Jacqui's Wedding Quilt

Once upon a time there was a lady who made clothes for her children, mainly her 3 daughters. Years later when one of these daughters left home and was married she suddenly realised that at last she had a "sewing room". When moving "stuff" into that room, she found remnants of little girls dresses and decided that they could not just be thrown out, she would make a quilt with them. And with her dressmaking background she cut a pattern of brown paper and used scissors to cut them out! Well, as you might guess, accuracy was not there, and so they did not fit together all that well, and some fabrics were not cottons, and frayed etc etc. And the binding was put on before it was even quilted!!
Well, that lady was me, and I was telling my neighbour at that time, who lived on the farm across the road, what I had been doing, and she said..."you need a rotary cutter and a cutting mat"... Well, I said, what are they???
  And as you might guess, that comment led me on the road to where I am today, as once I found out about those, I was hooked. I started accumulating my "stash", and bought books, and attended classes, and joined a group etc. etc.All the things that we quilters do.
Making quilts was a great past time and helped me cope through some tough times. It was my sanity, my creativity and more. And in due course, in 2002 I bought my first quilting machine and started my business, Cornerstone Creations Machine Quilting.
My neighbours name was Colleen, and we belonged to the same quilting group. Some where in those years, Colleen and her family moved from this area to another state, but we kept in touch with phonecalls, emails, and they visited this area sometimes. She was a great encouragement to me when I started my business and I looked forward to our chats. Colleen had started making a Candlewicked quilt for her daughter, for one day when Jacqui got married, and we talked  about me quilting  this for her.
Sadly Colleen passed away suddenly a couple of years ago, without finishing this quilt and many others. I talked to her husband about helping him get some quilts finished.
Earlier this year, he phoned me to tell me that Jacqui was getting married in November.
So this quilt needed to be finished, and he posted to me a box with what had been done, and some patterns and cut blocks and fabric and thread.
A machine girl I am, not a hand sewer, and this was candlewicked blocks, by hand!!
I have a very good friend called Pat, who also knew Colleen, and she offered to do the hand work.
And Pat put the blocks together for me to quilt. It has been our pleasure to finish this for Colleen, so that Jacqui can have her wedding quilt. The blocks that Colleen had made, Pat has embroidered her initials in the corner, so that Jacqui knows the ones made by her mother.

I thank you Colleen for starting me on this journey of patchwork and quilting, where I have met some lovely people and go to a quilt show every day when I come out to work. It's hard to understand when things like this happen to people, and life throws some curved balls at us, but I hang onto the faith I have and know that God has a plan that one day we will understand. Hope and trust keep me going.

Below are some photos of the quilt. Hope you enjoy.
 

 

 

 

And as a finish to this blog, all you quilters out there, please make sure you tell your family what you want to happen to your stash, your ufo's, your quilt tops, your books and all your "stuff".

Will be back another day, with a report on the weekend retreat that was on at The Sanctuary this weekend. This is enough for one day, but was a story I wanted to tell. It has been a reminder of a good friend and fellow quilter, who I greatly miss, and just maybe, one day, another quilter may finish of some unfinished projects of mine! (And I do have plenty!)
My family won't inherit the crown jewels or lots of money in the bank, but they will have lots of fabric, books, sewing machines, a quilting machine, and lots of quilts!

Enjoy your day,
Blessings, From Jude