We recently started a quilt ministry at our church, making quilts for people with serious health issues. This is the story of one of the quilts we made.
Our daytime children’s ministry director, Tammy, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and advised to have a double mastectomy right away. One of the members of the quilt ministry, Cassie, is also a teacher in the daytime children’s ministry, so we wanted to be sure to make something extra special and memorable especially for Tammy.
I had recently been feeling a leading to make a quilt in soft pastels, something definitely out of my comfort zone, and realized that this color palette would be perfect for Tammy. I had a charm pack of Moda’s Kashmir II that I had picked up a while back, so I unearthed it and paired it with some pastel solids from my fabric stash. Using a disappearing nine-patch pattern, I created this simple soft pastel quilt.
While I was working on piecing the top of the quilt, Cassie took the back to the children’s classes. Each child’s hand was traced on the quilt back, with his or her name inscribed inside the outline. This gave us a quilt back that would be very personal and special to Tammy, plus it made the children feel like part of the process too! The assembled quilt sandwich was quilted with straight line quilting on either side of the seam lines - it gives it a simple grid-like pattern that doesn’t detract from the simplicity of the pattern itself.
The completed quilt was given to Tammy at the children’s graduation celebration. I’m pleased to say that Tammy is doing very well and is hopefully on her way to making a complete recovery! Our quilt ministry is as much a blessing to those of us who participate in creating the quilts as we hope it is to the people who receive them. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to do what you love and help others at the same time!
Sarah, good luck to your friend Tammy. What a sweet gift to give to a friend in a scary place in life. Thanks for sharing your story...
Linking at http://www.amylouwho.com/
