This post is dedicated to Linda who listens to everything I say and remembers all of it–even all the little boring details! When we were chatting on line tonight, Linda asked if I had posted a picture of my pansy table runner yet. I replied that I hadn’t. I mentioned that I was behind on so many of my posts. Linda suggested I talk about the pansy series of projects that I finished, and the connection to pansies in my family. So Linda, here it goes! *VBG*

Back in May 2008, my aunt, my mother, and I took a girls’ only road trip to Oregon to visit a part of the country that we had a family connection to–somewhere my mother had visited previously with her father. See the post here:

http://silverthimblequilting.blogspot.com/2008/06/girls-road-trip-fabs-meet-for-first.html

and here:

http://silverthimblequilting.blogspot.com/2008/06/girls-road-trip-part-two.html

We did some fabric shopping at Joann’s in Roseburg, Oregon. I fell in love with a fabric collection by Debbie Mumm that featured pansies. Pansies are a flower that links the women in my family. Pansies were a favorite flower of my grandmother, my aunt, my mother, and myself. My grandmother painted pansy pictures for each of us and I always think first of my grandmother when I see pansies.

I recently finished four projects from the pansy fabrics.

The first piece was a table topper that was gifted to my aunt for Christmas this past year.
The second piece in the pansy series was a Disappearing Nine Patch that was gifted to my Mother this past Christmas.
The final two pieces in the series were a lap quilt and table runner for myself.

I am so finished with winter and I am so ready for spring. Rather than put the table runner away until the weather improves and spring actually arrives, I decided to put it out now. It may not be spring outside, but I can make it feel a little like spring inside.

The road trip I mentioned above was where I first met two of the FABs in person–Cher and Pam. So in honor of this meeting, the backing fabric for all of these pieces is purple. After all, purple IS the FAB colour!

These four pieces bring together a lot of symbolism–pansies for the women in my family and the two FAB sisters I met in Oregon that have become such an important part of my extended family, purple to celebrate all five of the FABs which includes those that live in WI and AL, and a wonderful memory of a girls only road trip.