Community Quilt from Cheryl and Beth

Cheryl pictures of her finished quilt to me back in November.  It was part of that email that had escaped me when I was busy finishing the quilts for kids in need.  I still haven’t gotten back to it.  UGH.  Cheryl was so sweet and understood and just sent the email to me again.  Feel free to send another email to me if I missed something.  Thanks for letting me be human Cheryl!!  Anyway…without even more delay, here’s Cheryl and Beth’s quilt.

Beth sent this lovely Courthouse Steps quilt top to me back in the summer.  I sent it to Cheryl in Dallas for quilting and binding.  This one is a nice queen-size top at 90” x 110.”

All set up on the longarm.  Looks like there is no room to maneuver in front of that longarm:  everybody, suck in your tummies!

Here’s one block of Beth’s top.  Don’t you love the color arrangement?  She used gold as the center of each block, and then four rich colors on the sides.  The four colors form a secondary pattern when the blocks are joined in the quilt.  Only a quilter would be able to pick out the individual blocks in this quilt because of the overall design the colors create.

The top is getting an edge-to-edge pattern of gentle feather swirls.  The subtle print makes these fabrics look like velvet.  I want to run my fingers over it.

The electronic quilt pattern is “Zoidberg Feathers” by Barbara Becker.  It is available at Urban Elementz.  This screen view shows the longarm has stitched out the dark portion on the left and is moving across the row toward the right.

 

Beth’s quilt made it to the Backyard Dallas Quilt Display on a very cloudy day.  You can see that it is a long one by the way it drapes down the retaining wall in Cheryl’s back yard.  See?

 

 

What a royal-looking quilt!  I’d like to know how many of you prefer this color combination.  As I usually work with scrappy combinations, so I don’t achieve this look in my quilts, but it has me thinking.

 

Along with the quilt top, Beth sent several yards of matching tan fabric.  Thank you!  It’s not necessary but oh so appreciated.  One yard of it was used for the binding.

The rest of the yardage went into the backing.  Cheryl pulled a water-color fabric in similar colors from her stash to complete the backing.  And, she says, yes, the extra fabric was donated to her by someone who wanted it out of their own stash.  I’m thinking that fabrics just keep moving from one quilter to the next until they find the perfect home in a lovely quilt.

This quilt is going to Oregon to aid victims of the wildfires that burned 300 houses in the Echo Mountain Complex Fire. This fire, which started on Labor Day, was one of the “smaller” wildfires in Oregon, burning about 2,500 acres.  I hope this quilt will help a family that might have lost quilts made by their own family members and serve as a reminder that even people they have never met are kindred spirits.  Even in this strange year, quilters are sharing goodness all around.  Thank you, Beth and Cheryl!  Thank you, all quilters who make and donate quilts — I’m so glad to be part of this community.

There is always a need for large quilts.  Thanks so much, Beth for donating this wonderful top.