Silk purse from Sow's Ear

I've been watching, with amazement, the line up of links on Amy's blog for the First Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival. What a great idea this was and how much fun it is to see everyone come up with their stories and posts about their favorite quilts. It's inspiring and fun.

I've thrown my little blog into the mix with my favorite quilt. Many years ago I made a quilt with fabric I really loved in a sort of scrappy mix. It was long before the quarter inch foot and more precise methods of cutting. In short, I kind of winged it. The resulting top looked every bit the experiment it was. No two seams lined up and even though I loved those fabrics, it was a mathematical mess. Tic Toc Tic ...time marched on.....the quilt lay folded and forgotten in the Closet of Shame. One day, I was reading my friend Debra's Blog and she called for any quilters who cared to join in making Quilts of Valor for injured returning veterans. I sent her an e-mail explaining all about the pretty mess that was folded in the Closet. She asked for a picture to see just how bad it was. I didn't even have enough fabric to finish the top and bottom borders. Nothing I said discouraged Debra. She told me to send it on to her to see what could be done. At some point she sent it to Deb Geyer, a great long-arm quilter who had volunteered to quilt it. I really hoped that Deb wouldn't hate me forever after seeing the mismatched seams and blocks of different sizes. When It came back from Deb to me for a binding I nearly cried. It was so beautiful. The quilting made a silk purse out a real sows ear. It was quilted with feathered wreaths and feathers in the borders. I momentarily regretted giving it up. As it turned out, the quilt went to a re-hab hospital to a young soldier who had lost an eye in Iraq. I took a number of pictures before sending it on and it makes me smile eveytime I see them. I hope it gave as much comfort to the young soldier as it gave me. You really never know how much the quilting makes the quilt until you see what an expert can do.

The pictures are clickable and I urge you to do so to see what a professional job is like.

After this experience I had another similar top in the Closet and donated it as well. Again, Deb made magic with the quilting but that's a story for another day. Hope you enjoyed this one.

Thanks to Amy for making this possible. After seeing the links-it must have been a full time job these past days.