didn't expect THIS!

 It's a quilt Julie made in 2016 but quilted earlier this year, Stacked Squares. I was so surprised. I love it. (We all know how much I love black-and-white.)

I thought it was particularly appropriate to show Julie what I was wearing the day I opened the box (yes, black and white stacked squares.)

Not surprisingly, it looks right at home on my charcoal gray couch.

THANK YOU JULIE!

Whatzit? The Answer!

When I opened the box I found another, smaller box, nestled in a bed of styrofoam peanuts.

Inside was this decidedly underwhelming oddly shaped vase-ish thing.

"MOM!" I heard my son shout from the iPad, "Put some kitchen utensils in it..."

"Now put your iPad in that groove!"

OH!!!!! Now I get it. And while it will be great for using in the kitchen, I'll use it even more to prop up my iPad whenever I FaceTime with my son. It holds the iPad up at just the right angle!

Thanks Kids!

A Time For Friendship

Sometimes you finish a quilt, and it tells you where it wants to go. The Grand Prismatic wanted to live with Val in Nova Scotia.  I "met" Val about 2-1/2 years ago when she sent me the most incredible letter thanking me for inspiring her to get creative in her quiltmaking.  She has since gone on to make this stunning beauty. I enjoy her risk-taking and her irreverence. She's been having a rough go lately, and I felt she needed a hug, so I stuffed the quilt in a box and sent it on.

It's the Holiday Season, and it's important to cherish and be thankful for the ones we love. Sometimes a quilt is the next best thing if you live faraway.

I've added a page to the blog. It's called Quilts and their Owners, and the link at the top of this blog. Many of my quilts are arty quilts that aren't meant to be used, but this group of quilts is definitely part of the "wrap me up and feel the love" variety.  Enjoy.

A Comfort Quilt

A friend wrote to me recently and asked if I could help her out. She wanted to gift a small quilt to a friend of hers who has been battling leukemia for a long time.   She told me where to find her friend's Instagram feed, so I checked it out.

One look told me this young lady LOVED bright, bold unexpected combinations. I wrote back to my pal suggesting a Rail Fence block the same size as the Blue Boy quilt. It would go together quick. How about eye popping brights (acid green, hot pink, purple, orange) with black and white fabrics for the lights, I asked her.
   

"I just heard from her and you were dead on with the colors, she says her favorites are green, purple, and orange!" she texted back about a half an hour later.

(An aside. This would have been incomprehensible to me when I was that age. I am in the Northeastern US. My pal is across the USA in California, and the friend is in Baltimore MD. Our messages, and these plans, were going back and forth across the country in mere minutes... Oh, the internet is a wonderful place.)

So I've been slicing my fabrics in an occasionally gentle curve and sewing them up. I really think this is going to be fun. I have an idea of how to really break the rules on this one, and we'll see how it works out.

Special Friends!

Regular readers know about my quilting friends Julie (of Me & My Quilts ~ Exploring the Possibilities)

and Chris (who quilts my quilts, her blog is Quilting4U)
They live in Tennessee, about 1250 miles away from me. They are the "Fairy Godmothers" of my alphabet sampler quilt, Letters From Home.

They've done so much for me, I wanted to send them each a special gift. When I saw the "Just Bobbin Along" necklace from Pieceful Designs, I knew I had found it! I ordered one for Chris, and one for Julie. Once they arrived, I had to figure out how to present them in a way that would be special, fun and memorable

In the serendipitous way things happen, an idea came to me while I was thinking about something else. I knew that Chris and Julie were planning to meet at their lqs to exchange quilts. Chris had finished quilting my quilt Nine x Nine, and Julie wanted to give her the Hidden Potential and Magic Happens flimsies.

So I packed each gift with a note, and then sent the box containing Chris's gift to Julie, and the box with Julie's quilt to Chris. I emailed each of them and wrote I had a special gift for the other one, and would they be willing to deliver it for me when they met next, but not to say anything... that it was a surprise!

The boxes shipped out on Tuesday, and I've been waiting on pins and needles ever since. Both Chris and Julie emailed me during the week to say they had received the boxes, and would deliver them to the other on Saturday.

Neither one knew about the other's package until the two boxes landed side by side!!To see what happens next, you have to visit Julie's blog!

All I can tell you is that what I thought would happen, did happen!