Special Delivery: The Cresco Ladies

About a month ago, Sandra and her husband stopped by with two bags of quilt tops.  I meant to get to them and tell you about them but didn’t…then Sandra called and dropped off another bunch.

She had specifically said that some of the tops she had hoped would go to the Decorah ladies.  The Decorah ladies tie their quilts and many of these were four patch or single patch quilts that would lend themselves to tying.  I was already going to meet with the Decorah Ladies so thought I would grab these from Sandra and get them to Sue.

Well from there, Kalissa was making a trip to Decorah to get groceries and she still is borrowing my van…so I asked if being I was being so nice and letting her borrow my van, could she drop these off to Sue.  She said sure…but she was leaving in a few minutes.

Well…I hadn’t taken picture of any of the quilts so grabbed a bag and I quickly began snapping pictures.

This was made with a Curious George panel.

This was a fun idea for a quilt with two different borders.  Perfect for this quilt.

This was from some airplane panels.  Perfect for a little boy who dreams of flying.

Sandra was right.  Many of these will be nice for tying…

Nothing fancy but totally functional…cute fabrics too.

You can see…the one on the left is a Charlie Brown print…on the right was Mickey Mouse.

Here are lighthouses.

This was a fun combo.  Love the colors.

I’ve told you before that the ladies collect and sort fabric by theme and then one day they take themed fabrics and work on them.  This theme was animals…mostly pets.

All of these have pets on them.


Here is a closer picture of the kitties in the middle.

The pet-themed quilts continue…  That print in the middle is so cute.

Many of these were kid-friendly.  Those are always requested.

I love the one in the photo below.  Those are the colors I like in my house.

These went to the Decorah Ladies for tying.

Whenever tops are given to finishers I always tell them that if they want to add borders, feel free.  Sandra said they would often like to add borders to make the quilts bigger but they run out of fabric.

I’m guessing this came from orphan blocks.

I kept snapping photos and folding as quickly as I could.

More pets…

I know I had sent a few of these fabrics their way but not all of them.

Can you believe how many tops they sent??

I smiled when I saw this one.  I remember buying some of the seed pack fabric many years ago.

This was a fun quilt-themed panel quilt.

Sometimes when I see these quilts I envy the Cresco ladies.  I think having a limited palette of fabrics pushes a person to be creative with what they have.

I know I am often too quick to run to the store and buy fabric rather than be creative with what I have.

Kalissa ended up coming in the middle of my hurry-up and snap pictures session.

I took what I had snapped pictures of and folded and put them in the bag for the Decorah ladies.

What I didn’t have folded I put folded and put in two piles.

I ended up designating one pile for Laurie and one for Karin.  I know they finish a lot of quilts and if all goes well and I can be treated, I likely won’t be able to send any quilt in January as I will be radioactive and not able to touch quilts.

I want to make sure all the quilts I have here are with a finisher before January rolls around.

So…if you are a finisher and need quilt tops, please let me know.

I have sent all of these out, but, there are more…

There are two bags more from the Cresco ladies and I have about 15 more here.  If you are a finisher and will need some before February rolls around, now is the time to speak up to get some.  If you already mentioned wanting some, remind me again and I’ll get them sent out ASAP.

The Cresco ladies also sent along 5 completely finished quilts.  Sandra asked me to find a home for them.

I ended up contacting a lady from church to see if we were doing a giving tree family this year.

She said she didn’t know.  She was in Texas and was helping out in Marion County Texas at a food bank and would be there for a while.  She told me there were lots of people in the area that needed help.

I asked if they could use come quilts.  She said yes.

I ended up packaging these up and shipped them along with eight other quilt tops, some made by me and some by the Cresco ladies to Marion County Texas.

I am happy to have a good place to send them.

Thanks so much to the Cresco ladies for their hard work in making all of these tops.  I was talking to Sandra and their group met their goal of making over 100 quilts for people in the Cresco area.  These ladies are a formidable force that is full of love and compassion for others.  I’m so glad I’ve gotten to know them!