As I was searching through my stash baskets this past week, I ran into the fabric that a first cousin of mine had requested a number of years ago, to be used to make her a tote bag.  As far back as I can remember, this cousin loved the Spanish style – her sofa was an antique and covered in a red plush fabric.  Her dining table and chairs were the heavy, dark woods associated with a Spanish style.  Her house was even Spanish style, from what I remember.  Needless to say, when she asked me for a tote bag, she wanted it to be be in black and red fabrics!  I completed the ‘bones’ of the tote bag (shown below) but then she asked me to add a zipper so it was still a work in progress.

My cousin then asked me to make her a baby quilt for her new grandson, who was to be born soon.  Unfortunately, she unexpectedly passed away before the baby was born and even before the quilt was done.  But, while she was in the hospital recuperating from a hip replacement…and then when she was at home recovering…we chatted often via Facebook.  As she felt weaker and weaker and had a premonition that she was going to have to go back to the hospital, she still visited with me when she was able.  She told me that if something happened to her, she wanted me to finish the tote bag for her oldest daughter, finish the quilt for her soon-to-be youngest grandson and to try to be available online in case her middle daughter needed a supportive ear or a virtual hug.

I tried very hard to keep my promises that I made to her.  The tote bag was finished and went to her oldest daughter.  The baby quilt went to her grandson when he was born and then I made another quilt (same pattern, different fabrics, additional borders) for the baby’s older brother – children of her youngest daughter.  I also made a lap quilt for her middle daughter, so she could wrap herself in the quilted love that had the fabrics that were near and dear to her mother’s heart.  I then offered to make small quilts for her oldest daughter’s three children.

Of course, disaster struck me before I pursued the last three projects – my dreaded MS diagnosis I received in December 2010.

I have not forgotten my promise, however, and that leads us back to searching through that stash of mine.  Since I’m feeling a bit better and have some of my quilt mojo back, it’s time to get that to-do list better organized.  Once I recovered all of the leftover fabrics that my cousin had picked out from my stash, I had a bit more than I expected – but not enough to make three child-sized quilts.  What I decided to do was to make three quilted lovies.  These will probably be about 24″ square but will include a heart in them, made with my cousin’s red fabrics and then I will use the black fabrics as the borders.  Perhaps they will look something like this:

Of course, my biggest hope is that I am once again able to create some quilted love from fabrics that their grandma had chosen – and they can love on their lovies to help them through good times and bad.