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Home » Nanny’s Birthday Surprise

Nanny’s Birthday Surprise

December 5, 2015 by Nanny 10 Comments

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Just under two years ago, I received a wonderful gift!  Without my knowledge, two of my on-line friends (never met) organised a Nanny’s Birthday Surprise.

Wendy and Ineke set up a facebook page , blocked me so that I couldn’t see  and they were off and running!  They decided to send me 9 patch blocks in my favourite colour – purple, and they rallied others to join them.  On my birthday, these envelopes started to arrive and to say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement!

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Over the days following my birthday, the mailman kept calling and I received beautiful cards with words of friendship from people I didn’t know and each contained at least one 9 patch block.  A couple didn’t have time to make a block and so sent me the fabric squares and one member was in New Zealand, away from her sewing gear and so sent me a purple NZ bag and silver fern badge.  This bag held all of the blocks and cards while I tried to plan.

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Ineke included two ‘special’ blocks – a heart and a bee ( the members of my Nanny Swapz call me Queen Bee)

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I spread them all out to show the group what I had received:

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Then the time just seemed to slip by as life kept ‘intruding’ in on my sewing plans!  I worried that I wasn’t getting my quilt done and more time passed me by.

I played with the blocks, put them back in my purple NZ bag, played with them some more and finally decided to organise them into groups of four.  I tried to look at colour values ie light and dark and also tried to spread the splashes of yellow to give balance.  I then decided to make the blocks the heroes of the quilt, I needed a light sashing with a medium corner block.

I loved how it all came together – Lorraine had sent me three blocks so they became corner blocks and the Happy Birthday block from Heather was perfect for the other corner!

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and I was soon searching for a suitable backing.

With the backing sorted, I still wasn’t finished – I still had the fabric squares and a mugmat sent by Mary.  I decided to contact Mary and asked if I could incorporate the mugmat into the quilt and Mary was most generous and gave me the Ok to undo the mugmat or to do whatever I liked . The mugmat became the feature on the back of the quilt where I wanted to acknowledge all of the contributors.  I decide to do this by embroidering all of the names around the mugmat top, separated by the pansies from the back of the mugmat and to me it was ‘perfect’!

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I then cut up the fabric squares and made two smaller 9 patch blocks which I decided to  set  on point.  I had now succeeded in using all of my gifts in the creation of my quilt and I was so excited!

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It was now time to pin!

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For the quilting, I decided to ‘eyeball’ diagonals on the 9 patches and stitch in the ditch to preserve Ineke’s blocks and Clare’s pansy block.

I thought I would use the backing fabric for the binding as well but it looked dreadful so off to the stash!  I found a pack of  purple 2.5″ strips that I received as Queen in one of the ‘hives’ we had run at Nanny Swapz and would you believe that it matched a fabric used by one of the quilters in the making of the 9 patch blocks??  Perfect!!!

My good friend Sue then offered – no insisted – that she would love to hand stitch the binding for me and my quilt was done!

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To Wendy and Ineke –  Thank You!!  To all of the wonderful women who took the time to do this for me – Thank You!!  I apologise for the time delay but hope that you like what I finally came up with in my Nanny’s Birthday Surprise Quilt.

It certainly was a birthday that I will never forget – I was truly humbled by your gestures of friendship

and my wish is that one day I might get to thank each of you in person!

Until next time

Nanny xx

 

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Filed Under: NANNY CHAT Tagged With: 9 patch, friendship, Nanny's Birthday Surprise, Purple Quilt

Comments

  1. Ineke says

    December 5, 2015 at 7:59 pm

    So, so so happy to have been part of surprising you, Nanny! Awesome to see the finished Quilt!!!

    Reply
    • Nanny says

      December 5, 2015 at 8:11 pm

      Thank you Ineke (my special bee) and yes its looking pretty special over here!! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Wendy says

    December 5, 2015 at 8:12 pm

    Oh Nanny it’s just so awesome like you are to us! I am just so glad we had hot nights that I couldn’t sleep and could chat with Ineke and I would also so love to meet you and give you a huge hug and also to meet Ineke one day. We do live in such a big wonderful country. I would also love to thank everyone who jumped on board of the birthday surprise boat with us. It was truly a delight.

    Reply
    • Nanny says

      December 6, 2015 at 7:28 am

      Thank you Wendy and yes, we will have to make it happen!! What a meeting that would be! :0

      Reply
  3. Kate says

    December 5, 2015 at 8:33 pm

    Aww yay!! It turned out beautifull, well done Nanny! <3
    {can't believe it was nearly 2 years ago!}
    Kate recently posted…I’m Still Alive!My Profile

    Reply
    • Nanny says

      December 6, 2015 at 7:29 am

      I know Kate! Time just flew by but now it is done and I love it! Thank you xx

      Reply
  4. Pam @Threading My Way says

    December 5, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    Beautiful gesture and a beautiful quilt, Margie.
    Pam @Threading My Way recently posted…QAYG Zippered Music PouchMy Profile

    Reply
    • Nanny says

      December 6, 2015 at 7:30 am

      Thanks Pam – it was a wonderful surprise that I will never forget! 🙂

      Reply
  5. Lonrraine Schreiweis says

    December 6, 2015 at 1:46 am

    Love the quilt you’ve made.

    Reply
    • Nanny says

      December 6, 2015 at 7:31 am

      Thank you Lorraine for helping to make it happen – I love it too! 🙂

      Reply

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