Coming of Age - Recycled Quilt for Project Quilting

Recently, I finished another quilt for Project Quilting, and I wanted to give a little bit more back story to the quilt. Before we get started, let's get the shameless begging out of the way: would you mind taking 10 seconds to go vote for my quilt? I promise the story is worth your vote!

Now, on to the story. It starts with this dress:

That's me, at 17 years old, at my Debutante Ball. This dress was the most amazing creation I'd ever seen to that point in my life, and I loved it the minute I saw it & absolutely had to have it. But the dress almost wasn't mine to have.

My family wasn't exactly swimming in dough, and by that point in my life it was just me & my mom. She was doing the best she could to keep roof over head, and there wasn't a ton of room in the budget for extravagances. Becoming a debutante was an honor, but it doesn't mean much if you can't go to the ball. One of my mom's friends took pity on us and gave my mom $100 to buy my dress.

Now, the best place to find a ball gown is at a bridal shop. The dresses have to be stark white, and if it has a train it must be bustled. Shoulders covered, cleavage contained, floor length, and accommodate white evening gloves.

Mom took me to a local shop (not a chain) and I started to try on dresses. It was really fun, but there wasn't anything that didn't need significant alterations ($$) and I didn't find anything that I liked. Well, the shop owner said she'd recently acquired some dresses from another shop that had gone out of business, and she hadn't even looked at them yet, but maybe there was something there I would like. This is the dress she pulled out.

Actually, I fell in love with the dress the very minute the miles of tulle started making their way out of the bag. I tried it on... it fit like a glove. Trying it on sealed the deal, so imagine my disappointment when the tag on the dress said $750.

I remember bursting into tears, because I knew there was no way we could afford the dress, and I also knew I would never find another dress that I would love as well as this one. I took off the dress, put my street clothes on, and my mom & I got ready to leave. How do you continue trying on dresses when you already know the one you want is the one you can't have?

Just as we were leaving, the shop owner hollered, "WAIT! WAIT! This dress is on sale!" Apparently, she found another tag that was attached to the dress bag, and the price on it was... $100.

Divine intervention? Or just a shop lady who felt sorry for a poor kid trying to attend a ball? I'll never know which is the truth, but at that moment, I knew that dreams sometimes came true.

I'll stop here for now since this post is super long already... but I'll continue the story later about how this dress ended up getting chopped into many bits and pieces to become this quilt:



Happy quilting!