A dear friend, fellow educator and fellow quilter, has just retired and 4 of us got together to make her a quilt to celebrate. Sylvia loves cardinals, so our choice was this birch tree and cardinal design. There is a cardinal for each of us - making 5 total. Yesterday was her big retirement party and we presented this to her there.
I was so excited to finish this and give it to her. Each of the 4 of us made 3 birch tree blocks. Then the blocks headed 300 miles away to one friend who appliqued the cardinals. Next the blocks all came back to me and I cut all of the borders. Three of us got together to arrange the layout, and one took it all home to sew the rows together and add the borders. Two gals picked out the backing and delivered it to the quilter (beautiful job). Then I added the binding on Friday, finishing it up about 3 hours before the party.
I added a small label on a back corner, but we've talked about each of us signing a cardinal on the front. And I'm hoping that the honored recipient's husband got a couple of good pictures of her with the quilt. This was definitely a project filled with friendship and love.
1 comment:
It's gorgeous, and the story behind it is touching. Such a perfect gift to commemorate her retirement.
Post a Comment