Mini Bella Bella

My friend Carmen and I are trading services. I will quilt her quilts and she will piece some of my quilts for me. She pieced the mini Bella Bella (half-sized, 40x40). It is a stunning quilt and has been entered in the Longmont Quilt Guild Quilt Show & Sale, this Saturday, October 17th. I'm sure it will pick up a viewers choice award. I also have a large Bella Bella and two other quilts to do for Carmen. I will hand off my Hawaiian Star for her to piece. It will be interesting how the time ends up for each.

I also have other quilts in the show. One is the Book Shelf memory quilt that my sister and I pieced for our Parent's 50th anniversary in 2000. I went to my first International Quilt Festival with a friend in 1998 and the buzz was all about photos copied onto fabric sheets. Of course, I jumped in with both feet. I had never quilted before and had barely passed 7th grade Home Economics (with Mrs. Boozer, at Blyle Jr. High in Houston). I bought the book, The Collectibles Quilt by Wendy Etzel. I borrowed my mom's old Singer sewing machine and started learning how to sew. The next year a brought a Janome sewing machine and did a few small projects and then had to upgrade to a Brother Embroidery machine to do the embroidery for the memory quilt. The plan was a shelf for my parents and a shelf for each of their four children. Everything on the quilt has meaning. Two years later, my sister Nancy, came to Houston (again for the quilt festival) and we put the quilt together. We had a great time even though I slipped on the kitchen floor and banged my head on the tile. Nancy from Plain n' Fancy quilt store quilted it.

The quilt was cherished by my parents. Both have since passed from Alzheimer's Disease. I'm proud of this quilt and will probably cry when I see it hanging in the show this weekend. But then again, I cried during DWTS last night!