My two daughters were visiting from Utah and we got talking about a couple of funerals that I had attended during the previous few months. One funeral had so many flowers from well-wishers that they had to open up another room to accommodate them all, while another didn’t have any flowers at all. I proceeded to give my girls input on what I wanted (and didn’t want) at my funeral. Though some flowers would be a nice touch, I would really like to give everyone an opportunity to celebrate my life rather than mourn over the loss. So, what better way to take their minds off the reason why they are at the viewing than to see an exhibit! Instead of stands full of flowers, why not have stands full of hanging or draped-over quilts? This would certainly be different and I think it would be really cool to be surrounded by my quilts!
A couple of days later, one of my daughters came to me and said that we should not have to wait until I died to celebrate my life. Why not plan an event while I’m still alive? She suggested I should celebrate my 50th birthday by hanging all my quilts and invite all my family and friends to view them. And the best part would be that I would be there to enjoy it. Since my birthday is in December, it is a really hard time of the year to do something like this, so we decided to celebrate six months later on my 50 ½ birthday. While planning for this big party, I realized that I had at least one quilt made from each of the five decades of my life. Last Fall, I asked my son-in-law to come up with a catchy title – and this was the result:
A Quinquagenarian's Quilt Quest - Five Decades of Quilting (or QQQ for short).
During the past 1 ½ years, I have also been on a mission to complete a few of my UFOs for this event. I have not completed nearly as many as I wanted to, but one of the most meaningful quilts that I finished was a quilt entitled “The Generations Unite”. This quilt is made by the hands (and feet) of four generations, but represents six generations of family quilters. After my mom passed away, I received a set of her embroidered blocks and they were the inspiration for this quilt. Different aspects were included to represent each quilter and their style. The youngest generation’s contribution was their foot and hand prints. To get all this in one quilt, it ended up being a two-sided quilt. If you would like to read more about this project or see pictures of the quilt please visit my blog posts about it:
http://www.newyorkquilter.com/search/label/Quilt%3A%20%20The%20Generations%20Unite
The QQQ 50 ½ Birthday Party is now planned for June 13. We will be hanging over 70 of my quilts, including a special exhibit of the six generations of quilts that I have in my home. I also have about 6 quilts that are ready to be quilted but I have come to the realization that they will look really nice in the UFO section. If you happen to be in New York next weekend, I would love to have you stop by.
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.jpg "2019 Sponsor - BERNINA Q 24")
