Successful Drive-by Quilting #10 goes to Valerie Bradley who lives in Tigard, OR. We had been driving all morning from Pendleton, OR in rain and slush, but fortunately just as we were coming into Portland, the weather had improved. There were several overpasses clustered together and they were all on a curve so it was difficult to spot Valerie from a distance. We saw her and her daughter at the last minute, just in time to snap a few fast photos. Success! It's a rush, over in an instant, but always great fun. Congratulations, Valerie and thanks for sharing your quilt!
Valerie says:
Today was so exciting, and the drive-by quilting was so much fun!
This morning when I checked my Facebook updates, I saw that you were going to be passing by my stomping grounds. Excitedly, I got in touch with you to find out if there was enough time to spring into action and get a drive-by quilting organized... and as luck would have it, there was!
My youngest daughter was in school, but my oldest was home recovering from a bit of stomach upset, so she got to come along with me. I quickly chose a quilt that I thought would look nice from a highway overpass and we hopped into the car. We had a bit of dismay as one of the highways I had to take was experiencing a traffic jam, but thankfully it cleared up fairly quickly and we were back up to speed in no time.
We stopped next to a fish-shaped pedestrian bridge not far from where I-84 and I-205 connect. We were feeling lucky as the temperature was warmer than it had been in previous days, and there was a break in the rain so neither we nor the quilt would get wet. It seems that we managed to get there just in time, because after we exchanged a few calls and realized how close you were, my daughter and I ran to the bridge and held up the quilt... breathlessly waiting for your car to drive by, honking and flashing your lights. Only a few minutes later, there you were! What a thrill that was! We were both grinning from ear to ear. :)
About the quilt:
This quilt is the result of a challenge hosted by the online quilting forum I'm a member of. The challenge coordinator sent each participant a piece of her own hand-dyed fabric to be used in the quilt. Only a few weeks earlier this same person taught me how to hand dye fabric so I dyed up some coordinating fabrics to use in the rest of the quilt top. I had always wanted to try my hand at a Mariner's Compass quilt, so I chose the pattern "Pulsar" from Judy Mathieson's book "Mariner's Compass Quilts: Setting A New Course; New Process, New Patterns, New Projects". The challenge fabric (blue/purple) was used in the big arms of the compass. My own hand dyes were the pink and orange arms, as well as the border and binding fabrics. I quilted it with my HandiQuilter 16 quilting machine. To top it all off, my quilt won first place in the challenge!
