This past October, I received an email from a gentleman, who’s wife had recently passed away from cancer. His wife normally quilted her own quilts on her own long arm machine, but due to the progression of her illness, was unable to quilt her last quilt.
(I am keeping actual names out of this post so as to protect their privacy)
We met and discussed design. I went home and doodled on a picture of the quilt and sent off some design suggestions via email and we came to a decision on the quilting design. Originally the tessellating horses were supposed to be the back of the quilt, but due to her hard work on this it was decided to make this the front of the quilt.
It is such a moving experience to finish someone’s quilt who couldn’t do it for themselves….or at least it is for me. While quilting this quilt, you think of the life that was taken too early and those that are left behind to grieve and only hope that this quilt can bring some joy to those that are left behind. This particular quilt will be going to their daughter.
Here is the quilt just off the quilt frame…….
This past weekend, I had an opportunity to present the finished quilt to her husband at a local quilt shop (Cottonseed Glory/Annapolis, MD) at their HandiQuilter Club Meeting. For those of you that don’t know, HandiQuilter is the brand of long arm machine I have, and Cottonseed Glory holds a monthly meeting for those of us that own them. Most of the quilters there knew his wife, so everyone wanted to see the finished quilt. Here are some pictures of the finished quilt.
A special thank you to Ellen for doing such a great job on the binding (not one of my favorite things to do….lol!!) and to Andie, for doing the embroidery of initials and date, just as this quilter normally signed her quilts!!
I thank Pat at Cottonseed Glory for recommending me to finish this quilt. But most of all I want to thank this quilter’s husband for entrusting me with his wife’s last quilt. What a huge honor to be able to do this for a fellow quilter!!!!
what a heartwarming story