Last year a good friend of mine asked if I could help him out with a Father’s Day present for his dad (Doc, also a very good friend of mine and like a second dad to me). Of course I said yes, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous. He found a big box of old ribbons his dad had won while they were cleaning out his grandpas house after he passed away. He wanted a wall hanging of some sort and told me to just go with it. π³ I of course started looking for ideas and found several promising examples on Pinterest. Did they come with tutorials?? Of course not….you had to pay this person to make them. Which is fine! Don’t get me wrong, but I wanted to learn myself.
So I took out a few of the ribbons and steamed them with care, using a washcloth in between the ribbon and my iron. If you don’t do this you will burn the ribbon! Ask me how I know π¬ I then tried various stitches on my sewing machine (Bernina come with tons of stitches thank goodness!) and figured out that a zig zag stitch worked great (shorter stitch length and a bit wider than normal). Once I decided all of these particulars I laid out the ribbons I wanted to include and set about arranging them. Doc was involved in many projects so I tried to include hogs and cattle and various shows and awards in the ribbons I chose.
I then started to carefully sew them together, overlapping the edges just slightly and trying to keep them straight. Then I trimmed each end (much like you would when squatting up a quilt) and started the next row.
After much deliberation, arranging and careful sewing I finally finished it and sent it to my friend for approval, he loved it and started making a hanger for it once I sent measurements.
Below is the finished product and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! I’m so thankful I could bring joy to a dear friend who might have forgotten that his dad saved all these ribbons over the years. This is just a small sampling of what was saved but its representative of what Doc participated in as a 4H member and young stockman.
These may seem like wrinkled old ribbons to most folks. But to my friend they are years and years of hard work, feeding cattle & hogs, grooming animals and traveling to shows with his family. Hopefully this piece will bring back those memories and good times can be relived. I’m glad to have had a hand in this for this wonderful family π
Thank you for reading and as always Happy quilting! Enjoy this precious gift Doc that your son came up with!
-Jessy Shanks