Clara Cried.

I often mention my Pickle friend; the shows we attend, the trips we take, the way we get together each week and support our lives. One tradition is to have a party when we hit a "Big Zero" birthday. Monday night, was Clara's 50th Pickle Party.

When these began eight years ago, the idea was that each person would receive 50 fat quarters and a collection of buttons, beads, threads, and other good stuff. Several months ago, Clara mentioned to another Pickle (HI, Del!) that she didn't NEED any more fabric. We put our heads together behind her back, and came up with a plan. Clara has wanted to do a crazy quilt for a while. She's talked about it, and talked about.

Now she can stop talking. We gave her a Crazy Quilt in a Bag.


We each made her a couple crazy pieced blocks, in pastely and light colored fabrics, added some of the trims and threads to finish each block. The party hostess (Jeanne) then found this great case (in the scrapbooking section at JoAnne's) to put it all in.

Clara has 25 blocks and all these threads, trims, beads and buttons to work with.

Some examples. This is one of the blocks I made. The color is bad because the flash was off, (sorry). The center is hand-painted silk.



This is a different block, but a better example of the colors of most of them. Sorry, I'm not sure who made it. (Debbie?) Silks, satins, ribbons and cottons were combined to make some the blocks. Others are all cotton. And although each person made their blocks independantly, they all go.

Another Block Sans Flash. Sorry. This one has several pieces of kimono silk in it and a gorgeous piece of lace lightly tacked in place. Made by Karen. The blocks were all oversized, so Clara can trim them all up to the same size.

Several years ago, one of our more senior members died. For her funeral, we all quickly stitched up little squares with embroidery (thank goodness for machines with fancy stitches) which were used as a casket cover. One of the Jeanne's blocks used an extra square of this embroidery as it's center. Many of the threads given had belonged to my friend Linda (a fabulous crazy quilter) before she died. So almost all the Pickles and then some are represented in the quilt.



When Clara opened the present, she cried. Heck, as she heard the story of our plans, and the stories of the blocks, she cried again. She's probably crying today as she explains it to her coworkers.

Our next party is in November.... but you can't wait to see what we come up with for that occasion!!