Prayer Quilt

Sunday I was gifted with this surprise:

This prayer quilt is a gift from the Victory Prayer Quilt group at my church.  (For reference, my wals are lavender, not pink, and there is lavender in the quilt peeking out on the right.  The photo was taken with my phone and took all night to travel to my in-box--which reiiterates why I need to find my camera!)

It's beautiful--and I'm guessing it is the work of Judy, for whom I've quilted many prayer quilts over the years.  I've been one of the makers in that ministry since it was started many years ago (maybe around 2004 and 2005).  I'm blessed to receive it.  It will travel to the hospital with me on Friday.  Surgery has been moved up 1/2 hour; we still need many prayers for the DaVinci robot, because it's currently booked for someone else.  I did ask that the surgeon continue to let them know he wants to use it if it becomes available. It could significantly decrease both my healing time and my time in the hospital.

In the meantime, I'm praying, nesting, and avoiding places with sick people.  I do love just being home!

I hope for one or two more year's end quilt finishes since they need only binding. I knit in spare moments but am not sure I'll manage more year's end knitting finishes.

Happy knitting and quilting....

Quilt Dedication - March 2017

We held a quilt dedication today.  Over 60 quilts made by members of our Victory Prayer Quilt Group and members of our congregation were dedicated to service and, over the next few months, will be distributed to family and friends of our church family as well as members who are battling cancer and other serious health challenges.

The phone photos I took yesterday were not very good, and there were bunches of things I had to do before the first service today, so I took these quickly between services--which will explain the images that include the tops of people's heads.

 When we have a dedication, all the people at the church service are invited to lay hands on the quilts as we pray together and commission the quilts for service.

 One of the exciting aspects of this ministry is that sometimes the quilts are treasured for years by the original recipients, and sometimes they pass them on to others who also experience healing beyond what their medical teams expect.

 The altar cloth is a collaboration of several members of our group created from a commercial pattern quite a few years ago. (I remember quilting it on one of my treadles in my living room.)

 Just as I'm fascinated by the colors quiltmakers choose to use, I'm fascinated by the colors which appeal to the people who choose a quilt to give or the people who choose a quilt.

 I'm not at all sure why that white black and red quilt is folded so small. (I did not set up that part of the display.)

Not all the quilts are pictured.  I think someone began talking to me, and because of the distraction, I thought I'd snapped a couple of photos when I hadn't.

In my family we've been praying for a cousin with lung cancer despite no known risk factors.  She is being blessed with lots of prayer support.  Yesterday the upper lobe of her left lung was removed in robotic surgery at Johns Hopkins.  Another cousin is in a rehabilitation facility in Lincoln, Nebraska following an industrial accident that has resulted in paralysis from the neck down.

Tomorrow Victory Quilters are getting together to sew some quilts appropriate for children because so many youngsters with connections to our congregation have faced some very serious health challenges lately, and we think we need a shelf for some fun, juvenile quilts to comfort therm on their journeys toward healing.

I have five days off from work and am soooo looking forward to time at home, and hoping I can manage at least one pajama day. I already have several things on the calendar the will require me to leave home, but if my scanner will work correctly, I may avoid a trip into Albuquerque. Then I'll have two more months until the end of the school year.

I'm also trying to get some new socks knitted--since socks I made eight years or so ago are wearing out at an alarming rate. Yes, I take my knitting almost everywhere--even to lunch today with the College Girl before she headed to the airport to pick up classmates and then back to her university. (I'm thinking we'll change her nickname to The Engineer, although she has begun work on her master's, and we should have a graduation not only this May but also next May.  I'm pleased with what a hard worker she is.)

I'm also marking five years post assault/brain injury. Only occasionally do I grieve what I lost in that injury and will never recover.  My journey since then has been filled with more blessings than I can innumerate.

Happy quiltmaking, knitting, and creating,....

Another Unexpected Quilt

A little over a year ago one of our church families lost their high school son in an early morning accident as he drove into Albuquerque on the interstate to attend his high school.  I passed the tragic scene (semi trailer and car charred almost beyond belief) and offered up a prayer for those involved, not finding out until evening that my prayer had been for that sweet boy. He was an immensely talented young man with a great personality.  The family moved away shortly afterward.  I fully understand that the most daunting grief anyone ever experiences is the loss of a child and all the attendant hopes and dreams.  Today, we heard from the mother that now her two year old nephew has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and will be undergoing ten months of radiation and chemo.

These fabrics were gifted to me, but haven't made it into a quilt yet. They've been stacked in my line of sight for the last several months, because they needed to become a prayer quilt for a child. I haven't settled on a design--and am open to suggestions--and will sleep on it tonight, and maybe the next several nights. I often dream great quilts, and that needs to happen now.

I put out a call to members of my Victory Prayer Quilters group for volunteers to quilt and bind and for backing.  Hopefully, I'll be able to start cutting tomorrow after work and physical therapy...as long as I have a design in my head by then.

Happy quiltmaking, knitting, etc.,

A Group Quilt

A couple months ago, or, maybe, several, one of the ladies in our Victory Prayer Quilts Group suggested we come to the meeting with charm packs or layer cakes, she'd bring, white, and we could each make a quilt from a pattern she would bring.  I think the pattern is from a Missouri Star tutorial.

I took an Eleanor Burns layer cake, thinking I'd put it with white to make another pattern.  The lady forgot the white.  Ruth brought quite a few charm packs and suggested we use some of those.  The lady also brought sets of strips she had already cut to be used in charm pack quilts.

When I got there and couldn't make the quilt top I had planned, Ruth told me to use some of her charm packs with the strips.  This quilt is the result.

Here's the quilt in last Sunday's sun in the church narthex.

From a different angle:

I love text prints, but almost never see any when I'm buying fabric.  This text was printed in multiple colors and recalled a Paris exhibition at the beginning of the 20th century (or end of the 19th).

It quilted beautifully.

 If our championship binding lady hadn't moved away a year ago, it could have been a four-person quilt.

Happy quiltmaking,

Chop, Chop, Softly!

I thought today might be another PJ Quilting day.  But I received a text from the College Girl encouraging me to go to the post office, so I had to get dressed.  I do see a lot of people wearing PJs at our post office and a few other places, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

However, I did spend most of the day quiltmaking.


The are blocks I began making at our last Victory Prayer Quilt sewing day and finished a few seams at a time over the last few weeks. This is the same piecework pattern I used in the Chop, Chop, Sew quilt. These soft colors created a very different looking quilt.

The fabrics began as squares left over from a layer cake from another quilt. I searched my stash for a quiet, almost-solid, off-white to use for the sashing and border.  The pink corner stones were another left over, and I plan to use the rest of that fabric for the binding.

The white-on-white print is barely visible in the photo; it too speaks softly.

I made this one smaller than the last top because I had only ten patches--so I have one left over for something; it might get pieced into the backing.

This project kept me busy all day, and I haven't yet cut the binding.  The top finished at 39.5 inches, a good size for a prayer quilt for someone to use for napping or reading. I do wish I were capable of cutting and piecing a whole lot faster!

We're having a beautiful spring-like day.  The last of the snow that has lived in my yard since before Christmas is finally melted.  However, we can be pretty sure this is Faux Spring and that we'll see more of winter.  We'll enjoy the sunshine while we can!

Happy quiltmaking,....

Blessed Quilts II

Here are a few more quilts from our last prayer quilt blessing.

And, just for fun, here's a photo of the class float from my trip to El Paso, IL last week.

The float ride was an unexpected bonus. (Yes, that's our school in the background.  It has now been consolidated with that of the community of Gridley, seven or eight miles to the east.) Being 87th in the parade lineup gave us a great deal of time for informal catching up.  It was a wonderful prelude to the evening meal.  And, yes, there were a lot more guys than gals.  Of the 58 graduates, only 17 were women.  Our class was very, very lucky that we did not lose a single person in Vietnam.

I was able to talk with several people I'd not seen since graduation, and we missed a few who did not attend.  However, we've all faced challenges and grown and moved on, and everyone seems to be in a pretty good place emotionally.

To sum up the weekend in words we heard frequently as kids, it was more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

Happy quiltmaking,

Route 66 - A Quilt

I almost forgot to share this Route 66 quilt.  Ruth pieced it for our prayer quilt ministry.

 When I asked her if it was hard to cut into her Route 66 fabric, she said this is not the first quilt she has made from that yardage.

I grew up about 15 miles from Route 66 to the east and about 20 miles from Route 66 to the south, since I grew up on a farm outside El Paso, Illinois. When I moved to New Mexico, I lived about four blocks from Route 66 in Gallup on the western edge of New Mexico.  Now that I live in central New Mexico, I'm maybe a mile from Route 66--although here we all refer to it as Route 66 and state refers to it as Route 333.

I decided to do an outer border of swirling feathers.  Sometimes I got the twist right, sometimes I didn't!  But the coppery thread and the deep blue do seem synonymous with Route 66 in my brain!

I put a little raindrop in the swirlies in the green border.  However, I take no credit or blame for the amount of rain that has fallen on Route 66 this summer!

Ruth is putting the binding on it so it will be ready for our next prayer quilt dedication.

Happy quiltmaking,....

Happy Circles

I neglected to post photos of this happy quilt full of circles.  I think it was pieced by Dawn for our Victory Prayer Quilt Ministry.

This is another of the products from our last prayer quilt piecing workshop.

The photos would have been a lot better if I could have seen them in the camera viewer, but my angle didn't cooperate with the angle of the quilts.  So I just wanted to be sure that I had a photo for my records.

One of the things I've always loved about quilts was how a change of fabrics could create so many pleasant variations.

Happy quiltmaking,....

Playful Kittens - A Prayer Quilt

What a happy little prayer quilt! This was made by Pat, I believe, as a result of the piecing workshop we had at the end of May.

I absolutely love the border fabric, and it's pretty evident that I had a lot of fun quilting it!

The pieced borders as well as the other inner borders and the kitty blocks received loopy yarn scrolls inspired by the kittens' yarn.

It was sooooo much fun to quilt that feathers and ribbon border!

After the next quilt dedication service this quilt will be going to someone facing cancer or another serious health challenge.

Happy quiltmaking,

Half Square Triangle Quilt

Here is another of Ruth's half square triangle quilts.

Do these make you think of lovely sunny summer days and blue skies?

Very, very light custom quilting....

And a very narrow border blessed with swirling ribbons.

This is another quilt for our church's Victory Prayer Quilt ministry.

Happy quiltmaking,....

Sail On - A Prayer Quilt

Another three person quilt....

 Ruth found the little sailboats in our Victory Quilt Cupboard at church.  We don't know who made them.  The center block is one Ruth made with a pattern from a past summer quilt shop hop.

She said the little blocks had a lot of problems with the misalignment of some of the little blocks, but she handled them well, and I'm thinking the recipient will find so many other things to look at and enjoy in this quilt that they won't notice anything that's less than perfect.

 The center block was especially fun to quilt since it provided some even newer challenges that I hope I solved well. 

Ruth chose wonderful, refreshing fabrics to accompany the blocks.

 I don't particularly like the waves I quilted, but it's always a learning experience, isn't it?

 The narrow borders weren't encouraging for feathers, so they have a lot of swirlies.

One of the lovely things about this quilt is the backing of bubbles!

I really like this quilt, undoubtedly being influenced by the lack of water here.  New Mexico's most famous lake is Elephant Butte, but we have other good sized lakes as well.  Of course, I also know of a New Mexico lake that is smaller than the pond our neighbor Lester Pfister used for irrigating his hybrid seed corn in dry weather between El Paso and Gridley, Illinois.  We are a state of diversity--and that means a few extremes as well!

I hope you get to enjoy some water this July.

Happy quiltmaking,...