My Quilts - On Display

 It started with the purple quilt, my monthly quilting class, and my desire to bring an awareness for the need for more funding for pancreatic cancer.  I opened my home to the public and displayed ALL my quilts that I had been given, inherited, or made.  There were items for sale (quilted wall hangings, books/bibles, Christmas ornaments and food...lots and lots of sweets!).  Everything wasn't like I wanted it to be.  I didn't have time to put all the name tags of who made which quilt on the quilts (a friend came over to help me and then she ended up having a seizure...but recovered after laying down for a bit, please keep her in your prayers).  Because of the situation with my friend, I postponed my regular quilting class, but honestly, I don't think I could have done it justice anyway....I was having too much fun talking with all the ladies that came to see my quilts.

I thought I had about 30 quilts...but it seems my collection of quilt related and handmade items (crochet, woodworks, oil paintings....etc) is bigger than I expected.  I stopped counting at 90 items on display...not counting just the normal stuff that I have around the house that folks enjoyed looking at. Several people commented on the sewing machine collection and the scissor collection.

Sally came over Friday morning and we started displaying the quilts.  We kept most of them downstairs and displayed all the unfinished projects around the banisters of the loft.  My son had some of his quilts on display in his room, but I didn't get a picture of them.  A couple of ladies had more fun just going through all my quilt books and planning their next quilt project.

Here are some views from the day.  Looking down from the loft, you can see some of the unfinished projects and those in the living room.  I had my grandmother's quilting frame on the sofa with one of her quilts rolled in it. I took down my curtains and hung quilts instead.  There were several on the porch too.

 The gown was made by my grandmother for my mother's high school graduation.

 We even hung a quilt off the fridge and wrapped a closet door with a quilt.

 All the baby quilts and blankets ended up with their own rack.

 I didn't realize I had so much Christmas quilted stuff.  Truthfully, most of them were made by me and given to my grandmother as Christmas gifts, then after her death, they were given back to me.  This quilt rack was made by my dad, painted by my mom and covered with afagans and doll blankets, old baby blankets, and embroidered pillow cases.

 I found this little block, one of Sally's very first pieces.  I finished it up for her with quilting and binding.  She did a really good job on it.  In the background is the one that she is working on now...both are nine patches.

It was a great day with a steady stream of people in and out all day.  We raised a little over $500.  I think that is a pretty good start for my fund raising for Relay for Life 2012.  I could have made a little more.  Our first visitors thought that I wasn't just showing my quilts but had them for sale....I corrected her real quick on that.  Then the store called where the purple quilt is on display and there was someone there wanting to buy it.  However, it has already been given to the American Cancer Society and they plan to use it to bring awareness to the Relay for Life.  It will be on the Christmas parade float and will travel to some events before either being auctioned off or raffled off.  But it made me feel good to have someone like it enough to want to buy it.

My desire for this weekend wasn't just to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer..but also to raise awareness that I am a quilter too.  I'm hoping...no praying....that this opened some doors for me to really do something with this talent God has given me.  If nothing else...I will be busy for a while finishing all those unfinished projects!