Community Quilts from Karin

It’s bonus community quilt day.  I’ve gotten a few emails in lately that have finished quilts from blog readers.  I have enough that I’m giving you a bonus quilt.  This one is a fun one….

Karin writes:
“Hi Jo, as you may recall, I requested the flimsy Gayle donated, that she put together from a Norman Rockwell panel and other various fisherman themed prints and solids you had sent enough fabric for a pieced backing and bias plaid binding as well.

Being as we are volunteering in a National Wildlife Refuge, I thought I could finish the quilt up and donate it to the local Friends Of Balcones Canyonlands group, to use as a fundraiser to improve facilities and trails here in the Refuge.

However, it became apparent that they are not currently meeting, and they do not have plans to hold any fundraisers in the near future. Soooo, plan B, right?  There is a newly-married young man also working here on the Refuge. He and his bride are expecting their first child in December, and they are living in an old, drafty ranch house, that is disrepair and has been “lived in” by interns and firefighters for several years now, with no improvements and no repairs done.

He absolutely loves to fish and she often goes with him, and just enjoys being on the water. So, one afternoon, we packed up the freshly washed quilt, and a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies, and drove ourselves down his mile long dusty driveway.

Of course, we masked up before they came outside to greet us, but we had a wonderful time just chatting and playing with our dogs (he had 9ne, and we had brought ours along for the ride).  They are a lovely young couple and we’re so very appreciative and absolutely loved the quilt. They thanked us for thinking of them, over and over.

The quilting motif I used looked like the water splashes made by fish jumping to get the bait, and I finally got to use my spool of variegated brown thread on the front. I didn’t have enough green that matched the backing to do the whole thing, so I chose a really soft yellow, with minimal sheen to it.

I have never contrasted the thread like that before, and I just looove the way it turned out!  I cut the plaid strips on the bias, and I think that just added a special touch too. All in all, it finished up at 68 x 87, covering the whole top of our king size bed. It will make a great snuggle quilt for them – he is well over 6 feet tall, and her baby bump is growing by the day.

Thanks again for letting me be involved in another blessing! What an honor it was for me to finish this one up.

Well that sure turned out perfectly didn’t it?  I so admire people that live in whatever house is available to do the job they need to be near.  I lived that live as a farm hand’s wife.  I know pay isn’t the best for people doing these jobs either so this is wonderful that this man and his family were blessed with a little kindness.

Thanks a bunch to Karin and of course to Gayle for sending the top.  I love happy stories.