Imperfectly Finished: Community Quilts Brighten the Lacey Timberland Library Building

For many years, the Lacey Timberland Library has had a tradition of displaying quilts on the walls of the Library in September. This year, however, is a little different than previous years. Typically there are a few quilting groups that do an immense amount of work coordinating, preparing, and documenting the quilts to be displayed, and their work is greatly appreciated! Unfortunately those groups were unable to do it this year, so Timberland staff member, Naomi Bell, took the opportunity to showcase quilters who might not otherwise get highlighted.

Naomi chose the theme “Imperfectly Finished,” to encourage novice quilters to submit their work with the idea that art does not need to be perfect to be complete.  Naomi says, "So often we can let the idea of perfection crush our sense of exploration and curiosity, especially in trying new things.  I got a variety of submissions, from all kinds of quilters. Some of the quilts in this years show are antiques, made over a hundred years ago! And others are made by young children."

The theme “Imperfectly Finished” was optional, and there were many submissions that are clearly made by experienced hands. We hope visitors to the Library appreciate the range of experience on display this year. Thank you to all the quilters who are loaning us your beautiful works of art! The library loves showing our community how awesome you are.

	Summer Reading T shirt Quilt          Barbara Blue   (she/her)	Made using library promotional t-shirts collected during my years as a children's librarian. I used the quilt as you go method and all sewing and quilting was done on a standard sewing machine.
	A Sampler for Maggie         Maggie Hildreth Sturges provided by Andra Weddington (she/they)	Each pattern was clipped from the Kansas City Star in the 1920's and 30's by my grandmother, Maggie Hildreth Sturges. I never knew her, as she died before I was born, but her collection of patterns came down tome.
	My Imperfect Heart Quilt     Mary Rotert   (she/her)	The quilt pattern was from a TRL quilt book. The library has a wonderful collection of quilting and sewing books. I have always like heart-shapes, so was attracted to this simple but pretty pattern for a big scrappy quilt. I learned so many skills with this quilt, choosing scraps that worked together, cutting fairly accurately, sewing the blocks, then quilting and attaching the binding. It will be a warm and fun quilt.
	Rainy Day Comfort        Teri Adams   (she/her)	Rainy Day Comfort was inspired by a visit back to the Pacific Northwest, where I picked up Shop Hop fabric celebrating the gentle rain of Western Washington. After living in sunny Colorado, I realized how much I missed the soothing rhythm of rainfall from my home state. This quilt is a cozy tribute to that sense of comfort and nostalgia the rain brings.
	Jagged X’s           Carol Griffith	Jagged X's was designed by Donna Jordan for Jordan Fabrics. Quilt is machine pieced. Quilting design is Forest Walk and machine quilted by Anita Blair of Cabin Creek Quilts.
	Halloween Scenes        Gretchen Williams (she/her)	My Daughter and I collaborated on this, each did2 panels. I made a jack-o-lantern with pumpkin fabric and a purple cat with cat fabric while she fashioned a witch flying with a bat against a full moon on bat fabric and a purple upside down bat.
	Posh Santa        Nancy Adams   (she/her)	This small wall quilt is composed of what used to be called "Drunkard's Path" blocks. The beard and fur are accented with free motion quilting. The pattern is from sewkindofwonderful.com.
	Baby E        Mel C   (she/her)	Meant to be a baby blanket for my first born, it was finished 2 weeks after her 5th birthday. Good thing I always meant for it to be larger than a “baby quilt”!
	Butterflies        Janet Paxson (she/her) provided by Holly Paxson (she/her)	This was the last quilt Jan (my mother) pieced before she passed away unexpectedly in January 2024.There is a small error in one of the Butterfly quadrants (see if you can spot it!). Her best friend Becky Russell arranged for the quilt to be finished and given to Jan's family after her passing.
	Purr-fect Patchwork        Autumn M.	I am twelve years old and this was my first real quilt. I picked the fabrics used because I have a cat myself. The quilt is a four-patch with the cats as the focus.
	Start Somewhere        Jess Thrift (she/her)	I find quilting intimidating, but I gave myself a pep talk about starting somewhere. This is my first quilt.
	Fresh Fruit Lap Quilt       Carmen G. (she/her)	This Fresh Fruit pattern by Krista Moser makes a cute lap or picnic quilt. This was a challenging pattern. Not a pattern for beginners but worth the effort.
	Sailing       Fostering Hope Quilters provided by Nancy Adams   (she/her)	This quilt was made by a member of the Fostering Hope Quilters. It will begiven to a foster child when they enter foster care. This group makes more than 100 quilts for foster kids every  year.
	SeaSide     Fostering Hope Quilters provided by Nancy Adams   (she/her)	This quilt was made by a member of the Fostering Hope Quilters and will be given to a foster child when they enter foster care.
	Fun on the Mediterranean        Cathie Shaughnessy	I saw this pattern right after I had vacationed in the Med and I knew it would be so fun to make it and remind me of my trip there.
	Rainbow Log Cabins       Amy Hanson   (she/her)	This is a log cabin quilt made from scraps. I've seen pictures where log cabins form diagonals of color, so I duplicated it with a rainbow color scheme. The first blocks I made (yellow/green), I did the centers wrong. Oops.
	Multi-Color Jelly Roll Baby Quilt       Mary Rotert   (she/her)	Pulled a random Jelly Roll of quilt fabric and ran off to class on Half-Square Triangles. Easy pattern, modern and bright! Friend suggested the quilting pattern.
	Botanic Balance       Teri Adams   (she/her)	I was inspired to create Botanic Balance by the playful, retro 70’s fabrics filled with bold, funky flowers. The quilt reflects a harmony between nostalgia and nature, blending vibrant vintage patterns with a modern sense of balance. It’s both a nod to the past and a celebration of timeless floral beauty.
	Butterfly        Karla Bryant	This is a scrap quilt using Tula Pink fabrics and pattern. I made it to practice precision piecing and also to practice longarm quilting in the large amount of negative space.
	Fall Harvest       Jeanne Gallo	This quilt was the finished product of a several weeks long quilting class taken at a local quilt shop. It features several different types of block-patterns. The blocks are set on point to make them more interesting.
	Jack-O-Quilt       Lynn Aue	This is my first attempt at foundation paper piecing or FPP. Really fun process, not as difficult as I thought.
	Antique Red & White Quilt      Sandi Fabry	A hand stitched, hand pieced and quilted Dunkards Path pattern made between 1900-1920.
	Americana Starburst      Kris Beemer	This is the first quilt block I ever made. I am very proud of it and how far I've come in developing my quilting skills. This quilt will always mean a lot to me.
	Ohio Star      Carol Griffith	Ohio Star in blue. Quilt design machine pieced and quilted by hand. All work done by Carol Griffith. Took over one year to hand quilt.
	Christmas Tree      Lynn Aue	This quilt started as a fabric panel. I sliced the panel into sections and pieced it together.
	Symmetry, a Thing of Beauty      Teri Adams   (she/her)	Symmetry, a Thing of Beauty was inspired by a fabric panel that caught my eye, even though I usually avoid panels since I never know how to use them. Once I cut it apart, the design seemed to naturally call for a balanced, symmetric layout. The quilt became a celebration of finding unexpected beauty in structure and order.
	Hope      Ruby Fern Bushnell provided by Becky	This quilt was made for her daughter, Nellie's hope chest in the early 1930's by Ruby Fern Bushnell.
	A Pandemic Distraction      Amanda Stevens	This is how I distracted myself during the last half of pandemic confinement. Most are tv shows, movies, concerts and some live theater as we started to go out in public again. I taught myself embroidery in 2021, and in 2022 I decided to combine that with my first ever quilt, all hand stitched (with exception to the border).
	Fall Fellows      Carmen G.	Fall Fellows is a pattern designed by GEQuilt Designs. A quick and simple wall hanging you can make using fall or Halloween fabric.
	Moody Blues      Catrina Frost	Fabric and embroidery. Quilt elements imperfectly applied.
	Survivor      Lauren Frost	I chose to have raw edges and holes in it because I kinda like ragged looking things. I chose dark colors because I like dark colors.
	Savage Flowers      Ahna Frost	I used green and tiger striped fabric to make the squares and back and 9 different kinds of embroidery floss to make the flowers and blue stitches.
	Blue World      Nicole Page	I asked my daughter what the name for the quilt should be and she said Blue World because each square shows part of our world. The space like squares are blue dreams, the coral blue ocean, then there’s blue waves, blue plants and blue sparkles. She chose all these fabrics and they became the first and only quilt I've made. I used the scraps to make a matching pillow which has a small hole where I sewed too close to the edge and keep forgetting to fix.