Giveaway quilts on parade

I have been sewing.
Rather furiously, in fact.

Lately it seems every time I turn around someone I know is needing a quilt. Mostly, they are sick. Mostly cancer, in one form or another.
I think I posted a while back that having found my niche making "comfort" quilts, I wanted to have a few on hand just in case someone needed one in a hurry. Well, that was a good thought but the truth is I can still hardly keep up.
I thought I'd go ahead and show you what I've made and given away since I last posted. I'll apologize ahead of time for the crappy photos.

Ralph

This quilt was a UFO for a long time, so fairly easy to quilt up and send it off. My inspiration for this quilt was vintage Welsh quilts, the simple block ones, usually built around a medallion of some sort. I'm happy this quilt has found a loving home. Ralph and Nadine are my sister's sister-and-brother-in-law. Both have late stage cancer.




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Nadine

Nadine's quilt consists of blocks that were intended for something completely different, rejected, and repurposed. I wish I'd taken a picture of the back of hers, as its an Indian Pampalore, or what we used to call a "tapestry" (used for curtains, etc.) back in the day. Very groovy.

Mindy

Mindy is a quilter friend of mine. Her husband Fred was part of a clinical trial for pancreatic cancer, which had the both of them traveling from Santa Cruz, CA to Houston for two or three days, every other week, for over a year. Which, as you can imagine, was stressful and exhausting.
I thought Mindy, being a quilter, would have dozens of quilts around the house but when I when I mentioned that to her, she just looked at me with sad eyes and slowly shook her head. (all the quilts she makes are for disadvantaged kids in our community.)

Fred

 So I showed her pictures of a few quilts I had in the works, and for her to pick one for Fred. She picked the colorful one, but then added that she really loved the Tumbler quilt. I felt she needed a quilt as much as he did, so they got both.  Even though the trial was a success in that it extended Fred's life, it did not cure his cancer and he passed away a couple of weeks ago.

Bert

I had purchased these Diamond Textiles wovens from Rusty Crow at PIQF in October, with the intention of making a "Man Quilt". I had no sooner got it sewn together when I got the word about Bert and the Man Quilt found its home. Bert is my brother Rob's best friend. His cancer diagnosis (terminal) came as a complete shock to everyone.

Teresa

Meanwhile I knew the muted palette of my repro prints weren't going to cut it with Teresa, who is the definition of vivacious and fun. Enter Missouri Star Quilt Co, who had a layer cake of these Kaffe F. fabrics on their "daily deal" one day. I thought they'd be perfect, and fun to make. This is what you call "letting the fabric do the work."

 

  

Doug

I dug into my plaids for this one, having been inspired by some 16-patch quilts I'd seen recently on Pinterest. Doug is my cousin's husband, and has been fighting lymphoma for about a year. Its the curable kind, but unfortunately Doug is having trouble tolerating the treatments, the result being that they keep having to find something new to treat him.

This one, shown in the basting stage, is an enlargement of a small quilt pattern by Carol Hopkins, from one of her Civil War 
Legacies books, I think. It went to my husbands good friend, Bill in Colorado, who has also been diagnosed with terminal cancer. 

This is a pattern from "The Blue and the Gray" by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene. I originally made it as a Vet Quilt, but then I doubted my judgement in giving a "Red Cross" quilt to a wounded soldier. I ended up using it as my own lap quilt, loving how soft it is, with its bamboo batting and flannel back.

A month ago I found out my quilter friend Ann had just undergone major back surgery, and was feeling lonely and sad during her hospital//rehab stay without a quilt, or even "some fabric to fondle."  I immediately knew this quilt was meant for her, so off it went. She was so happy and touched that I gave her a quilt, and it makes me happy my former "favorite blankie" is being loved by her.



All of the above were quilted by me, on my Janome 8200. You can see some added hand quilting on Mindy's Tumbler. Sorry I don't have better pictures, or include more detail pictures. You get the gist, anyway. I've been using my ipad or phone to take photos. I may have to go back to using my husband's camera if I want better results.

I finally have time to take a breath from these, and start something for "me" which I will post about - soon!

love,
Sandy

ps I really struggled with the picture placement and the spacing on this post, but the powers that be (ie Blogger) were not being cooperative. Sorry its such a mess.

pps I just now read Barb's post (see sidebar) and would like to add a word about commenting. I still enjoy reading all my favorite blogs, but for some reason I been having trouble commenting lately. Too many hoops to jump through in some cases, or sometimes they just don't take. So mainly I save myself the frustration and just lurk.  Maybe I should be more patient, and/or try harder.