April Desire to Inspire Challenger Sherry Stevens brings in a harvest with Harvest Blessings

Our Desire to Inspire Challengers come from all over! This month our challenger, Sherry Stevens hails from Lake Stevens, Washington. This was a pretty special month for her since she was selected for the challenge on her birthday!

Fabrics arrived, I began planning my projects.

Sherry received the fabric; the Harvest Blessings collection pieces as well as a video greeting from designer Janet Nesbitt on nearly the same day, and went to work. Meet Sherry Stevens, her husband Patrick and dog Emmy on their favorite beach. 

Starting to layout the first quilt

I live about an hour north of Seattle in a small town called  Lake Stevens, Washington.  We are known for our rain here and we see a lot of gray skies but the trade off is green everywhere on a sunny day like today.  We see the Cascade mountain range to the east of us and the Olympic mountains and Puget Sound to the west.  On a clear day we can see Mount Rainier to the south when driving Interstate 5 and Mount Baker to the north. 

The first quilt top finished!

We have a large family, six children and twenty grandchildren.  Our family has always spent our vacations at a place called Ocean Shores, Washington. It  is a three hour drive from our home if we avoid the city traffic.  My husband and I still spend time there together when we can get away and we meet once a year with the kids and their families. We take our 13 year old dog Emmy with us whenever we can, she perks up when we get close to the ocean.

I started making doll clothes by hand when I was very young and learned to use a sewing machine at about 12 years old.   My mom gave me a sewing machine for Christmas when I was 13 and I haven't stopped trying new things since.  I sewed everything from wedding dresses to tote bags over the years and was not really interested in quilting.  I have enjoyed crochet, embroidery and cross stitch and love to work in our garden. One day in 2009 I walked in to a quilt shop in Coupeville on Whidbey Island while on my lunch break.  The shop was small but full of beautiful fabrics.  I saw a quilt on the wall made with a jelly roll that I was drawn to.  That is when I met Melanie, the shop owner.  I asked if she thought pattern would be a good quilt to try and she said yes it was a great place to start.   I bought the jelly roll that day, made the quilt very soon afterward.  I have been hooked on quilting since.

These fabrics were perfect for this pattern

I have not had the opportunity to join a guild but hope to have the time in the future.  I have been attending "Sit and Sew" days with a group of ladies from Whidbey Island as often as I can. They have taught me so much and are a great inspiration.  I think the person who has been the most inspiring to me when it comes to quilting is Melanie, owner of the Fabric Chicks quilt shop. She knows what fabrics I will fall in love with before I have seen them. I have also learned so much from online Quilt-Alongs and Blocks of the Month.  It is amazing what people have shared through blog posts and tutorials.

At work on the Bookmobile

I work full time for the Library on Wheels department of Sno-Isle Libraries.  I have loved my job serving customers through bookmobile and outreach service to homebound and childcare centers.  My husband has been the pastor of a church here in Lake Stevens for 27 years.  We have been married for 43 years and have a very busy life but I always find the time to sew.   I tend to get grumpy when I haven't been working with fabric so my husband fully supports my time and money spent on quilting. 

I knew I wanted to make this project as soon as I saw the fabric

I want to thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Desire to Inspire Challenge.  I love the fabrics I had to work with and would have used every scrap if I had the time.  I enjoyed every minute of the planning and creating process and I thank you again for this honor.  Thank you also to Janet Nesbitt for the message of encouragement.  It was fun to hear that we live in the same state, just on opposite sides.  I will have to try to meet her if I get to travel that direction. 

P.S. I have been blogging since about the same time I started quilting.  I do not post as often as I used to but have posted pictures of every quilt I have made and about other projects and sometimes family events. http://sherry-blessingsfromournest.blogspot.com/ 

Sherry is so generous that she is offering up these two items for a give-away to readers of the Henry Glass blog. Enter below by commenting on Sherry's lovely work! 

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Desire to Inspire Challenge gives away her own Harvest Blessings