Some heroes wear NG tubes & cannulas…

Once upon a time a beautiful princess found her handsome prince. They were married in a splendid wedding.

But the prince had to travel for long months at a time. He carried with him a little sock monkey to pose for pictures in ports of call to send to the princess when he could. After a time his travels were ended and he was home to stay.

On the day it was announced the princess was having a baby, I knew exactly the quilt I would make to celebrate the child. Julie had an adorable appliqué set of a sock-monkey alphabet. I bought it! Instead of using both the boys & the girls, I wanted to make the quilt according to the gender of the baby. In the meantime, the search was on for fabric with small figures for each of the letters.

Finally it was revealed that the princess was carrying a man-child. Oh! the excitement! Now my big rush was on to find just the right “boy” fabrics to complete the quilt.But then the heart-rending news came that all was not well with the baby, he was found to have a congenital heart issue that would require extreme measures to correct immediately after birth and for years after.

At this juncture I could tell the quilt-making was going to extend beyond Teddy’s baby shower & birth; so my goal was to finish by the time he was able to leave the hospital.

From the very start of his life on the outside, this plucky little guy was a fighter. He bravely jousted with every procedure his condition required of his caregivers. His Grandma would keep us updated on facebook. Every morning/evening we’d look for news of Teddy’s latest victory. She’d relate to us his conversations with the world he was about to conquer.

Then one day came the wretched news that the villain CHD had overpowered our hero Teddy. We. were. crushed.

I was roughly halfway through embroidering the blocks. But in a conversation with his bereft mommy, we decided I’d go ahead & finish the quilt to honor his memory.

It was tough! I’d cry over the fabrics I’d chosen for appliqué because I would remember this one was picked up for Dad’s favorite sport, or that one because Grandma loves gingerbread men…

But with a little help from a friend(actually, very little help…)I got to the point where I could piece it all together.

THAT was fun

but not as fun as binding.

There was just SOOOOOOOO much “help” to be had!

After all was stitched, bound, clipped & laundered, I even got some assistance removing all the lint…

Anyhow, here is my tribute to a brave lad. Stitched with love & prayers for his mom & dad - his grandmas & grandpa - his aunt & uncle - his extended (extensive!) family…

If you know a “heart baby”, pray for him/her & the family.Sometimes they almost live at the hospital. Sometimes they live separately because there are ones to care for at home. Thank you Teddy, for reminding us to live life with our whole heart.

U

… is for “unfinished”

It also stands for “unable to comprehend” why a beautiful project unfortunately stops after it’s begun.

By God’s grace, we go on…

Thank you, little one, for the joyful smiles you gave us to remember.

Baby girl pennant quilt

Teachers are underpaid & under-appreciated. Teachers’ spouses, even more so…  We learned at last spring’s concert that the boys’ band director & his wife were due to have a baby girl join their coupledom this month. I decided I wanted to make a quilt for her.

I had seen some darling pennant “modern” quilts on a few of my favorite blogs. I drew up a design of my own:I thought I would be able to find a fat quarter bundle with the pink colors I envisioned… NOT! I ended up having to locate 8 fabrics and had them cut 1/4 yard of each.I embroidered the letters of her name on the little flags, then backed them with a lightweight fabric. (…was still trying to decided if I wanted lace around each one, as I had indicated in my plan…)I pressed the “loop” into my narrow seam-binding & tried my layout. Oooooops! -- The size of the pennants made for a bit of a bigger quilt than I’d expected…The tops needed to be bastedand then pinned to the bias strip.Had to check the layout again & make sure the birdies I decided to add looked O.K.I made the “quilt sandwich” and stitched on the seam binding and around each pennant. Next came the appliqué-ing of the darling blue birds. (These were from Embroidery Garden machine embroidery designs.)Now, I’ve never said these words before, so please excuse me if I linger over them -- Then I took it over to my quilter. Actually, I begged my friend Cindy to quilt some clouds for me. I didn’t even offer her a quilting design to follow! She had some beautiful projects of her own that she was working on completing, but she squeezed my little job in anyhow.Doesn’t the back look cute, too?After I straightened the quilt, I determined that the corners would be kinda cute rounded (to balance the angular pennants & complement the loop in the “rope” somewhat…)

I was soooooooo excited to be able to utilize my Clover Wonder Clips that I’d purchased from HL with a coupon!When I was complaining on social media about how much I hate finishing a quilt; Friend Cindy said to bring it over ‘cause she loves binding! (I restrained myself from taking her up on it…)Never fails! (graphic violence alert! ) If I’m hand-stitching a light-colored fabric, I will accidently get a tiny poke on a finger and will have one drop of blood…(I couldn’t even tell where on my hand the needle got me!) Fortunately it did not leave a spot after sponging with antibacterial hand soap…So… I guess I’ll just end this post with a couple of my favorite shots of the finished quilt…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…as promised–some baby girl gifts:

About a month ago I showed some baby boy giftings, and told you I had a few girly things to let you peek at . I did not lie .Really .But I’ve still got some unfinished projects on the stack .(…just one or two…) So don’t go too far .I just might finish a couple…

these ARE my grandchildren

Way back in February I posted this link on my quilting-guru friend’s facebook wall asking if she wanted to participate in this:Cindy whipped out 5 delightful quilts (all the while eagerly anticipating the birth of a so-very-long-awaited & much-much-loved grandchild…) I’m sure five new mothers left that shower wrapped in the love she quilted into every inch of those fabrics.

Here was my contribution:You see, those young women could be my daughters-in-law. I have three sons who are enamored with all things military. Some day I am sure at least one of them will answer the call of duty and leave family behind to serve.Neither my husband or I ever joined a branch of service to fight for our country. Many men & women have served and continue to serve in my place; defending my freedoms…The wives who are left behind to birth a child alone; the fathers who stay home to raise children while their mother battles in the desert far away… these are our family! We should be taking good care of them.It was an honor to stitch a homey little quilt for a baby I will never meet.For the son or daughter of a soldier/airman/marine/sailor that is my representative in the war on terror.God bless our service men & women and the sweet babies they leave behind.