A Quilt for a Boy I Don't Know

I am a strong believer that quilts have the ability to bring comfort to the troubled and hope where there is little to none and I love to give them as gifts to people who seem like they need a little extra something in their life. But I have also struggled with the line between giving a quilt because I want to and feeling obligated to gift a quilt to someone because I feel like I should and that there is an expectation of some sort to give one. I will probably always wrestle with this, because I want to make and give one to everyone I meet (seriously, I'm crazy like that!), but have limited time and resources to make that happen. So, whenever I make a quilt to gift to someone, that must mean they are super-special indeed!

A friend of mine recently got her license to become a foster parent and I told her that whenever she got her first placements, to let me know and I would make a quilt for each of them. I felt a calling to do this, especially after reading this blog post from Pretty Little Quilts. Our Project Linus chapter seems to have plenty volunteers ready with quilts and I wanted to get involved in a way that seemed more personal. My friend quickly ended up with a nine year old boy and his six month old sister and I got right to work to make them something special.

I still had this quilt (the yellow and gray one) which seemed perfect for a baby girl to grow into, so I set that aside for her. The problem I had was that I didn't know what fabrics to use for an older boy (mine are still pretty young) and I fretted and moaned about it for a while, until I found this awesome line by Moda called "Boathouse" by Sweetwater & Co. Perfect!

I used two Jolly Bars and the pattern that was included in the Jolly Bar, but made it bigger than the original pattern by using the second Jolly Bar.

It was quilted in a meander pattern, which was quick and added a nice texture to the quilt. The backing is a Dear Stella print with blue and white striped beach-chairs and the binding is a red stripe from the Boathouse line.

I had the honor of giving them their quilts and I am nothing if not awkward around kids, but the boy seemed to like his and was happy to carry it around, while his baby sister got tucked in with it in the stroller.

They were gifted their quilts in the beginning of August and have since gone to live with family in a different part of the state. The bittersweet part is that I will probably never see them again or hear any updates about how their lives are going, but I sincerely wish the best for them.

Until next time,
Michelle

A New Start

I have a confession to make...you may have noticed that I have been missing and the truth is that I got swallowed up by the hyper-delivery that is Instagram and have been lounging there for the past few months, absorbing all of the instant updates about up and coming fabric lines, new patterns, and gorgeous quilts that people seem to make at the blink of an eye. It wasn't as satisfying as reading a blog post, where someone has taken the time to take lots of pretty pictures and write a few thoughtful words and curate it, rather than a quick update with a ton of hashtags.

For me, Instagram felt like having McDonald's for dinner, instead of a homemade meal made from scratch at home, all nice and quick and convenient, but then an hour later you're hungry for something else that's just as brightly-colored and fat-laden. Not that I am against Instagram; I will still check in to see what all the news is, because some bloggers that I have loved following are only posting updates on Instagram, rather than their blogs, but lately, I'm feeling the need to come back to the blog and work on it.

I like having this space to post pictures of things that I've done or made, and writing up little snippets about them, but I don't know that it reflects who I truly am and I struggled last year with keeping everything bright and happy and quilty, when things were not necessarily bright and happy and quilty in my world.

So, I'm revamping the blog a bit. It'll have more depressing stories about tragedies in the world -- just kidding. I do plan on adding a few tabs at the top of the page and writing more posts that include more of my thoughts, instead of just quilt stats like I have been doing. Nothing depressing or heavy, because who needs more of that in the world :)

And I can't leave you without a pretty picture of something, here you go:

Until next time,
Michelle