A labor of love

Do you have an interest in learning how to quilt but you don’t have a clue of where to begin? Then please keep reading!

When I received a call from my daughter Kati about making a tee shirt quilt for her husband, I didn’t know how to respond. I had made baby quilts 40 years ago, but had never made an actual quilt, and especially not out of tee shirts. She had a dozen tee shirts from her husband James’s deployment to Afghanistan in 2008 and wanted to surprise him with a memory quilt. I knew hiring someone to make this quilt would be quite expensive, so I decided to try to make it myself.

I knew we had a quilters group here at The Ranch, so I showed up one day. What a wonderful warm welcome I received. I told the ladies about my endeavor and that I had no idea where to even begin, but they all assured me they were there to help. That was an understatement! Not only did they show me step by step what to do, they told me what kind of materials and tools to buy. I visited several of their homes over the course of two months, watching them explain my next step and even taking photos.

When we realized the Activity Center wouldn’t open in time for me to complete this labor of love, two of these incredible women stepped up. Linda Strugala embroidered my son-in-law’s name, rank, and information about his deployment on one of the squares and Diane Still actually quilted the top for me in her home. Thank you! Ladies, I can never thank you enough!

I need to thank Georgia Gonzales who helped me plan out the quilt and assisted in the decision-making process regarding which batting to buy. Thanks to Peggy McGinnis who invited me to her home and showed me how to cut apart the tee shirts and back them with interfacing. She also helped me understand what tools I would need to make this process easier. Thank you to my neighbor, Jeanne Hansel, who lent me some additional tools and encouraged me along my journey. And thank you to all the other incredible women in the SBR Piecemakers Quilter group who gave me their ideas and expertise and became part of this labor of love. I will always be indebted to them.

Please check the events calendar for upcoming meetings! We hope to see you soon!