Category Archives: Quilt Therapy Story

The Eagle Quilt Has Landed!

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Our son earned his Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Eagle Award in December 2016 but there’s a whole lot of signatures, paper shuffling and red tape that has to happen before we could plan his Eagle Court of Honor. We finally got the green light toward the end of February 2017, but then we had to coordinate schedules with some key relatives and mentors to our son. We finally set a date for May 2017 and that set the Eagle wheels in motion!




About seven or eight years ago, Robert Kaufman fabrics designed an entire colorway of BSA fabrics (this was before they were sold in fabric shops instead of quilt shops). They had fabrics for both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. So when the fabrics hit the quilt shops, I ordered a fat quarter bundle of both as well as a bolt of two different Boy Scout fabrics. I had been saving them for a very special occasion, and that occasion happened in December of 2016. Once he earned his BSA Eagle Award, I dusted the fabrics off (I still had the Boy Scout fabric in the plastic shrink-wrap it was sent to me in) and started making him a quilt. A very special quilt, indeed!

I purchased a machine embroidered file of an eagle and embroidered it on one of the official BSA quilt fabric squares.

Then I embroidered a special message on another official BSA fabric square:

By the time it was finished, I had sewn and embroidered the (very busy) quilt top, my husband quilted it on our longarm and my son’s grandmother sewed the binding on the back of the quilt. It was a family affair!




A Baby Quilt Fit for a Grand Baby!

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No, not MY grand baby, silly! 🙂 A friend’s grand baby or, better than that, her soon-to-be  grandson.

Pieced and Machine Embroidered Baby Quilt




Braxton’s Nana chose the fabrics based on the colors her daughter wanted to use in his nursery. I designed the quilt top and embroidered Braxton’s name (with help) and the head shot on the center quilt block. Meloney Funk quilted the quilt on her longarm, using freehand leaves to signify the stag walking through a forest and since she knew I had two or three quilts due at about the same time, she also took care of the binding for me! She’s a keeper!

Braxton lives in the southwest so he probably won’t need his quilt until November. I hope he isn’t too big for it by then!

   

Then I mentioned to my friend that since she’d already paid for the embroidery files, I could embroider them on just about anything that would be needed for a baby – burp cloths, bibs, onesies, cloth diapers – you name it, I can usually embroider on it. She gave it a thought and decided he could use some bibs so she ordered them and had them sent to me. I stitched them out and they were so very adorable!

Braxton's Embroidered Bibs

Braxton’s mommy loved all of his gifts and now that Braxton is three month’s old, he’s getting some good use out of his bibs.




My Free BOM Quilt Pattern, “Botanical Beauty” Meets a Quilt Guild in Canada

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My sister site, BOMquilts.com, has been in existence since 2006. The same time that this blog has been online. In all those years, I’ve had numerous quilt guilds, quilt groups and individuals ask me for permission to use my patterns. I always agree, giving them two conditions:

  1. You must give out my URL to each member who is participating in the project. If that isn’t feasible (usually because the members aren’t computer literate), when you print and/or copy my pattern, my website URL and copyright remain intact on the paperwork you hand out to those who are making my patterns.
  2. Send me a photograph (either a physical one or one attached to an email) of the finished products, with permission to post them here on my blog and/or on my BOMquilts.com’s website.

 

And in the past 12 years, NOT. ONE. SINGLE. quilt group or guild has sent me a photograph. Not one!

That is until a couple of months ago. There is a quilt guild in Canada who’s using one of my patterns, with the same conditions and permissions I’ve sent to numerous people throughout the past 12 years, as a mystery quilt. I do not want to name which pattern as, gee, it’s a mystery! I was flabbergasted when I received a photograph of the first set of blocks that they made! Speechless! I will show you the blocks after they’ve made three, so in two more months.

The other pattern by a group of quilters in Canada used “Botanical Beauty,” my 2016 block of the month quilt located at BOMquilts.com.

The quilt tops shown below were all made by the Haldimand Quilter’s Guild at Hagersville, Ontario, Canada

(ED: Don’t mind the wrinkles, it’s just the way the quilt tops were held when they were photographed.)

  

  

10+ Years and Counting with FaveQuilts.com

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My BOMquilts.com website was one of the first sites to partner with FaveQuilts when they started out. They shared my free patterns and instructions on their website and with their newsletter subscribers. In turn, their audience was directed to my website to shop around and download my free patterns. It was a win-win for both of us!

Unfortunately, once I was diagnosed with MS at the end of 2010, I was no longer able to produce as many patterns as I had previously because I needed to focus my priorities on my family and getting to know the new me. There was no extra time for designing, testing and writing anything beyond my yearly block of the month quilts.




This past week, I was notified that one of the patterns that FaveQuilts previously highlighted was being featured in a new special bundle that they’ve named “Keepsake Quilting: 13 Wedding Quilt Patterns.”

When I went to look at the project of mine that they included in this bundle, I had a little laugh. I designed it for my 15th wedding anniversary. This past month, my husband and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary – hence the title of this blog post. 🙂

I won’t tell you which of my patterns is in their bundle, but head on over to FaveQuilts and see what you can see. Though I warn you, you can easily get lost on their website, finding dozens upon dozens of free quilt patterns and projects that you can’t wait to make! So before you mosey on over to FaveQuilts, make sure your printer is full of toner and you have a ream of paper on standby.




A Quinceañera Quilt

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Last summer, I was having a few health issues and my family doctor decided the best approach to treating them was through a home healthcare agency. I had an RN who came out to our house every other week and a CVN who came out once a week. My CVN’s name was Bea and she was just a joy to be around! We got to know her pretty well so when she told me they were planning for her daughter’s Quinceañera for later that summer, I asked her if I could make a quilt for her? Bea was flattered and readily accepted my offer.




Bea and I took a trip out to my quilt studio so she could go ‘shopping’ in my quilt stash. She was very particular regarding the two main colors she wanted in her daughter’s quilt – Navy blue and coral. As I was pulling out fabric from one of my drawers, I happened across a piece of green focus fabric that had both coral and navy blue in it. Once I showed it to Bea, she immediately said yes and that sealed the deal.

Next came the decision about what to embroider in the quilt blocks. We had already decided the quilt was going to be a 55″ square lap quilt so there was only room for nine embroidered squares. In the center row, she wanted her daughter’s name, then her daughter’s favorite Bible verse and then the date of her daughter’s Quinceañera.

Bea told me what she wanted embroidered in the remaining six quilt blocks so I found five of them and sent her links so she could pick out the ones she liked best and then to purchase them. She gave me her login info so I could download them after she bought them. For the sixth one, I hired a custom digitizer to create it and once Bea gave her approval, I stitched it out.

I knew I was meant to make this quilt because everything came together just right!




Once the embroidery was stitched out, I began the process of building her quilt, then sent it on to my dear friend Meloney so she could quilt it on her longarm for me.

For true quilters, there is fun in making a quilt, every step of the way. But the true joy is seeing the faces and reactions of those who receive a quilt. And nurse Bea did not disappoint. She cried a bit when she saw the finished product. She absolutely loved it and she was sure her daughter would treasure it for many years to come.