I haven't blogged a whole lot during the past few months, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I've been introspective. And I've been sewing and quilting.
The quilt to the left is The Malaria Quilt. My church has made a commitment to raise and contribute $25,000 over three years to combat malaria in Africa. I am on the SWAT Team and said that I would make an "opportunity" quilt (we don't do raffles) as part of the effort. I had found the border fabric before I had any idea what I was going to do for the quilt. I figured there was no rush; we have three years. Then I saw an African quilt that
Wanda had made; she generously shared her scraps with me and the resulting quilt is now finished. There are still some scraps, and I'm going to cut them into bookmark-size pieces to give to people who buy chances.
Next up is a quilt for a young woman who will graduate high school in June.I have had the blocks for a long time. On one of our earliest White Oak getaways we had an "almost Amish" block swap where we each chose a block to make with Kona black and read-solid fabrics. This quilt is made from about half of the yield of the swap. I am trying to cut back on the number of quilts I pay to have machine quilted. This one was hand tied with DMC 310 and bound with a piece of blue-green-purple batik that I had in my tub of batiks. The intended recipient, I understand, is partial to greens.
Another wonderful girl is graduating high school in June and I had asked her if I might make a quilt for her to take to college. We had a talk about traditional vs. contemporary and color preferences; she opted for traditional and quiet colors. I had run a blue-cream-brown CW HST and 4-patch swap the winter before and the yield seemed like exactly the right thing for her quilt.
This one was machine quilted.
Finally, here are "Lemonade" and "Pink Lemonade" hanging side-by-side. Lemonade is going to a woman who is expecting her second son and Pink Lemonade is the one that I made for the first girl in seventy years to be born into her family.
I'm so thankful that I have this hobby. It has helped to keep me sane these past two months.
Comments
Hugs to you!!
I agree about quilting helping to keep us sane. I have "quilted" for decades, but it kicked into high gear a couple of years ago during an extremely stressful time and helped keep me from focusing only on the hard things in life.
And yes, it's great therapy and a fabulous bonus is the extra burst you get when the recipient of a gift is so thrilled upon receipt of your generous gift.
I agree quilting is a hobby that therapeutically frees the creative spirit of the quiltmaker, cheers those that see the quilts, and is tangible love to those who are fortunate enough to have a quilt given to them. There is love in every fabric and in every stitch.
Hugs!