Earlier this summer a friend of mine told me devastating news … she had cancer and would have to go through some intense, painful, and nauseating treatments to beat it. I have to admit … I’m not very good with bad news. I haven’t had too much tragedy/sadness in my life to this point but I always want to make things better for folks. Nothing I could say would make anything better. All I could do is make a quilt.
I sent out an email to mutual friends and quilters asking them to make a block with ‘roses’ as the theme. Our friend is a master garden and an international judge of roses. It seemed like the perfect theme. We also announced the plans for the quilt at the following guild meeting which she was absent at so the secret was safe. (I’m terrible at secrets)
Blocks could be any size and any pattern … just with roses as the theme, the block, the fabric, whatever. I decided to make Karen a Large Dutch Rose block. I used fabrics I knew she would love … fairies in the middle, lots and lots of metallic and some bold striped floral prints! (We have similar taste in fabric).
Trish, Quilt Chicken, and I collected all the blocks that friends and members made. Then we threw them up onto my design wall and figured out the best way to put them together. This is what we came up with! We were a great team on this one … I pulled fabrics for the sashing and corner blocks and Trish figured out what I needed to sew together and how it was going to fit.
And before we knew it we had the top of Karen’s quilt done! Yes, it’s a bit quirky and crazy but that is perfect!
Mindy Skinner of Stitches by Mindy generously quilted this piece for us.
One of the ladies in the guild, Sylvia Lewis, gave us this beautiful rose themed quilt to use for the back of the piece – it fit perfectly!
Last Monday night I gifted Karen with the quilt and I know she loved it! She will be able to take this with her on her treatment days and know there’s a bunch of stitching ladies that love her and are sending her lots of healing energy!
Linking up to: Finish It Up Friday, TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop
How wonderful to honor your friend with such a beautiful quilt.
Such a lovely gift for your friend who is going through tough times. As you say, she can get comfort from her quilt as she attends her hospital visits. Good on you and her quilty friends for doing this for her – as a cancer survivor I know that you need all the love and hugs you can get during the trying times.
Jenny from New Zealand