Of all of the quilts I have made over my 30-odd years of quilting, this quilt has garnered the most loveliest comments, especially my choice of fabrics and the way I used the lights, mediums and dark’s so well:

I have had a number of folks want to have it, either as a gift or to purchase it from me.  I won’t let them…because there is a very personal story behind my choice of fabrics for this quilt and it means a lot to me.

When I was in my third foster home, my younger (by a year) foster sister was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin’s disease.  She was the youngest natural child of my foster parents.  For nearly a year, she was so very sick…before she succumbed to the disease.  The grief was the hardest on my foster mother (or at least she was the most vocal about her grief) and it made it hard for me to continue to live through that, especially given that I was already without parents at that time in my young life.

On my foster sister’s funeral card, they used the quote:  “God gave us Flowers so we could have Roses in December.”

That is the reason I chose the ‘rose’ fabrics I did and that is the reason I will never willingly give this beautiful quilt away.  That’s my special quilt and it continues to be a reminder of her beautiful spirit and our short but fun times we had together when I was a young teenager.

You can find the free mystery quilt pattern here.