A Story of Quilt Squares

There have been two projects finished in the past week.  I'd like to share the first with you today.  A couple of years ago, my friend Meredith gave me some quilt squares that her sister Lee had begun, along with a long, cotton dress Lee had worn in her younger days.  When she said she thought I could do something with the squares, my only thought was to finish the quilt that Lee had begun.  By this point, cancer had taken Lee from this world.  Meredith and Lee were close, and if it were me, I'd want to wrap myself up in some of my sister's love again.  Never mind that I'd only been sewing a couple of years and had never made a quilt.  What I had on my side was a kind and generous quilter who agreed to help me make it happen, my Dad's wife, Lois.  I never would have attempted it without her support and guidance.  She encouraged me every step of the way, endured and fed me quite a few days and allowed me to use her sewing machine (a super duper machine made for quilting, compared to my secondhand  Singer), and was always patient when I called with questions on my "homework".

Do you see that band of green and white fabric?  That was Lee's dress.  With Lois' quilters eye, she picked up on the green in the band of fabric next to the plain gray (you'll need to click on the photo to enlarge it to see the green, I believe).  I'd never noticed the green, but wanted to see if I could lighten up the colors.  Lois sent me a computer-generated model of her suggestions, and there was a green fabric that was just about a spitting image of the dress fabric, though she knew nothing about the dress at this time.  Lee was tall, and it was a long dress, so there was a good amount of fabric.  When I brought it for Lois to see on my next road trip to Eden (yes, they actually live in Eden), she said it should work, so I went about deconstructing the dress.

It's not perfect, but I finished the quilt, and was happy to be able to give Meredith a little bit of her sister back last week.  Meredith wrote about it here.  Wishing you the loveliest of weeks!