Stash Blues inspired by Elly and Harriet

I took my first class from Elly Sienkiewicz in 1988. I purchased my first blue stash from the collection of Harriet Hargrave in 2002. This quilt was designed shortly after the class and it has taken this long to use the blue stash. I have designed many Elly inspired quilts but none with this many circles. A special thank you to Elly and Harriet.

Keeping a Promise

When she was a high school principal, one of my sisters made wall hanging quilts for each month of the school year. It was with the making of these wall hanging quilts that she learned to machine piece, machine applique and hand bind. Another sister did all of the longarm quilting. The Martin Luther King, Jr. quilt top brought an added lesson in using a light box. Each month a new quilt was hung on the glass windows that faced into the main hallway from her office. When January rolled around she hung her Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. picture which caught the eye of two staff members who each independently asked her if she was going to keep the quilt. They were disappointed when she told them she intended to recycle the quilts each month of every year she was principal there. She made them a promise, though, that she would make one for each of them after a conversation with them led to the discovery that they were both interested in hanging the quilts in their churches. It took a year after her retirement, but with the help of the sister who is a longarmer, she has kept her promise to make them. They will be sent out during the last week of September to the two staff members who will ensure they hang in their churches, which are on the east end of Long Island, NY. The original wall hanging for the month of January and the two for the east end churches are pictured.