Women of Courage Quilt

I saw this quilt hanging in one of my LQS (Crazy Cousin) and the it struck me.  I loved it.  I think, ultimately, it was the border that pulled me in.   (Warning, this post is going to have a lot of pictures!)

This was a block of the month and the fabrics are Wyndham Fabrics.  Please click the link to find more detailed information but in short, there were several notable women who have displayed extraordinary courage in their life and each month provided a summary detail of who these women were and what they did as well as block instructions and fabric.

It's a little bit of a drive for me to this LQS for the monthly meetings so I purchased the kit all at once and started building the quilt on my own schedule.  I posted each block on Instagram as I went along to satisfy my need to shout, "another one complete!"

   

I had two hiccups in the process, I miscut one fabric and had to find something out of my stash to substitute because it was no longer available in the store (& not worth ordering for the small amount I needed) and I miscut the border strips, even tough I read those instructions 80 bazillion times (yes, bazillion).  However, I adjusted in both cases and pressed forward, I think, successfully.  In all honesty, unless you are comparing my top to the pattern picture or you've made one with the provided fabrics, you won't know. lol

Finally, the top was complete and part of me wanted to stop there. The other part had been craving to get to quilting this baby. I wanted to do custom quilting in sections, although I had no idea how yet.

I loaded her up, asked a lot of opinions on Instagram and then, got to it.

Of course there are errors but that makes it real and she came out lovely. I had to find my own courage in trying something different on this Women of Courage quilt and given what these women had done in their lifetimes, what was my piddly little insecurity?  Exactly, it was nothing compared to true adversity.

The moral, I love this lady. She's big, fits over a queen bed with drape and has rich colors. The deep aqua sets off the browns and reds and truly, that border is just stunning in real life.

I made the kids go with me to come up with photos. It was a beautiful day and I took them out to help me with this lady and one other quilt (you can see the story here, Fractured Sunlight, if you haven't seen it & are interested). Below are some sample shots of the kids at work. These were their ideas and styling.  I take no credit except forcing them out of the house, which, I feel I need to do for all the quilt photos now. :)

The helpers.  Thanks kids, I love you.

I hope you are having a lovely day and the next time you are a little reticent or fearful of something, think of those who have come before who haven't let that stop them and then ask yourself, can you do it? Will you?

Cheers!
Beck