911 Quilt Day

I have to say that this event was suppose to have taken place last month, but either way it was wonderful.

Let me start at the beginning.  A year ago last month, a good friend of mine, Debbie, came to a Saturday sew day with this wonderful block that she'd made from the pattern called "911 Quilt" by Laundry Basket Designs.  It's a wonderful quilt, but not for a beginner by any means.  Well, the more people that looked at this pattern, the more interest it drew.  Debbie and I got our brains going, thinking about how to make it easier.  Well, we have an Accuquilt Dye Cut Machine in the shop and I decided to call the company to see how much it would be to have the curved pieces made.  So when others found out that we could dye cut the curved pieces, they were interested also.  The arcs are paper pieced.  So, we decided to make it a fabric swap and then each individual could come in and cut their blocks.  So as it turned out, we had 25 people doing the fabric swap. 

This also got our brains thinking.  Not always a good thing, if you know what I mean.  Being that a year from then would be the 10th anniversary of the 911 event, we decided to have a 911 Quilt day.  It was going to be on 9/11, but the weekend didn't work out for the shop.  So instead we had it yesterday.  It was sunny, but very windy, so I had quite a time keeping them all on the clothesline.  Any customers that came to the shop yesterday had the chance to vote on the quilts.  We had votes for "Best of Show", "Best Creativity", "Best Workmanship", and "Best UFO".  Here are a few pics.

   They ranged in size from a small lap to a full queen size quilt.  You had your choice of how big you wanted to make it and how you wanted to set it.  Some of them choose to make it with narrower sashing.  And some did pieced arcs in the borders. 

This was Karen T's 911 quilt.  She did some 911 Blocks in the outer border corners.  Her border fabric was a fabulous beige reproduction print.  Karen's won Best Workmanship.  Good job Karen!

This 911 quilt belongs to Kathy H.  She set her 911 blocks with this wonderful blue print and bordered it with a great tan print.  She sized her sashing down a bit, but kept the inner border to the size that the pattern called for.  I loved it!  Great job Kathy!

This was actually a quilt that was put together by several of us that donated 2 blocks each.  I donated the sashing, border, and binding fabric, and Marge West donated the backing and her quilting.  The quilt raised $1000 towards a benefit for 911 called the "Remember Rally" that Marge's husband does every year.  Good job to all that donated blocks and time.

This is Debbie D's 911 Quilt.  She sashed her quilt in a Judie Rothermel indigo blue print and cornerstones and outer border was this fabulous chartreuse yellow/green print.  It was wonderful.  Great job Deb.  Debbie was one of the first ones to be done with her quilt.

This 911 quilt belongs to Diane Q.  She used fabrics that she has had for quite a few years.  They were very patriot prints.  She even used some lady liberty print for her label on the back.  I should have taken a picture of her label, she does such a great job on them.  Her quilt won "Best Creativity.  I'm sure it was due to the arc piecing in the inner border and the curved corners.  Great job Diane!

This 911 Quilt is by Marge W.  She won the prize for Best UFO as she completed the top, but it was not quilted yet.  I have to laugh because, you know how the saying goes, "the builder never gets his own house done".  Well, Marge is a longarm quilter.  A fabulous one at that.  So, now you know that she puts everyone else's quilts before her own.  Great job Marge!

And lastly is Peggy D's 911 Quilt.  Peggy won "Best of Show".  Honestly, it was the one that just popped out and spoke to you.  Fabulous colors and nice job.  She made her sashing slightly smaller than the pattern had called for, but she was the only one that I knew of that used a brighter reproduction print to set her blocks.  Wonderful, wonderful job, Peggy!

And to all the others that may have or not have finished their 911 Quilts (I'm one of those), better luck next time, we wished you could have joined us.

Till Next Time, PJR