Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Hope Quilting

I had a post last summer about helping a young co worker make her first quilt. She wanted a T shirt quilt of sorts using her young children's baby clothes. She did a great job and ended up making two of them.
She has graduated to designing her own quilts. She participates each summer in Race For A Cure and wanted to make a raffle quilt to help earn money for the event. She had the idea of how she wanted the quilt to look and I helped her get it on graph paper
and to decide the overall size of the quilt. She had her colors picked out and we figured out how much fabric she would need to buy. Off she went to all the local quilt store and got everything she need. Back at my house I helped again with the rotary cutting and she started sewing.
The last bit of help I did to this point is applique the word 'HOPE'. We are set to finish it up this weekend, get it layered, and start quilting. The T shirts are specifically for breast cancer, a cause close to Tish's heart because her Mom is a breadt cancer survivor.
My own Mother recently has deteriorated with her Alzheimer's to the point of being moved to a memory care unit.
That is such a simple statement, but it has actually been a heart breaking few months to get to the point we are today with so many ups and downs I just can't bear to think about all we went through to get her where she is currently, which is loved, well cared for, and safe. My mom always did a lot of knitting and quilting and one of the things that she has recently been very interested in is some fabric squares, triangles, and hexagons that I cut out for her and she arranges over and over on flannel.
The nurses even stop by and she 'teaches' them how to lay out the patchwork.
This love of quilting never seems to leave us, it gives me hope that quilting will continue to keep her occupied, less anxious, and content.
Happy Stitching,
Cheri