Thursday, June 26, 2008

50th Anniversary Party!

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Hey, way to go with school - it sounds like you've got a good transistion going! I am interested in a prototype of that laundry carrier - maybe ask if it could have an "automatic folding option??"

I had hopes that things would slow down a bit once June got going, but that hasn't happened! Early June was focused on preparations for my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration. As usual, I way underestimated the amount of time everything would take. In my defense, the fact that we were having a large (110 people!) party wasn't decided until less than a month before the event! My brothers and their families and I worked together, which helped immensely!

In addition to serving on the "Food, Drink and Decoration Committee" I was responsible for a computer slide show of scanned pictures from the last 50 years, and the 50th Anniversary Quilt. 25 years ago, when I was dabbling in quilts, my sils and I appliqued and embroidered a 25th Anniversary Quilt. The squares incorporated the names of the whole family, which included the first 3 grandchildren. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?? The next 8 grandchildren have worn us out with "why isn't my name on the quilt?" "Because you weren't born yet." "But I'm born NOW....." So, another quilt was required, and in the meantime.....I stopped liking to sew! Really. Just don't like it. (sigh)

My sil and I shopped for the fabric, and while I was on my trip to WI, she cut the squares. We had decided that this would be a "picture quilt," being sure that EVERYONE in the family is pictured at least once. (I tried to get my sil Lee to provide an ultrasound shot of the new baby, but she isn't due for that until July!)

So, when I got home "all" I had to do was scan the pictures, crop them, print them on transfer paper, iron them onto fabric, sew the pictures onto the squares, and sew the squares together! 'snap!'

Turn this....

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into this.....

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Let's just say there was quite a bit of panic in the process. There was the fight with the software about "mirror images" that I called you about a week before the party. Which means that I was only on the "print them" step 6 days before the deadline. I still kept thinking it was doable tho! I think on Tuesday I decided that I was in serious trouble, so I took a vacation day on Wednesday to finish the quilt in the morning and do the food & supply shopping in the afternoon. (Pause for your laughter.) At around 10 in the morning, when I realized that the best I could hope for was to have the pictures sewn on to the squares by noon, I had a serious panic attack and called the owner of the yarn shop in Avilla where I go to knit-in. There are several quilters in the group and I needed HELP. Sally came to my rescue - during Thursday night knit-in, a couple of quilters set up their machines and we sewed the squares together! Knitters to the rescue!

That left me free on Wed afternoon to go shopping with Chris - this is what it looked like after the first 3 stops!
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In the end, that all became a great party! We had good weather, lots of people, good food and everyone survived their own personal panic-attacks!

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Also I'd like to note that Lauren was the winner of the "what knitting did I take on my trip" contest. (Sorry, Marie!) She really nailed it, including my thought process for which sock project to take! Here she is with her new sock yarn!
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So, that's a start on my catching up......

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

2 comments:

marit said...

What an amazing quilt! (and the story behind...)

Marie N. said...

The quilt is so very special! You all are ambitious!