The Last Quilt To Granite Mountain Hotshots

Blowing in the Wind

On June 30, 2013, nineteen of the twenty Prescott, Arizona Granite Mountain Hotshots lost their lives fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire.

Those of you who are still following this blog and our Facebook page know as quickly as we could gather information, an all call went out to quilters all over the world to help make quilts for the families.

Without hesitation, quilters from all over began 'adopting,' family members, (parents, spouses, siblings and children) were sent quilts to comfort and let the families know in our own quiet way, that we were thinking of them.

After everyone was covered that we were aware of, I began to think about the survivor Brendan and what I could do for him, how much pain and sadness he must feel.

Once again, you answered the call and these amazing quilt blocks began coming in from New Mexico, Iowa, Washington and several from Australia and I knew then, Brendan had a quilt...let me rephrase that, Brendan would one day have a quilt.

Life happens in many different ways and my family is not immune to having issues, my husband and I downsized and moved, the quilt squares got put away in a safe place.

Once I found them, with the amazing quilting talent of Michelle M. in Oregon, I was able to send them to her and she said she would put them together and WOW!! 

After the quilt was made, Michelle began to look for a border and back and it had to in some way represent what these men represented and loved and that was the outdoors.

Michelle picked the gold border and it reminds me of autumn and the dry straw that is growing in my area. Sadly, as I write this, we have dozens upon dozens of firefighters and hotshot teams in our area from two fires that started earlier this week and they are waiting for all the fires, embers to be out before they leave.

Then Michelle picked the beautiful pine green backing and worked her magic.

On June 6, 2016 just prior to the 3rd anniversary of Yarnell Hill, Michelle mailed the quilt back to me alone with postage, the quilt label and I was to finish the binding and did and then, I wrapped the two together and put it away in a safe place.

So safe, that I forgot where I put it but eventually located it in our storage safely tucked in with other quilts.

I brought it home and all I wanted to do was get the perfect picture with a nature background, perhaps snow covered trees, Mt. Rainer, a river, but alas, we had the rainiest season last year and I could not get the picture taken.

My husband and I purchased a Harley and on the maiden voyage, I took the quilt and found the place to take the picture, Mayfield Lake in Washington, I loved the fact that a gentle breeze blew up and ruffled the quilt. I felt the 19 were gently blowing it and saying, 'this is the place!'
This October there is a movie coming out about these amazing 19 men, I have not decided if I will watch it or not, having almost been hired by Prescott as a dispatcher and then being a dispatcher for both fire and police in another city and having met the sister and mother of one of those that were lost, I am not sure I would be able to get through it.

However, if you would like to see the movie and watch the trailer, please click this link: https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yfp-t-s&p=granite+mountain+movie#id=1&vid=c4fd33a6f8d6bd94dbe2c11f5ba968ab&action=click 

Thank you all for trusting me and may you all and Brendan forgive me for the delay in mailing this beautiful love filled quilt out a bit late.