Quilt 99 - States Quilt

I am so happy to have this quilt finished! This quilt started in 1975. There was a transfer with the birds and flowers of all 50 states. Wouldn't that be a great idea to have a quilt for the bicentennial celebration of our country? I ordered the transfer and the directions said you could use the transfer up to 3 times. My thought was why not make all 3 at the same time? Sooo, I made a set for my sisters Adele and Betty. Betty embroidered her blocks and made it into a quilt that she sent off with her son, Mike, when he went to college. We can't find a picture of that at all.

Adele and I both began to liquid embroider our blocks. As the picture shows, she finished hers in 1976. Brian and Karen looking cute as can be at the quilt when it was on the quilting frame at Grandma's house before we moved to Hawaii. Raising children came next for me, so my blocks went into a box. Several years ago, my sister, Gladys, called and said "Have you seen the state flower fabric that is out? Wouldn't it be fun to make a state quilt?" My response was, "No, I already have an unfinished state quilt". She wanted the fabric and included me in the project, too. In 2006 she had her quilt finished and I now had 2 unfinished projects.

Adele, Gladys and I were going to attend the "Bach Festival" in Chelan, WA for a week and I thought that maybe I should take those 2 projects with me and figure out what to do. Fabric paints were back on the market so figured I could use them to finish painting the last 25 blocks. We attended 9 concerts during the week and spent time quilting. We even took a day and rode The Lady of the Lake to Stehekin at the end of Lake Chelan. The thought came to me to just make 1 States quilt. Finishing painting the blocks was a great project to take to sewing days with "My Fab 5" friends. I combined those blocks with the state flowers fabrics and this is the result. As always, I finished up with the binding at 11:45 in the evening before taking it to hang at West Sound Quilt Show in October 2008. It is now on the bed and just right for fall.

Welcome back to the States, Karen. She had a great time in England for 18 days. Great quilt ideas in her pictures, too. Who knows what will be inspired there.

- posted by Ione