Thursday, October 22, 2009

So Many Baskets... What's the Madder"

A story of a neat quilt. This quilt was started by Jenny Michael, a long arm quilter from California in 1997 for a P & B Madder Challenge using their fabrics. She got tired of making 4" baskets, so put the project away. She remembers commenting 4 more, 4 more, 4 more! She missed the deadline for the contest. She finished parts of the top. Jenny showed the blocks to her friend Robyn Thornton who loved it and asked to see it everytime they visited. Robyn wanted to "just take it home and enjoy it". The quilt top went back and for the between the two homes for 10 years. The final quilt had not been sewn yet. Two years ago Jenny gave Robyn the top and leftover fabrics for her birthday and said "Figure out the pattern and make your own!". Robyn was talking to another friend Cathy Skarshaug, and she thought Robyn would not be able to figure it out so they contacted another quilting friend and teacher Kathleen Crittenden. Robyn says Kathleen brought her 25 pages of instructions that looked like a doctoral dissertation. Jenny and Kathleen helped Robyn with the central feathered star. Roby contacted Mary Ellen at Little Quilts to help provide the perfect dark chocolate fabric to finish it. Robyn says the quilt is now 'back home with Jenny to stay'! It's grand how quilters stick together and support each other's projects. It's a beatiful top soon to be a beautiful quilt!

1 comment:

Quilt Enthusiast said...

I love the history behind this quilt. It is stunning.