Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A very sad week....

A few days ago a wonderful lady, quilter and friend, lost her battle with cancer. Gerda was a long time friend of the quilters that frequented Block Central and The Quilt And Needle forums. Many of us never met Gerda in person but she became one of our good friends through the internet. If there was something out in cyber space that we were looking for, we just had to ask Gerda to search and she'd find it. This earned her the nickname, Marian the Librarian.

Many times she would email me when she would come across a new way to make a Pickle Dish quilt (one of my favorites) or if she found a really pretty version of one. She also would email veggie recipes, knowing that my daughters are vegans. One time I sent her a pattern that I had made. I didn't know how to turn it into a PDF, but she did, and sent me back the PDF version. She really was a wiz with the computer. In her last email to me she talked about the impending birth of her grandson, telling me he was expected at the end of April, and how excited she was. I'm so happy she got to see him before she passed.

When I first started chatting on Block Central, my first forum, Gerda was one of the many wonderful ladies I got to know. Seems like she was in almost every fabric and block swap even though postage was getting out of hand for her. I won one of the first "Favorite Block Swaps". It was Americana... done in red, white/cream, and blue. She signed her block on the back, like always, in the seam.













I put the quilt together and started quilting it, in 2009. It has been sitting on my shelf since that time, waiting to be finished. I took it down yesterday to find the block that she made me for that swap. It was in the area that wasn't quilted yet, so I took out the safety pins and looked for her signature on the seam.

I took a picture of the seam, then put the quilt back together and wrote her name on the front where I would be able to see it. I plan to finish this quilt up now. It's one that I will always treasure along with all the friends I've made online.


We are all going to miss you Gerda.

4 comments:

Scrapatches said...

Beautiful Quilt, Deb.

I see my block ... :-) Pat

Scrapatches said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ferne said...

She is also missed at the Small Quilts forum headed by Kathy Tracy. She was a wonderful and fun lady that had many friends in many countries. She will definitely be missed and also remembered.

Northern Deb said...

I love the one you made, Pat. A very pretty flag block.

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