I have emails from Ray to share with you today.
Ray writes:
“I received the most wonderful box in the mail today from Patricia S. in LA. She gave me a heads up that it was on its way and should be here on Monday. Surprise!! It is Saturday and it is here already. Patricia made two beautiful tops for me to finish.
1) OMG! What a beautiful quilt and so much work to make!! Each block is made from 24 two-inch blocks and then they are bordered on two sides by 3 strips of green. The blocks are then set at 90-degree angles to each other for this interesting pattern. It measures 61 x 73.
2) Now comes this gorgeous blue and yellow quilt. Oh my! I can’t imagine all the strips that went into those blocks. It looks like the initial blocks were made of alternating strips of blue and yellow. They were then cut on the diagonal. Then 2 sets of blocks were arranged around a black square to create the pinwheel. Love it.”
The UPS man left a BIG box at my front door this afternoon. It was from Maureen M. in OH. It was packed with goodies. There were a whole lot of cuts of fabric which will get used for backings. I also found a couple of panels in the box to make some quick quilts. Besides all of that there were two tops. Maureen must have been doing some summer cleaning.
The first top is… a beautiful snowball top Love the variety of fabrics that were used. A lot of hours went into making it with all the small corners that had to be cut and sewn. The quilt measures 52 x 60 and will make a wonderful lap quilt.
The other top is courthouse steps. Wow!! That ate up a bunch of scraps.It is so interesting to see the various fabrics that went into it. It is 60 x 90 and will be a great quilt for Guardian Ad Litem.
Thanks so very, very much for your generosity, Maureen.
On Sept 22 I sent you an email with info and pics of a QOV. You had supplied the Liberty center panel and Maureen M. in OH had supplied the red, white and blue string blocks. Well, here are three more QOV’s.
They are all the same pattern and look identical. But they definitely are not. First of all there is no way possible, in my mind, that you can make string blocks and ever have two blocks that are identical let alone 20 of them in two separate quilts.
You will also notice that two of them have red borders and two have blue orders. On top of that all four have different cornerstones in the borders.
My thanks to you and Maureen for all the work you did to get the panel and blocks to me for a quick assembly and finish. They are beautiful and will be cherished for years. (I still have string blocks left to make a couple more quilts.)
After reading this you can see why I love getting emails from Ray. Either you guys are loving up on Ray by sending him goodies or he is working his magic to make many people’s lives a little more blessed.
Ray is an amazing longarmer who never turns down tops for those in need. I am so very happy that by living close by I have had the opportunity to meet him and to pass on my many tops to him so he can continue working his magic.
There are beautiful quilts here and there are going to be some very blessed recipients! Thanks to everyone for all your hard work!
Love and prayers
Love all of them. The first one gave me an idea to use scraps instead of one color scheme. Maybe border with a solid but have all of the centers scrappy. Thanks for the inspiration. Is there anything you can use Ray to keep up the good work? I am out of Indiana for a time and in Ga. loving me some grands. (Ray is a fellow ex-pat Hoosier and by the way, Evansville Reiz beat us in sectional football after we beat Evansville Memorial)
I have been so greatly blessed by so many of Jo’s readers that I can not say I am in need of anything. You are all the very BEST. I can not thank all of you enough for your kindness and generosity. I am so thankful each and every day for this wonderful quilting community/family that I have been adopted by. You are all the BEST.
On a lighter note, revenge football is not to be taken lightly in SW Indiana. Yes, I am from Indiana, about 20 miles north of Evansville. I grew up on a grain farm, mainly corn. Maybe that is why I relate to Iowa so well. I know nothing about livestock which seems odd to many. When people think of farming, they naturally think livestock. Closest I got to livestock was a flock of Bantam chickens I had one spring and summer. They were allowed to roam freely (except for trimmed feathers on one wing so they would not roost about Dad’s machinery). All was good until none of them returned to the hen house one evening.
Such beautiful quilts!! It is so inspiring to see how scraps are used to make such beautiful quilts. Ray also finishes each quilt so beautifully! Thanks to such generous donors, people will be blessed when a recipient receives such a work of art.
Stunning quilts! Well done, Ray!
What else can be said about Ray’s tremendous finishes? Thanks to those to “keep”” Ray busy with donations of fabric and their beautiful works of art! Have a question–maybe has been asked before—How Ray got into quilting? Blessed are those who are gifted a quilt finished by Ray.