Tori’s winning quilt: Sue Godwin’s Grandmother’s Flower Garden, 2021
Linda Rowe
Tori purchased an incredibly old 1930s vintage quilt top at the Pebble Creek Quilters (PCQ) spring luncheon in April 2018. The quilt top, named Grandmother’s Flower Garden, is made of thousands of hand-pieced hexagons. The quilt top originally belonged to former PCQ president and long arm chairperson Sue Godwin. It was donated to the club by her family after Sue passed. The quilt top was in desperate need of some love, and it required many repairs and weeks of pressing in order to be ready for quilting. At times, Tori admits, “I’m not going to deal with this UFO (unfinished object); I’m going to move it along to let someone else finish it!”
However, Tori did tough it out and prepared it for Jessica Gamez of Cave Creek to quilt it. A continuous curve pattern was selected for the quilting. Tori chose a neutral reproduction fabric for the backing and a fun 1930s reproduction for the binding. Even though the quilt was machine quilted, Tori attached the binding by hand to better reflect the original era.
Tori entered the quilt in the Arizona State Fair in the category of Vintage Quilt: Begun By One Generation and Completed By Another. It clearly caught the eye of the judges, as it won best in show! It is wonderful how the women, Sue, Tori, and Jessica, across generations, worked on this project until it was completed and ready to be enjoyed, loved, and appreciated.
Tori is inspiring others to complete their UFOs and consider entering the county and state fairs with their treasures because you can never tell what will happen. The journey was definitely worth it. Congrats to Tori!