The Friendship Quilt

Two weeks ago, my Felix hit a rock with his mower and bent a blade. He went to install a set of new ones, only to discover that they were the wrong size. The next day he was off to Sears to return the wrong blades and was able to get the right blades, but it started raining so he could not install them on the mower. By the time he was able to get them installed, it was raining for a week with damp nights in between such that the grass was always wet. Now our grass is so high that I fully expect someone to pull over and inquire about buying our crop of hay, LOL!

The constant rain and dampness has caused great growth of my huge backyard wisteria vine.

The damned thing is almost twenty years old and last year it finally had one single bloom. Now, this year, it has, again, ONE bloom. The foliage is eating the house, crawling up everywhere like kudzoo.

It is so far up that I cannot reach the bloom to smell it, but I recall from last year that it was delightfully scented.
I made a quilt this month for my very dear friend Wanda, whose Mother passed away on the fourth of May. It wasn't the type of quilt that will ever win any awards, but it was sent straight from my heart!

This "Sunshine & Shadows" quilt was made from two inch strip log cabins to symbolize both the happy and the sad times of life. I shipped it out a week ago and Wanda already received it and called me to thank me, crying most of the time.

The backing is a large Monet inspired floral and the batting was a thin white cotton hospital sheet that I thought would be perfect for the very hot weather that the Florida panhandlers must endure.

I quilted this myself in an edge-to-edge scribble of overlapping ovals in multicolored threads, but mostly a light pink. It's not showy but it will hold the quilt together.

What struck me about this quilt was that I embraced the use of blues in it. For some reason, I seem to avoid using blue, I don't know quite why. I'm just so glad that I completed it and sent it off to my dear friend.
For those of you who do not know it, Wanda has sustained 3 major strokes at age 58 and has lost the use of the left side of her body. She was a quilter and has trained herself to still sew at the machine almost every day. But it is very hard for her to cut strips. When I found this out, I began sending her packages of randomly cut strips for her string quilts. I can't afford to be a big philanthropist funding huge college scholarships, but I can send Wanda some strips now and then. She has sent me two small quilts that I treasure. Her husband Dave helps her by tying them.

The label is a bit hard to read in this blurry picture on the red mini hearts calico, but it says, "Friendship Quilt for Wanda Nordby by Victoria Carroll-Parkhill Gilmanton Iron Works, NH 2013".

Happy sewing!