I Survived Spring Break With My Teenager

India and I just returned from an eight-day cruise to the Caribbean. We had ports of call in Cozumel, Costa Rica and Panama. I am always searching for fabric when I travel, but I must admit this trip was not very fruitful. I did find some beautiful embroidered squares that may find their way into a future quilt. I usually try to commemorate our cruises with a quilt.

Notwithstanding striking out on the fabric search, it was a lovely cruise. I always take a quilting project with me to work on while I tan. Quilting poolside always draws a crowd and makes it easy to meet quilters from around the world.

The quilt shown here is from an earlier cruise in 2004 when I did find fabric. It contains fabric from Belize and the Cayman Islands. It is called Inspiration after the Carnival ship we sailed on that year.

#2 Goes to Blanche Nichols

Awesome African Elephants in My Garden #2 was given to Blanche Nichols. Sometimes when you go through a trying experience with someone, you are somehow joined for life. Such is the case with Blanche and me.

Early in my career as a young lawyer in the City of Atlanta Law Department, I represented Blanche in a personnel case filed against her by one of her employees. Blanche was a Major in the Atlanta Police Department at the time. Having risen through the ranks in a tough male environment, Blanch was definitely a person of quiet strength, but being sued for the first time can rattle anyone. We won the case, and I know Blanche was happy about that. However, more importantly for me, this case was my epiphamy that there is something about me that makes strong people place their trust in me during their toughest moments. That was an eye opening lesson for me that defined the rest of my legal career.

#8 Goes to Allegra Lawrence Hardy

Awesome African Elephants in My Garden #8 was given to Allegra Lawrence Hardy. Over the years I watched Allegra grow from a young associate in her law firm to a high powered partner. She did so with joy and grace. Allegra is one of my avid quilt collectors so I always intended to give her a quilt, but when I found out she loves purple, #8 seemed to be the perfect quilt for her.

#4 goes to David Ware

Awesome African Elephants in My Garden #4 was the first quilt in the series given to a person of quiet strength. That person was David Ware, and the quilt was presented on the day of my retirement from Fulton County. David is a person willing to take on the tough challenges and to help others with their tough challenges. David is not only a great lawyer, but a lawyer with great faith.

Awesome African Elephants in My Garden #4 was chosen for David because of its sunny disposition – tall and strong and happy. I hope David is enjoying his quilt.

Gifts For People of Quiet Strength

I originally started the Awesome African Elephants in My Garden series as a way to experiment with coupling traditional patterns with Afro-centric fabric. The quilts were just another step in my growth as a quilter. Each quilt in the series starts with a traditional 12 x 12 inch block. After that I let my imagination go with only one rule. There must be elephants in the quilt. Usually there are also African fabrics. All of the quilts in the 12 quilt series measure approximately 48 x 48 inches and have a herd of elephants on the back.

Why elephants? I guess because if you pledge Delta Sigma Theta Sorority as I did over 30 years ago, you learn to love elephants. Also, because they are truly awesome animals – strong but gentle. It doesn’t hurt that they bring you good luck if they have their trunks up.

About half way through the series, I decided I have too many quilts and needed to give some away. So I came up with my personal awards show – the Person of Quiet Strength Award! Since I plan to keep #1 for myself, there are 11 people out there who will receive my Person Of Quiet Strength Award.

Shown here is #1 in the series.

Justin's Sweet Home

Sometimes I make a quilt for absolutely no reason except for the joy of it. Justin’s Sweet Home is such a quilt. I like leaf quilts because I am drawn to the luscious fall colors. This quilt was named for my dog Justin because I love to see him running around our yard exploring what we call his kingdom. After a twice a day exploration, Justin is quite content to live inside sleeping amongst the sofa pillows.

Justin’s Sweet Home measures 64 x 87 inches. It was quilted in a leaf motif in variegated thread by my friend Maxine Moore.