Leroy's Cloud

It all started here. I had read the 15 minutes play blog and decided to start making blocks. I had an 8.5 inch square ruler and thought 8-inch blocks would be just fine. I made a block here and there, but one day, I don't exactly remember when, I believe it was last fall after I came back from Spain, I could not have those blocks hanging around anymore. I had to make more and finish a quilt. So I opened my scraps box, which was packed with scraps and started stitching them together with no selection of colors or patterns, just the way they came out of the box as long as their size was good.

While working on this project, our beloved cat Leroy passed away. He was 18 years old and his life had not been pleasant for some time, so we decided to give him rest. With much sorrow, we buried him in our backyard up on the hill, so he is still close to us. We miss him every day. I wanted to dedicate this quilt to him, as he has been very present in my thoughts while I was sewing.

The number of blocks kept growing and I put them on my design board. At some point, I had to think about the final size of the quilt and decided I would make 54 blocks with an off-white sash and a border consisting of the same off-white and smaller squares. One day, I was looking at my design board with the composition and Jerry said it looked like clouds. I believe he was talking about those small squares on the border because they seem to be somehow floating on the white. Whatever the case might be, the name of the quilt was set that very moment: Leroy's Cloud.

There is a mystery that I do not understand with this quilt. (Of course, if I understood, it would not be a mystery.) Here is the thing: all the top of the quilt is made of scraps, and it is a large quilt, there are a few yards of fabric there, but my scraps box is still full! I just cannot imagine how this can be. I look at that box and think that I will not need any more fabric for the rest of my life, all the fabric I need is there, as it looks like the more I use, the more is left. Do not worry, though, that is not preventing me from buying more fabric, that would be silly.

This quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted. The quilting part of it has given me more problems than I want to remember, so let's not go there. The main thing is that the quilt is finished.

I hope that Leroy is happy resting on his soft, cheerful cloud.

N.E.W. Quilt Show

What a wonderful time we had in Gillette, Wyoming!
The North East Wyoming Quilt Show gathered over 200 quilts, a great deal of talent over there. I specially liked the raffle quilt, "Moroccan Tile", with very subtle colors, calm and quiet, very beautiful. I also liked the ribbons: each one had a tile like the ones in the quilt, very nice idea.
We met a lot of people, and I saw many others that I had already met before at different quilt events. I have to apologize publicly because I cannot remember all the names, but I sure do remember the faces. I had met some of those ladies at the Black Hills Quilt Show in Rapid City, and one of them, Marva, talked to Bobbie about me, so she invited me to participate in this event. Thank you, Marva and Bobbie.
Marva also introduced me to Diana, the Northeast Regional Director of the Wyoming State Quilt Guild, who invited me to do a presentation of Texture Magic for the ladies attending Diana's classes next door. Thank you, Diana, for your interest, and for this opportunity to reach all these quilters.
For the first time, I included thread and fabric in my booth. I had some cotton batiks and rayon batiks from Bali, and also my beloved African fabrics, which drew a lot of attention because they are not so commonly seen.
We also had our jams and preserves, not very usual at quilt shows either.
We would like to repeat this great experience next year.
A final note: what is the expression I most hear when I show how Texture Magic works?
"I'll be darned!"