The Big Reveal!!!!!

Thursday at quilting, we finally gave out the:

Here’s the story:

We have a veteran at Scrap Happy who we have never given a Quilt of Valor to…but we had heard that rather than a patriotic colored one, she would LOVE a signature quilt. This is a woman who is ALL ABOUT teal….and I immediately felt I had the perfect backing fabric for a quilt for her. It was 108’’ wide and I bought it before the pandemic and never used it…even though I thought it was gorgeous…so, I cut little squares of the fabric and handed them out to SHQ members so that they had an example of the color way they should use in their blocks. We asked all of our members to make a 12-1/2’’ unfinished block, in the pattern of their choosing, and turn them in by the end of the year (2022). We also asksed people to sign their blocks in the background part of their blocks, and I started carrying a PIGMA pen with me each Thursday for people to use.

Unfortunately in January, I started the layout of my OBW, which took up my entire design wall. There was no way that I could lay out this QoV without a design wall, so I finally got space cleared in early March, and the blocks immediately went up on the wall:

WHAT a disaster!!! I felt like the quilt was screaming at me…and not very attractive at all. So, I took a picture and texted it to Loree, Susie & June asking for help. We all spent the rest of that Saturday texting suggestions back and forth. June was so clever, she printed the picture I had sent, cut it all apart, and started to re-arrange the blocks!!!

We finally got it arranged in a way we all agreed on:

but it was still pretty loud, so I said it definitely needed sashing…I auditioned some:

and we all agreed and the sewing together began:

I felt strongly about having outside borders, first a white and then the teal, so I auditioned some fabric:

and we voted and it was approved. The outer borders got added and the top got quilted (notice that gorgeous fabric for the back!!):

I made a label:

and then handed it off to Jerri for binding:

On Thursday Loree made an excellent speech and we presented it to Carolina, and her reaction was EVERYTHING we could have hoped for:

She was overcome…in the best possible way. She sent me a text Thursday night, which reads in part ''It's absolutely fabulous...beyond my expectations! Definitely my ultimate teary eyed most wonderful creative group gift of all! Words will never be able to describe the feeling of Love that overwhelms me whever I see it!''

Especially for the non-quilters reading this blog, I would like to show you one more time...the beginning layout, compared to what we ended up with....night and day...right?

I'm not posting a funny today....I just want to leave you with the warm glow of this story....this is why we quilt!