The is the last of my Myrtle Beach quilt show. This quilt has help me solve a problem. I loved looking at this quilt, not for the color, but for the way the maker, machine quilted it. It looks like it was done on a domestic machine.See, I made this same Red Onion quilt (different colors) last spring. It's from the Stack A New Deck book. I was making it as a cozy lap quilt for my Dad and picked the pattern cause it's kind of manly, and I purposely put 3 onions in it to represent his 3 kids. The funny thing is, that Dad loved onions, but my brother and I are not fond of onions at all. My sister can take them or leave them.
Anyway, before I had a chance to send it out to be quilted, I was called to Nova Scotia to be with Dad and the rest of the family when he suddenly took gravely ill.
Sadly he passed away a week later. So, I've had this onion quilt done for almost a year, and I just didn't want to do anything with it. I didn't even post a picture the finished quilt top to my blog. I barely had the energy to put the plain borders on before rolling it up , putting it in a bag, and stashing it away in a corner. I had an appointment to get it machine quilted, but then I thought, why spend a couple of hundred dollars, just to ultimately get rid of it. So it's been on my UFO list and I've been thinking and thinking of what to do with the darn thing.
This week, after seeing this same quilt at the quilt show, machine quilted on a domestic, I have a whole new attitude toward my unfinished quilt for Dad. Maybe it's time that has passed and I can better deal with it. I've decided when I get home, I'll machine quilt it myself and use it as a fund raiser and donate the dollars to something. Alternatively, Dad died with complications from Diabetes, so I may contact the Diabetes Association to see if they have any fund-raising activities coming up and they may be able to do the ticket-selling.
I guess there's a moral to this story. If you have a quilt, put it in a quilt show. You never know who will need a bit of quilt therapy to help her get over the death of her Dad! Thanks Catherine Blackwell for displaying your quilt.
I'll post a picture of my "Three Onions" so you can see it when it's done.
6 comments:
What a touching story about your Dad's quilt. I had to giggle at the manly part...I was working on a red and blue schoolhouse quilt for my Dad. When I showed it to him I didn't get much of a response...so I told him he could pick any quilt on the shelf that he liked. He grabbed a pink and green rose applique! Seems it reminded him of the quilts his mother made. Go figure...
Thanks Gail. This one is just like a quilting sampler. Maybe we should try that for practise.
I actually like onions. I love the quilt too, I miss dad every day. But things are easier most days. I will buy some tickets too... and sell some as well.
I totally get this feeling. When I emptied Dad's house, I came across a bag containing an unfinished cardigan that I had been knitting for my husband when he was killed in 1976. It was almost done but I just didn't have the reason anymore to finish it so it got stashed away at my parents' place. I put a message on Freecycle saying that it was almost finished and would make a nice warm sweater for someone and a woman came and got it. I felt good that someone might enjoy it after all those years!
Quilt therapy...who knew there was such a thing! ha!ha! Donating it to the Diabetes Association sounds like a wonderful idea! Great tribute to your Dad!
I'll totally buy tickets!! I love the onion quilt!
What a great idea, Gail! Yes, and if the Diabetes people don't have a fund raiser where they could sell tickets for it, then maybe sell it on eBay and donate the money?
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