We've all become pretty close since the onset of my becoming a quilting teacher. The addiction has become contagious. We've gone from those who have never quilted before to forming our own quilt guild. We have had one among us that was getting married after carefully selecting the perfect partner.

I thought it would be great fun to get together and have a regular old "quilting bee" to make a quilt for her and her new husband. Got a list together of those who would be invited to the wedding and those of my friends who had that contagious quilting disease. Sent an e-mail to most of them (thank you God for computers) suggesting what my idea was and asking who would like to participate.

I thought a King Dresdan Plate using 18" block would be an ideal way to get alot of people involved. Well the majority of those that wanted to participate never quilted before (or sewed). I had a total of about 15 women interested. I set up a schedule of 4-6 sessions which included three or four six hour sessions and one or two evenings.

Well let me tell you that these women were great. The first time we met they had all the Dresdan plates traced and cut out. The second time we sewed them all together. Now keep in mind I had about 8-10 women the first time and about 4-6 the second visit. Now we had all the plates sewn together and needed to have them appliquéd. You remember those girls who I initially hooked up with and now they have the bug too? Well they are the ones that took those plates home and appliquéd them on the 18" blocks.

That's not the whole of the story though. I didn't buy enough fabric for those 18" blocks. Try to find a fabric that is no longer in print. I had friends from all over the United States searching for that fabric. Finally found it in Florida. So after the third visit to sew those blocks together and appliqué those centers on it was finally ready for me to add the sashing and border.

My daughter picked out that fabric and she'll have nothing to do with quilting (what a shame) but she's great at putting those colors together. The quilt went together just perfectly. I sent it off to the quilter (to be machine quilted). It came back a few days ago. I put the binding on and it's ready for us all to sign the back. We'll be meeting in the conference room at work to give her this quilt. I don't know about anybody else but I have alot of memories and pictures to preserve an old tradition like this one.

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