One of "Burning leaves of Gatlinburg" quilts now belongs to Bonnie

I want to thank one more time every person, who made and mailed me blocks with maple leaves for my project "Burning leaves of Gatlinburg", for my neighbors, who lost their homes in wild fire on November 28th, 2016: Carmela Anjos, Dawne Johnson Brooks, Glenys Shallard, Pam Johnson, Rebecca Tucker, Patty Holloway, Sharon Bentle, Diane E. Swett, Leslie Mullins, Virginia Smith, Pamela Barger Edl, Jean Foglein, Mary Lou Dagnall, 'Harolyn Kay Fuller, Jamey Herd, Linda Sclare Lyons, Lisa Centurelli, Judy Ingram, Rae Nichols, Linda Byers, Lynn Buske, Lee White, Maureen Trelfer. 

During the class I was taking at the "Quiltfest" show in Pigeon Forge, 

I met the lady, who belongs to the "Piecemakers" guild, who organize "Quiltfest" show every year, and we know each other for several years. Her name is Bonnie Goolsby. She told me, that she also lost her permanent home in Gatlinburg. All her sewing room, fabrics and supplies are gone too. I can feel her pain. So I immediately decided to give one of this quilts to her. 

She was surprised and glad to have it. I believe she feels the warms of our hearts and hands in this special quilt. Look at it and you might find your block(s) in it! 

Two other quilts are also finished. Just need to make some researches to find out where my other neighbors live now, then schedule a meeting to give them those quilts.

All three quilted!

Yes! I finished quilting all three of "Burning leaves of Gatlinburg" quilts!!!

The next step is binding!

Burning leaves of Gatlinburg is in progress

So far I completed piecing three quilts with leaf blocks. One is already quilted, the second set is under the needle right now. Hope to finish soon!

 Jack is growing fast! He is 3.5 month now!

More leaves!

I received 6 more leaves yesterday for our project from Pam Edl!

Interesting! This lady is from the same town where our guild is, but we have never met in person! She just found out about this project on Facebook and generously made this leaves for me and sent them by mail! Thank you so very much, Pam! 

Also received 4 blocks from Kay Fuller, NM. Thank you!

And I keep working on the blocks....

"Burning leaves of Gatlinburg" project in progress

As I posted earlier, I started making maple leaf blocks, which I created a pattern specially for this charity project, and shared it with those, who wanted to join it and make one or more blocks for me to make quilts for the fire victims. I also created a pattern for this quilt. I was keeping my eye on the fabrics and finally I found exactly what I wanted for it: dramatic Volcanic rock black batik and contrasting Mountain moss.
Many, many people from all over the world joined this project and I started receiving leaf blocks from all over United States: Rebecca Tucker, Dianne Swett, Virginia Smith - from TN; Carmella Anjos, MD; Dawn Brooks, NE; Leslie Mullins, FL; Mary Lou Dagnall, MA; Sharon Bentle, OH made 16 blocks! and also sent me beautiful batiks to make more leaves; Glenis Shallard from New Zealand and Jean Foglein from Canada!

Pam Johnson from CO surprised me with the whole top, mad with 12" maple leaves!

I am so very much thankful to every single person, who find some time to make these leaves, put them in the envelope, go to the post office and send them for me! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Every leaf made by your hands is so much appreciated!

And I also made 61 leaves myself so far:

Finally I received my batiks and yesterday I started working on the blocks! Here's what I have at the moment.

To be continued.....

Burning leaves of Gatlinburg, charity project. Please, join and share!

Please, join our charity quilting project "Burning leaves of Gatlinburg" and share with your quilting friends! Make one leaf block, send it to me and I will be making quilts for my neighbors, who lost their permanent houses there.
You can now watch my instructional videos on my Youtube channel.

You can leave your email in comments or send it to my email address Quiltessa at gmail.com

Thank you so much for joining and sharing!

Happy sewing!

Natalie Patton Quiltessa

Burning leaves of Gatlinburg, quilt project (Quiltessa Natalie)

Make more leaves! Please, join the project "Burning leaves of Gatlinburg".

Burning leaves of Gatlinburg... My new pattern for donations!

I can't stop thinking about those leaves... They were so beautiful this fall, the full range of colors from yellow to orange, burning red, burgundy, rust and more.... Just awesome colors! I have been always enjoying that color transition before they go for good. But this year they were some kind of special, not only the colors, but also how long this beauty have been lasted! Usually the season of leaves is end of October - early November, then it starts raining, leaves fall, trees look bared and almost nasty.... But still, the area in the mountain is always incredibly gorgeous! Any time of the year!
Just want to share some pictures of those striking colors.

 No need to say how much we loved to stay in our vacation home there just by ourselves or sharing our house with family and friends.

 We called it Heavenside, and it was truly the place near the Heaven!

Believe it or not, we just put up the Christmas tree and lights the day before the Great Fire!!

Everything's gone.... But it makes me feel someway better, thinking as our Heavenside went to the Heaven....

Somebody desperately needed the Christmas tree there... Maybe our beloved Murphy, who passed away this summer?

It's still so hard on my heart to realize, that we don't have that place anymore.....

But! the best way to heal your wounds and go further is trying to be optimistic, as much as it possible at this hard grieving times, be positive and do something to distract your mind, to do something opposite to "destructive",  and this would be my favorite word - CREATIVE!
So, this is what my brain, saved on evacuation road, told me to do today.

I created a new quilt block pattern of a beautiful maple leaf (I guess, it looks like Canadian maple), called it "Burning leaves of Gatlinburg" and published it on Craftsy.

This is my sorrow pattern, grief and mourning for the wildfire in Gatlinburg on November 29, 2016. Our cabin was swept away by the fire, along with another 1000+ houses and structures, which were disappeared or heavily destroyed.
I have been always enjoying watching the changing colors of the mountains, especially the maple leaves. This year they were incredibly beautiful, due to unusual warm and dry weather conditions.\
This year became just very special...

I am going to start making quilts for my multiple neighbors, who lost everything...
Please, share this pattern to your friends, who also wants to support this wildfire victims.
My new year resolution is to make leaves quilts and donate them to my neighbors and those, who lost their houses in this historic wildfire.
If you also want to support me in this project, please join and make this square leaf block. Contact me quiltessa@gmail.com  and I will send you this paper pieced pattern and instruction for FREE! I will take as many as you can donate to make quilts for those, who would really appreciate them!

Thank you so much in advance from the bottom of my heart!

Be safe!

Happy sewing!

Natalie Patton, Quiltessa