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At Calico Alley in Strawberry Hill Plaza in Guilford, Connecticut, I went to a two-week class to make a Garden Twist Quilt with Rev. Peg Stearn. We both enjoyed the class time together as we each made these fun, but intricate, quilts. The Rev. Peg Stearn is currrently preaching in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Andrea's Into the Mystic quilt was a complete surprise for Christmas 1997. Her face shows her joy! The quilt was displayed at the Quilt Oddysey '98 with the Shoreline Quilters' Guild.
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Jeff's Plaid Flannel quilt was a complete surprise for Christmas 1997. Jeff loves it!
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Aunt Mary Lou's Fair and Square quilt was made rather quickly. I had been collecting stars, moons and suns fabrics for quite a while. When I found out from cousin Tami that Aunt Mary Lou was finally getting a place of her own in Senior Citizen Housing in Groton, Massachusetts, I felt she really needed a comfort quilt.
It was made in three days. The first day to cut the fabric. The second day to machine sew the squares together. The third day to string tie and put the binding on. I mailed it to Tami's house and asked Tami to bring it to Mary Lou on her first day in her new place. When Mary Lou got the package, she phoned me right away to thank me. Mary Lou says that the quilt has inspired her grandchildren to draw all the different fabric patterns and that she is amazed and delighted in such a quilt. She says she especially loves the night sky fabric backing.
Right after I made this quilt, I found out that the advanced breast cancer that I have was acting up again in my lung so Dr. Arthur Levy put me back on chemotherapy called Taxol in March 1998. I stayed on the chemotherapy Taxol for six months and then it stopped working in September 1998. I became a candidate for Herceptin, which is a monoclonal antibody that matches up to a breast cancer gene that I have. I stayed on Herceptin for three months.
I went to Rhonda DeLucia's wedding shower on July 18, 1998. It was on that day I decided that Rhonda should have a quilt.
Rhonda DeLucia and James Ranney's wedding was on September 6, 1998 and it was a wonderful day. We helped the family pack up the wedding gifts from the reception and went over to Ron and Barbara DeLucia's house. After we had left and all the guests had left, Barbara told me that Rhonda wanted to open one particular gift and save the rest of the gifts to open after they got back from their honeymoon. Barbara told me that Rhonda had said, "See James, I knew it was a quilt!" and she wrapped herself in it.
Rhonda is a very special young lady to me. I watched a troubled child try to fit into her Dad's new marriage to Barbara. I did not know Rhonda at age seven, but I met her when she was 15. I learned about Good Will Hinckley home in Hinckley, Maine from our First Congregational Church in Guilford, Connecticut. I listened to two women stand up in Church and tell the congregation what Hinckley home meant to them.
In my heart, I knew that was the place for Rhonda. It would be a home away from home, and Barbara and Ron, who obviously loved her, would be able to cope with their growing family of Jennifer, Patrick and Ronnie. Rhonda successfully completed the high school program in Maine and went on to college. She met James where she works and he is a wonderful person to complete Rhonda's life.
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I made this little quilt called Country at Heart in September 1998 for friends of ours, Steve and Joan Kobak. They moved just down the street from us in a new house. Before I gave it to them, I entered it into the Guilford Fair and it got an Honorable Mention ribbon!
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