Catching up

Mona and Dale showing one of her first quilts. She cut apart a sheet that had embroidered feathers and used fabric that she had in her stash.

Wow, what a whirlwind 10 days! My cousin, Mona, who prior to this past summer's brief visit in Colorado, and I had not seen each other in 27 years, when our two of our children were less than a year old. After having dinner this past summer, we realized we had a LOT to catch up on. So, her and her pool boy husband, (sorry Dale, just had to mention that) drove all the way out from Colo. to do 27 years of filling in the blanks! And boy, did we ever! Mona has always been a seamstress, since a young girl, but focused mainly on clothing and home dec, including making custom slipcovers. ewww! After meeting me this summer, she and her daughter decided to check out the quilting thing, went to a Sewing Expo and they got bit by the quilting bug. Since then, she has made 7 quilt tops! All done just from inspiration of other works or rugs! And she has the coolest journal about them going.
Her cherry quilt was made from mostly fabrics she had collected and then purchased the light blue fabric with cherries to add to it. She didn't had any fabric left for binding and we ended up finding two FQ's of a vintage reproduction fabric in my stash that worked. I love the way she is journaling her quilts, with fabric swatches, inspiration pictures, her original drafts of the ideas. She is WAY too organized! Actually, I'm hoping a bit rubs off on me!
My thoughts of what we were going to do and get accomplished when she arrived were so far off the mark, it's a joke! Too many days were spent, meeting at the breakfast table and then spending the next 3-5 hours talking, laughing, filling in family history and stories. We just had so much to share. Being a new quilter, she was full of questions and I was happy to fill in the blanks. My, what a quick learner. When we loaded her "feather" quilt on my HQ16, away she went! She got rather bored doing meandering after a few rows, so her husband jumped in and finished it. They might have a good thing going. She also had lots of neat tips on organizing my stash, making a slightly better arrangement in my sewing room and laying out a challenge quilt. It was hard for me to believe that she had never quilted, but she was just culling from her vast knowledge of design and working with textiles for many years. What a fun, fun week. I'll share more pictures tomorrow....I'm tired..........not going to bed before 2 or 2:30 am every day is catching up!