Following on from September 11th 2001 it was suggested on RCTQ that
red, white and blue quilts would be welcomed by
Project Linus . As I had been out and bought a selection
of suitable fabrics to make my
WTC blocks and had lots left over (particularly of the reds which
were a bargain......) I decided to take up the challenge.
Also the black Kona cotton for my own quilt which I had ordered from Hancock's
of Paducah at 10a.m. GMT on Sept. 11th wasn't going to arrive in a hurry.........
especially as it was being consolidated with a load of electronics kit in
PA for my husband before catching the boat to the UK.
I looked at the Project Linus website and found the links to Quiltmaker
Magazine's Quilts to Sew
page where I saw the
Hearts for Linus pattern. So I printed the pattern out,
enlarged it on the photocopier at work until it measured 6½"
(next time I'll use lightweight paper) and went home to sew. The first block
went OK so I cut and pinned and sewed some more hoping that a layout would
come to mind. A phone call to Vera, our local PLUK co-ordinator, let
me know that wheelchair quilts were always useful when disabled children
visit their respite care families. The ever resourceful RCTQ came
up trumps when I asked what size such a quilt should be.
By now I had come up with a layout so I hunted through the scrap bag
for some more blue fabric, didn't have enough so set off to take myself
and Jonathan (18mo) to Aunt Jemimah's in Clitheroe, discovered that DH had
the pushchair 100 miles away ..... decided to go shopping anyway so
my thanks to Kim & Jemimah for coping with an inquisitive small boy while
I dithered over blues until one finally suited. Next I drove home
with my booty and cut, pinned and sewed some more and finished up all 16
blocks.
The blocks sat there and looked at me saying "hurry up and finish us
into a quilt" so some white -on-white sashing, generic polyester wadding/batting
that I had to hand, a bit more of the red fabric (thre's still lots left)
and 81 safety pins later and I was ready to quilt. Now while I was
out enhancing my stash I had bought some nylon monofilament thread. I
tried it and it tied in knots so I gave up and stitched around the blue
sqares with blue thread. Then I couldn't decide which colour to use
around the hearts so went back to the invisible stuff (how do you frog stitiching
you can't see??) and tried again and this time it worked. It's all
SITD because I'm not confident enough to FMQ on a "big" project yet, and
it was faster for the deadline I'd set myself.
One of the Heart Blocks
I still had enough of one blue to do the binding, which is double fold
and hand stitched at the back, but also has a decorative machine stitch
in red all around it for strength (I don't want it coming off if it gets
caught in a wheel).
Quilted, Bound & Labelled!
Hearts was delivered to Vera (our local cordinator) at the Bury Show
on Oct 14th 2001 and by now will be with one of the children who visit
Francis House Hospice in Didsbury, Manchester, UK.
The next quilt WILL be for me ......... with that lovely shipment from
Kentucky.
