reading about your quilt surprise!<<<
Glad you found your way back to us.
Yes, it was a surprise and I often think of her smiling to herself, as she sewed on it, I have forgotten the exact number of print squares she used, but 2500 or so of the colored 2 inch squares, she and Jean cut the muslin parts of it and the diamonds for joining, all tiny.
Mary loved to sew, it took all I could do to keep enough pieces cut for her to sew on...LOL, I rarely got to sew on my own machine.
But that was the joy of team work, I could cut while being with Bill, as he liked to watch tv, and she kept busy.
We went to Yuma once a month for supplies/groceries, etc and always stopped at Goodwill, hoping to find a big black garbage bag of fabric scraps for 2 or 3 dollars.
Then the next week, we had a meeting and divided the bag, she would have it all separated in like kind piles and we took turns choosing piles.
Once an old friend of hers stopped to say hello on a fabric splitting night and stayed so late her husband called to check on her, LOL, Catherine was having a ball watching us and catching up on our new patterns we had invented, for we made quilts for other people too.
Catherine had so much fun, she called and asked if she could come over on our next get together night, for she had a surprise.....LOL, she gone to Goodwill and bought a couple bags to split with us.
You can imagine how much fun is in a large bag of scraps and often including the pattern already cut out and ready to sew, many of the pieces were large enough for making clothing, lots for kids and some for adults.
I am so glad Mary got the prize for at that time she had worked about 70 years on quilts.
Check the thrift stores, ask if they have bags of fabric scraps.
I am going to share your story with my quilting group. We meet the 2nd Monday of every month and always end up staying much too late. Luckily, most of us homeschool and have a little leeway as far as curfew is concerned.
I always look forward to our meetings. We call ourselves the Piecemakers. ;-)