WE DID IT!

Tonight we gave President Willardson his very special quilt.  Here are the pictures...

Nadine and I holding up the quilt in a quilt "pre" shot.

Me leading President Willardson into the room with the quilt and all of the ladies.

"What is going on?"

the quilt and his GIANT card(on the right)

A shot of his GIANT card open :)

It was REALLY wonderful to give this to him.  He cried, we cried!  He said he was going to go home and put it right on his bed :)

PW's Quilt is FINISHED!! :D

I was kind of having a hard time deciding if I should count this quilt in my finished quilts count.  The blocks were all made by ladies in my church for our church leader, President Lyman Willardson (LDS Stake President) who has terminal cancer.  I decided to count it, for these reasons... it was my idea ;),  I trimmed all of the blocks, I put the top together and the back, as well ;),  I bound it, and I sewed the label on the back. ...I also spent the majority of Thursday quilting it ;D  A TOTAL labor of love :)
Several ladies have asked how he is doing.  Even though the cancer is throughout his body, he feels perfectly well and plans to continue to lead and inspire us for as long as possible.  He is a wonderful man and we are so blessed to have him among us.
Here are the myriad pictures I took in my living room.  It was raining outside and I am FREEZING, so inside pictures will have to do :)  The pictures turned out kinda cool with the light coming from behind!  I tried to list as many names of the blocks and their makers as I could.  Unfortunately, many blocks were dropped off to my house while I was not home and I don't know who made many of them :(

The photo block on the right toward the bottom is a picture of the tree in President Willardson's yard.
He calls it the  "Tree of Life."  (See 1 Nephi chapter 8 of the Book of Mormon)
Here is the front view of Delilah Curtis's hand appliqued Celtic Knot

The top right block was made by Marilynn Lankford and it is called "Returning Home"
The top center block is the scripture Isaiah 40:31 made by Teena Searle and her mother.
The top left star block was lovingly made by Connie Olsen.

See the boat on the left?  That was made by Marilee Laney.  It is her first block ever!!!  Can you say "Talent!!!"?
Sister Dansie made the Utah block.
The postage stamp granny square was made by Pat Zeeman.

Do you see the aqua/teal postage stamp granny square, bottom right-centerish?  It was stitched by Jill Wilson.

The top center boat block was made by Konda Lukau, quilter extraordinaire.

The top left block is an awesome air plane block by Heidi Madsen.
The bottom right block is by Marilynn Lankford called "Lost at Sea"

The top left star is the Star of Hope made by Annette Rawlinson.
The bottom left quilt block was made by Cindy Sager and is of the "Special Primary."  The Special Primary is a class held each week for the children and adults in our community with varying disabilities.
The bottom right block was one of the three beautiful blocks made by Pat Zeeman.

The bottom right is the AWESOME scooter made by Becky Christensen.
The top left block was made by Trudy Peck.  It is four ladies tying a quilt :)
The top right was embroidered by Juliana Marsh, WOW!!!

The top left 9 patch was made by Debbie Cook.
Becky Call paper pieced the dragon fly on the bottom left. SUPER COOL!

The bottom left block is a picture block of President Willardson and his wife, Polly, by the picture of  the new Payson LDS Temple that is under construction.

Now these pictures are my favorite.  I have a major thing for the back's of quilts.  I love how the light shines through from the window :)

Here are some closeups of the big stitch quilting we did.  I really love how there are blue and white stitching throughout.

The back of the airplane block.  President Willardson is a pilot.

The Celtic Knot by Delilah Curtis is my favorite from the front and the back :)

The back of the scooter block.  President Willardson rides his white Vespa all over town.

I received this block late Wednesday evening from an 83 year old lady in our church.  I am so glad that it came late.  It makes the most PERFECT label!  Don't you think?

After I was finished taking the pictures, I came in the living room and thought this was a pretty shot.  I have always LOVED our home.  It was designed and built by my husbands grandparents in the 1930's.  Our family is very blessed to live in a home with so much family history and love :)

Here is the front room window without the quilt.  The window boxes are original to the house.

Here is the quilt folded and waiting to be delivered to our unsuspecting stake president tomorrow... unless he follows my blog, and then he'd better get his game face on ;D

President Willardson is a beekeeper.  Annette Rawlinson keeps bees with him and made this special block.  Annette was such a HUGE help in getting this quilt together.  Aren't good friends the very greatest blessing in our lives?

I am linking this up with Fabric Addict.  Can I get aWhoop Whoop?

Mini Update

The binding is sewn on and being hand stitched on :)  The label is ready to be attached.

 ...and the stitches are out!

Quilt Update :)

Tuesday was my second oldest daughters graduation from High School :)  It was a very busy day so no quilting, that I can remember, just laundry and partying :)  Wednesday was MORE laundry and putting together the quilt for my church leader.  I trimmed all of the blocks to be the same size.  I added borders to make some of them the same size.  I trimmed the sashing and made the backing :)  I sewed up the top and the back too.  Today I got up and after all of the regular daily stuff, went over to the church at 9:45am to set up the quilt for it's big stitch quilting with the other ladies of my church.  A super big thanks to Annette for sticking with me for virtually the WHOLE day. She finally went to rescue her hubby or the grand kids, depending on how you look at it, at about 6:45pm.  I really couldn't have done it with out her support..and know how, and quilting and patience!  You'll have to ask her some time about grave digging and fighting off a cow in a battle for apples!  Thanks to Konda for bringing the batting and sticking around for some super fun quilting.  It was a super fun surprise to see Sue and April pop in for quilting and chatting, even though they don't go to my particular church ;D  And mostly, THANK you to the women of our church who made AMAZING blocks with LOVE and thoughtfulness, but also spent their precious time with us today quilting.  WOW and WHOO HOO!!!  Our stake president (mormon lingo for the area leader of our church) is going to LOVE it!!!  So now for the picture :)  You know that I took WAY too many!!!

The top laying on the floor before we got it up on the frame.

The back lying on the floor.

A shot from the bottom :)

Trudy playing peek a boo with me :)

Here are a few from the bottom .  If you looks closely, you can see needles coming through the quilt :)

I was going for this shot with the light coming from the top.

Adding just a few more special touches at the end.
I have the quilt at home so I can add the binding tomorrow.  We are going to give it to him on Sunday :D

Have a GREAT Friday!!!