Generous Bloggers

It has been my good fortune to become acquainted with so many good people among this unique breed  known as quilt bloggers. Several examples follow.
I have shared a little bit in the past about my youngest grandson, Ben, who was diagnosed last year with Dravet Syndrome.

What a sweet face, even when it is smeared with ice cream.

It is a rare, severe seizure disorder that doesn't respond well to current treatment options. After receiving the diagnosis my daughter jumped into high gear and quickly put together a fund raiser to help collect money for research. I donated a quilt to the first fund raiser, held last August, but lamented on my blog that I didn't have another quilt ready to donate for the second fund raiser in September. That is when Randy, of Barrister's Block blog (and Sow-Along fame) generously offered to send a quilt for the second event. I was blown away, but as I have come to know Randy better I see that this is just her nature. You can see her donated quilt here. She was such a blessing, and continues to be a dear friend. (This reminds me, now I need to get the latest Barrister's Sow-Along blocks made.)
For this year my daughter was thinking she would not be doing the same kind of fund raiser, so I was not concerned that I didn't have a quilt prepared for the August event. But her other option didn't work out and it was back to the original plan. I was trying to figure out a quick quilt that I could sew up and get quilted in time and just mentioned that fact in an email to my good blogging friend, Doniene. The next thing I knew she was emailing that she felt impressed to donate a top for me to quilt and that would relieve some of the stress of the deadline. She very graciously (that's how she does everything) sent a top she had recently put together from blocks she had won in her guild. Here it is as I had it spread on my living room floor for marking and basting. Words can't express my thanks, Doniene.

I've mentioned several times that this will be the first bed-size quilt Gidget and I have tackled together. I've been pretty apprehensive about it. So I chose to use stencils. After finding the ones I needed I marked the quilt and pinned each block as it was marked. Next I warmed up on a practice sandwich. I stitched over the design 3 or 4 times. 

Then I put the design on the center of the table topper I pieced and never quilted last March, and stitched over it.

You can almost see the stitching. : )

Finally, I could avoid it no longer. Gidget had to get serious about this. I put the needle to the cloth. I must say that trying to situate a queen-size quilt is a whole different story from quilting minis and table runners. My shoulders and arms were tired and achy after just the first couple of blocks. I forced my way through 6 blocks before resting. There are 25 whole blocks and I just finished the fifth one. I salute those of you who quilt this size quilts on a DSM with 7 to 9 " harp space. How do you do it?

While on the subject of generous bloggers, Teresa has loaned me her Marti Michell templates to ease the process of cutting out my Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown (aka Random Roses in Jamestown). I already had 7 blocks finished and now I have cut three of the remaining 5. If I could stay home for a whole day sometime I would be finished cutting the other two. This is what I have so far, with the most recently cut blocks residing on the design boards at the bottom. Thanks, Teresa, it has been so much nicer to cut the blocks with the stencils.

Another kind gesture came from Sandi. I offered her some KT strips and in return she sent two bags full of lovely batik scraps. The bag in the photo contains HSTs. I've got the strips all sorted. Aren't they gorgeous? Batiks are so not my usual color/design comfort zone, but I can't get enough of them! Thanks for the wonderful bag of goodies, Sandi! Ideas are brewing, but time is too limited right now. I will share when I start putting things together.

Until then, keep stitching!
Janet O.