A couple of weeks later my brother’s parcel arrived. It contained six photos and a wonderful memento which was headed, “Remembering a Friend at 100 years in 1998”. Now I was in business. I had already purchased the cotton fabric which would be used for the photo transferring of the six photos plus two logos. I then purchased fabric for the various car colours. These would be cut into small rectangles and would form the quilt border. I took the fabric and the six photos to the photographer and these photos plus the two logos would be transferred onto the white cotton background. The photographer told me that because of the Christmas rush, the photos would not be ready before the first week in January.
Time was moving on.
January arrived and I received a phone call from the photographer to advise me that not all the photos had turned out. I told him I would drive into Charlottetown next morning and take a look.
When the photographer showed me the six photos, I was dismayed. Two of the photos were unusable; the remaining four could be salvaged but needed more pressing. We agreed that I would pick them up in two days. In the meantime, I decided that I could complete two quilted squares that would be placed opposite one another in each of the four corners of the quilt. The two quilt patterns I chose were:; “Spinning Wheels” and “Railway Crossing”.
I picked up the photo transfers two days later and thanked the photographer for his help. He told me he would not charge me for the ‘unusable photos’. We agreed that the process had certainly been interesting, if not frustrating for both of us.
Now, the real work began. I had four weeks remaining to complete this quilt. Panic was beginning to set in for there was still lots to do. To begin, each of the photo transfers as well as the quilted squares using the colours of the cars were placed on a silver grey background. Once completed, the blocks were sewn together. The remaining jobs to be done were to machine stitch the batting and backing to the quilt; sew on the border and binding and then hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt.
With some long hours and a husband who looked after dinners, the quilt was completed and sent off in time.
On Sunday, May 24th 1998, at 2:00 p.m. Grant Lindsay, the British Deputy Consul General drew the winning ticket for the Donald M. Healey 100th Anniversary Commemorative quilt. As a result of the efforts of members of the club, $1,500 was raised for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton.
My brother who had received a career posting to the west coast sent me a copy of the Healey Marque magazine dated May 1999. In it a colored photo of the quilt was featured. Not only that, the quilt came in a close second in the large club category. My brother said that having the quilt published in the magazine meant that it would be seen in various countries. It was quite an honor for everyone who contributed.
THE END
Author’s Note:
Today, the process of photo transfer, is so much easier since the development of Inkjet Fabric Sheets. Digital photographs can be printed on these fabric sheets.. Allow the ink to dry for 15 minutes than soak in room-temperature water for 10 minutes. (I use distilled water which can be purchased in a pharmacy).
The Quilt Jean Parsons made to celebrate the 100th birthday of Donald M. Healey.
Peter Scotchmer4 years ago
A beautiful quilt, Jeannie! Hope it was appreciated properly. The car featured on it is an Austin Healey 3000, famous for its 3-litre Austin engine, but the smaller Austin Healey Sprite, the famous ‘bug-eyed’ sports car, and arguably more famous because less expensive, was also Donald Healey’s contribution. “Austin” was the name of the manufacturer, now sadly long gone…A great story. Well done!
Jeannie4 years ago
Hello Peter
Thank you so much for taking the time to express how much you enjoyed the story of the Donald Healey quilt. Not only that but your knowledge and comments added to the quilt itself.
Sincerely,
Jeannie