Hanging at the library

This summer, our public library displayed a section of the AIDS quilt.  A lot of people came and really were moved by it.  In order to hang the quilt, the library had to install two sturdy rods on what used to be the outside brick of the building.  There's a relatively new two story addition with a balcony on the second floor over the circulation area.  Luckily, a volunteer handyman stepped forward to install the rod.  Miche isn't afraid of climbing tall ladders because he repairs chimneys all over the area.  In fact, he inspected ours a few summers ago.

After the AIDS quilt moved on to another site in the USA, the spot looked very empty, and the library staff asked me if I knew of any quilter who might have two quilts to hang in that spot.  Did I know any quilters?!?  I said I would be happy to hang some quilts, but I found that of my bed-sized quilts only one had a hanging sleeve.  I added a sleeve to another favorite and took them to the library where they were hung last weekend.  They look great although they are difficult to photograph from below or above.  Paul went down to the library yesterday with the camera as I thought my phone wouldn't do a good job.

Both quilts were made around 2000-2001 and graced beds in our B&B over the nine years we ran it.  

The purple one started with a pattern from a book called Stars in the Garden by Piece o' Cake Designs.  I liked it but didn't want to make any more appliqued blocks of that size, so I added borders in various purples.  I asked a long arm quilter in a town about an hour east of us to quilt it.  I never minded the drive back and forth because she did such a great job.  At that time machine quilting was mostly free motion.  Mary used to quilt all of my quilts, but then she started the Machine Quilters Expo and got way too busy.  

At any rate, after she finished quilting this, Mary encouraged me to enter it into a quilt show in her area.  It was the first show I ever entered, but I couldn't attend because we were very busy with fall foliage guests.  On Sunday night, after the show ended, Mary called to say that she noticed I hadn't come.   "I would have liked to have seen your face when your quilt won the Viewers Choice Award," she said.  I remember hopping all around the kitchen in amazement!

The heart quilt was part of a swap with an online group.  Each person put together a batch of fabric and told what theme she'd like blocks to be.  Then the blocks and fabric went from person to person around the country until they returned to me.  I had chosen red and pink fabrics and asked for heart blocks of any size.  When they all came back to me, I put the blocks together, adding other blocks and strips as needed.  I love the background fabric of this quilt; it has little hearts on a cream background.  

The way Mary quilted this freehand is just unbelievable.  Here and there she wrote words like "love" and "be mine."  It's very sweet.  My favorite block is the one in the upper right which I did in broderie perse, cutting out red cherries and arranging them in a heart shape.

I don't know how long the quilts will hang at the library, but I of course have several more than can go in their places!