At some point, I had an arrangement with a foster cousin (FC) for both of us to make friendship quilts.  I would sew six of her squares with her fabric and then do the same for myself.  Then, I sent her squares and both of our fabrics to her and she was to complete six blocks for herself and me and send me back mine so I could put it together into a quilt.  In the end, we’d have friendship quilts that both of us could treasure.  When my third foster mother (her aunt – FM) went to visit her, they decided my FC would never complete the blocks as she had too much going on, so my FM took the squares and fabric home with her as she has sewn a lot, but hasn’t quilted much and she wanted to enjoy some quilt therapy as I have often spoken about. 

Then, there was a fallout amongst us.  Drama ensued.  Stress ensued.  I don’t play games with people’s hearts, so all I did was give my FM the honest truth as to my part in the activities.  And although there is no victory when it comes to loving your family versus loving a previous foster child, my FM stayed strong and tossed out all of my FC’s fabric and blocks and took up my quilt to try to finish. 

This past week, I was gifted with that hand-quilted love from all of her efforts:

Front of Quilt

Back of Quilt

My FM will say not to look at the errors, because this was her first attempt and to tell me to remember it was her first attempt.  I personally don’t SEE any errors, this is hand-quilted love at its finest! 

But, just in case I overlook a few seams that don’t match, she made sure I noticed one (yes, she wrote that on my quilt):

HAHAHAHA

Wish she was closer than 1000+ miles away so I could hug her neck.  This quilt is very special to me.  I will treasure it always.  Not just for her patience and understanding in working through her first big quilt project, but also because it was gifted to me with a quilted heart that I know so well.