Nothing like putting yourself under a bit of pressure! This was the final stitch going into the Snooker Table Quilt - 'Time for a Break' on Wednesday night:
Jackie's leaving do was yesterday! She retired from our organisation after 42 years exemplary service. She laid on a wonderful afternoon tea and cakes for us (I love cake!) and there were lots of colleagues past and present gathered to say goodbye and wish her well.
I've blogged quite a bit about the journey of making this quilt starting with this post in April (my birthday giveaway) when you had to guess what I was going to make out of this bundle of fabric:
There were some funny answers along the way! I am still amazed at how we quilters take a bunch of ingredients, mix them together and produce such loveliness ... aren't we lucky!?
There were some tricky moments too - I never did perfect my balls, which remained a little 'wonky':
Why work to a pattern when you don't have to?! I used a Google image as my inspiration and pretty much made it up as I went along. The corners took some planning and I did keep them square in the end. And just when I thought I had finished the top, Julie asked if I was going to add a 'stick'?! So I did :)
I sewed all the team's signed messages onto the back of the quilt:
After the boss did his speech, they asked me to say a few words and and hand Jackie our gift:
Snooker is Jackie's passion - she gets so excited watching it on TV, she has never trusted herself to go and watch a live tournament! Her absolute hero is Steve Davis OBE (famous world snooker champion in the UK) and not only was he kind enough to autograph a patch (his got pride of place in the centre of the quilt), he also provided a signed photograph:
She was a very very very happy lady yesterday! I'm chuffed I helped put that big smile on her face:
Congratulations, dear Jackie, enjoy your retirement, we will miss you xx
A lady has asked me to make a memory quilt out of her fathers shirts. He was a master billiards player and the first thing that popped in my head was a billiards table (since I don't have a lot of shirts to work with.) I had it in my head but couldn't get it on paper. Your quilt is perfect, mind if I use it as a inspiration?
ReplyDeleteIt looks great -.and she seems so very pleased. That's fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely gift. I'm sure she will cherish it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea..that's brilliant! You can tell she'll treasure it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous, personal gift. I love the extra touch of getting Steve Davis to sign a patch.
ReplyDeleteOh my.... this turned out fabulous! She looks thrilled. Very nicely done!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful story. She looks so happy, indeed. You are so talented and clever. This one should be in a magazine. Thank you for inspiring all of us.
ReplyDeleteAwww just a beautiful story and a beautiful quilt!
ReplyDeleteJen, your finished snooker table quilt turned out fantastic - wonky balls and all (although I don't think they look wonky at all)!!! Jackie looks so thrilled with her quilt!! That's a great compliment to you and sometimes all the payment that is needed to make us happy as quilters.
ReplyDeleteWonderful work! A really fabulous quilts story :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing "the reveal". The quilt looks great! And from the look on Jackie's face, it was a big hit! So much better than the usual retirement gifts!
ReplyDeleteI am slowly catching up with blog reading. (vacation)
ReplyDeleteI love the look on her face! That says it all. What a terrific quilt!! On to the next great project!