Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter 2009

Have you ever had one of those projects that took you 10 years & 2 days to finish. This was one of those for me. It all started in Feb. or March of 1999. My friend Kathy Fitzsimmons was visiting from Michigan, & we went to Hope, Alaska with our friends John & Mindy Meyn, & their 3 girls, for a weekend at the Methodist retreat cabin in Hope. The plumbing & water were shut off for the winter, so we had to use the outhouse in the back for the weekend.
I brought along fabric, & textile paints, thinking it would be fun to have everyone do a painting of something that we saw while hiking around Hope. Outhouses became the central theme for several of our campers.
Later Mindy & the girls & I pieced random patches to put it together, & then it got put in my UFO basket for several years. Friday I finally pieced a last filler strip for one side, then the borders, & yesterday I quilted, bound & added a sleeve.
I love children's art, & here is nearly 6 year old Hope's painting of the rainbow she saw when we walked out by the inlet.
Christie who was 8 at the time, saw a sea-shell, & gull.
Lindsey at 14 already had an artist's eye, painted the river that runs to the sea.
Their mom Mindy, did Birch & pine trees, & the ever important outhouse.
John did mountains & trees.
Kathy got the mountains, trees & outhouse all together.
My DH, Warren did the view from inside the outhouse.
I did the Retreat center cabin itself.
I bundled it all up last night & left it on the porch for the Easter bunny to find.
This morning this was in it's place. Isn't it cute? I love the curly handled basket, & the little chicken. All the perfect size for our little house.
This was the prettiest egg I've ever owned. I hope to keep it forever just as it is. It is too pretty to eat.


This is the center piece for our quiet Easter Sunday. Warren is on call for the hospital today, so we are staying home. I'm making bread & starting other projects that need to be finished by July.
Warren is busy putting his drill press to use, & drilling holes in the posts for our deck, so he can put the copper pipe in for the rails. We want to have it done so we can feel safe to use the deck this summer when company comes.

13 comments:

Digitalgran said...

What a lovely post and what lovely memories all those images brought back to you. I've just found a scrapbook my sons filled on holiday in 1976 and it brought back that holiday in our caravan so clearly.

Vicki W said...

What a lovely quilt! That must have been a fantastic surprise!

Stephanie said...

I love the view from inside the outhouse haha to funny!

Deb Geyer said...

What a fun group quilt!! :-)

Guzzisue said...

what a great fun project :-)

Françoise said...

A beautiful quilt with lots of nice memories! Wonderful.

Melodie said...

The quilt turned out great!! I'll bet the EB family WAS surprised!!
I love the egg! Labor intensive!
Yes, get those rails up! If I manage to get up there again....well, I've become somewhat of a klutz you know!

Delighted Hands said...

Beauty , beauty every where! Loved the quilt!

jenclair said...

Oh, I love this quilt! What a wonderful project!

CJ STITCHING AND BLOOMS said...

Belated Happy Easter Debbie, Loved your Easter basket full of goodies. The quilt is absolutely fantastic, with lots of memories. Hugs Judy

The WestCountryBuddha said...

What a fabulous quilt. I have one I made years ago with fish and creatures from the deep that my daughters painted .. and it get's me every time I look at it; they were so sweet! (they still are you understand, but not quite in the same way!) I love the egg too. Isn't it fabulous!!

Sandra said...

The quilt is a beautiful collage, and so full of memories - a treasured keepsake! (And a great idea for the rest of us...)
Your eggs look really nice.

mindy said...

The Hope quilt was an incredible surprise and it's BEAUTIFUL. Thank you Deb! :-)
Since we were in NYC the week prior, returning late Saturday Easter Eve....Lindsey, Kyle and Christi were left to do the eggs themselves in our absence. Christi said that Lindsey did about 1 egg for each of Christi's 10 eggs! Labor intensive indeed!...and thank heavens we have 3 licensed drivers this year.