Quilt of the Week

This is one of my most favorite quilts that I have ever made. It is called "Summer Beauty". It is the only quilt that I have made that is totally made by hand: hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted! I found the pattern for it at a quilt shop in Scottsdale, AZ and started making it in Feb. 1996. I finished it in March of 1997. I entered this quilt in the Springville Quilt show (see last week's Quilt of the Week post) that year and was thrilled to have it accepted for exhibition. I also entered it in the Tribune Spring Home & Garden quilt show right after I finished it and it won a 1st place ribbon in the small quilts category. I had it hanging in my family room for several years but those dark fabrics have a tendenacy to fade with constant exposure to sunlight -- even indirect sunlight -- so now I just keep it in a dark closet and bring it out once in a while for show and tell.

Happy Birthday Quinn!

Today is Quinn's 30th birthday!!! He made a real statement when he came into this world by giving me a difficult labor that resulted in a C-section birth. It was like he was telling us, pay attention because life will be hectic for the next few years! He is our #3 child and he was due on Labor Day (how ironic) but then he decided to come a little early. What a sweet baby -- white-blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He was very much loved and anticipated by his older sister Heidi and his older brother Cameron and was the center of everyone's attention until he was ousted 23 months later by his little sister Katie's arrival. Quinn was always such a happy little spirit in our household. He loved to help Paul with anything -- they were very best buds and he followed him everywhere. His favorite place to hang out was the garage and he loved tools. But we could never give him fake, plastic, little-kid tools. Oh no, he only wanted the real thing so he always had a handful of screwdrivers and a real hammer hanging from his waist. For his 3rd birthday we gave him a real toolbox full of nails and screws and a hammer and wrenches and he was thrilled. He carried that toolbox everywhere and it was about as big as he was. His favorite thing to do was take things apart -- broken toasters, radios, clocks, whatever he could find and he loved to pound nails for hours! He had a sweet tooth and he challenged us to get him to ever eat any vegetables. He was our only child that we could use reverse psychology on and be successful. I can remember sitting at the dinner table and telling him "don't eat those peas; I mean it! Don't eat those peas" and then he would just gobble them down to spite me! This sweet photo above is my absolute favorite photo of him. Doesn't he just look like a little go-getter full of mischief and loving life!

Just six short years after Quinn came to our family, tragedy struck. We were in the mountains at a cabin (not ours) in December of 1983 and he and Cameron were caught under ice and snow that slid off the cabin's roof. Quinn's injuries took his life. This was a very difficult and heart breaking time for our little family. You know how as parents you are constantly warning your children "watch for cars" , "wear your helmet", "look both ways" --- we never imagined cautioning for falling ice! We were pretty shocked and devastated but so eternally grateful to have been able to have him in our lives for the few short years he was here and to know that we will see him again and live with him in the next life. He IS where we want to be!

Heidi was 11 when Quinn died and she and Paul wrote a special poem that she read at his funeral. It is called "Such Good Friends"

Such good friends, my brother and I;
We loved to share the pumpkin pie
That Mom would bake on special days
To treat us in our favorite ways.

Drawing numbers on his back;
Setting up his race track;
Fixing lunch of macaroni and cheese,
And answering the phone, "Just a moment, please."

His tools of the trade were screwdriver and nail.
On old worn out things he'd never fail
To beat and pound and pull them apart,
Working away with all his heart.

We played Barbies in my room,
And then on bikes we'd zoom
To far away places
To meet new faces,
And climb a jet to the moon.

He'd ski down the driveway,
Pop wheelies the hard way,
And dreamed that tomorrow would come,
So he could dig for some bugs,
Ugly worms and slugs,
And mess up his room - just for fun.

Baseball hero, soccer star,
Belting balls afar.
He ran so fast,
The Nike's never last.
But what a pal - MY STAR!

So today is a bittersweet day as it has been for the past 24 years. We remember him and celebrate his wonderful life though, in our opinion, way too short. When our kids were little, we didn't want this day to be sad so we would always go and do something that we knew Quinn would have loved doing like going to the water slides or going to Lagoon or going to the our cabin or going to Lake Powell. So it will be with fond memories that we think of Quinn today and know that he would be an amazing, successful young man turning 30 years old today!

Another bicycling adventure

Every summer Paul plans a big bicycling trip. In the past we have gone to Louisiana, the San Juan Islands, Colorado, Moab to Albequerque, Grandes Alpes in France and this year he is taking on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park of Virginia and North Carolina. Back when we were first married, Paul was in the army and we were stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. One weekend we drove our recently purchased 1962 blue Buick Skylark convertible to Grandfather mountain and the mile-high swinging bridge. We loved how different the mountain scenery was compared to what we were used to in the West. Our mountains are tall and craggy and rocky and sparsely covered with trees and brush. But in North Carolina the views are totally green with trees and the whole mountains are thick with foliage--- at least that is what I remember from 36 years ago. Unfortunately our car broke down on our way back home since it came with a cracked engine block that we weren't aware of. Thankfully, they took it back and gave us a refund. Oh to be young and inexperienced!

Anyway, back to this year's trip. We will begin this adventure by flying into Charlottesville, Virginia and then he will begin biking from Waynesboro, VA. We will be staying at small, ridge-top inns along the way and I'm expecting it to be quite remote, quiet and quaint. The parkway does pass by a few larger cities like Roanoke, Va and Lynchburg, Va and Boone, NC and Asheville, NC but for the most part it will be small towns like Montebella, Oronoco, Troutville, Bent Mountain, Floyd..... and that will be only if we leave the parkway. I have been to my library and checked out 4 guide books for the areas we'll be going through but I'm not finding much about places except what is actually on the parkway. Hence, the real reason for this post.... have any of you out there in cyberland been along this stretch of highway? Or maybe you have lived somewhere around these towns -- you know, the larger ones. If you have taken a trip here, what did you see or do that was memorable? I do know that near Asheville is the Biltmore estate. Has anyone been there? Is it worth going to see?

I know we are in for a really fun experience. I do enjoy just happening on to unique little cafes or shops or museums but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear from you!

Quilt of the Week

This week's quilt story is a little different because the quilt I want to feature was not made by me.

Yesterday I went down south of Salt Lake to Springville, Utah to their art museum to view the annual Springville Quilt Show. This is a prestigious quilt show held in a prestigious art museum. Another thing that makes this quilt show unique is that all the quilts have to be "juried" to be accepted in the show. This means that they "prejudge" the quilts and not every quilt that is submitted gets accepted. I believe that about 90 quilts were submitted but only 82 were accepted. So as I am making my way through the show I come across the above quilt and as I read the explanation card that is posted next to it I am pleasantly surprised to find that I have a personal connection to this quilt's story. You see, my great grandmother is Minnie Petersen Jorgensen and my mother was given one of these red and white Burgoyne Surrounded quilts which my mother has passed on to me. I actually remember sleeping under the quilt that is pictured with my mother and I always knew it was made by her grandmother. I come from a long line of quilters on my mother's side and my father's mother was a quilter as well. The quilt entered in the quilt show was made by my 2nd cousin's wife, Judy Fitzgerald. She also had her mother-in-law's original quilt displayed next to the new version in the quilt show.

In 1994 a group of women connected to the Utah Quilt Guild were trying to document any quilts that they could find that were made in Utah before 1950. I had the above red one and I also had a beautiful yellow and white quilt that my grandmother made as my mother's wedding quilt. So I asked my mom to accompany me to the documenting event and we had the two quilts documented at that time. A couple months later someone called me and said they were writing a book and producing a video presentation about the documented quilts and would I be willing to be interviewed for both. Both the book and the video came out in 1997. Both are titled "Gathered In Time". They chose to include my grandmother, Mary Hazel Norr Jorgensen, and the yellow wedding quilt (I will show that quilt another time). It was such a thrill to be able to honor her that way. When the book was released there was a quilt show held at our State Capital building and both the red and yellow quilts were displayed. That is when I took this photo of my mom and her grandmother's quilt.

I love the way quilts bind generations together. I hope someday my grandkids or great-grandkids will still have my quilts and know something of me and my life.