A Small Finish :)

I was almost embarrassed to turn in this little baby quilt last month at our Music City Quilt Guild meeting!

Our Guild makes baby quilts for the Middle Tennessee Down Syndrome Association, who delivers them to new parents whenever a sweet new DS baby is born.  We call it Phyllis's Angel Babies, after one of our members who was gifted with a DS grandchild, Ron, and was able to help us understand the challenges facing the families of these darling children.  Phyl left us last year after her own battle with cancer, but her daughter, Alecia (mom of Ron), is also a Guild member and is the Director of MTDSA.  She says often when she delivers a quilt, it is the first time anyone has said Congratulations! to the new parents.  Isn't that sad?

Each summer, we plan one of our monthly sit-n-sew meetings to work on the Angel Babies quilts.  Last year - yes, last year! - the coordinators cut a huge amount of donated fabrics into strips for us to all sew up into Bargello baby quilts using Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville's free Scrappy Bargello pattern.

I got mine all pieced a few days after the sit-n-sew, and sat it on the corner of my quilting machine table so I could finish it up .....

And there it sat for almost a year!!!!  

Yikes!!!  *Hanging head* .....

So at my recent retreat to Sewanee in February, I took this along and made it my first project priority.   I sandwiched and quilted it with simple straight lines following the block intersections ....

And then I sewed the binding down by machine ......

...... much sturdier than hand-sewn which makes it perfect for babies and little children, and takes a fraction of the time to finish!

It makes me sad that it took so long for me to finish this quilt, and it helped me to see that sometimes I am not setting the right priorities in my life and my quilting activities.  As with most things in life, once we see a truth we are able to make positive changes, and I choose to use this experience to spur me upwards toward better choices!

This is Finish #2 from my 2105 Finish Along Q1 list ... and my most important one by far!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Charity is Another Word for Love

One of the "charity" projects our Guild sponsors is Phyllis's Angel Babies - making baby quilts for children born with Down Syndrome (DS) in the Nashville area.  We began making quilts for these precious little ones after one of our members (Phyllis) welcomed a Down Syndrome grandson into the family.  Today, that child's mother, Alecia Talbott, is the director of the Down Syndrome Association in Middle Tennessee.

Needless to say, this is a charity that is near and dear to many of our hearts!  So when one of our members was gifted with a large amount of fabric, she gave it to the DS Committee for making Phyllis' Angel Babies quilts.  And this past Thursday at our monthly sit-n-sew, a large group of us got together and made quilt tops.  The committee chose a simple pattern - the Scrappy Bargello from Quiltville (Bonnie Hunter) which you can find HERE.  

This is my finished quilt top....

The ladies on this committee spent MANY hours cutting all that fabric into strips!

This picture was taken about half-way through the day, so this is only HALF of the strips we started with!!!  By the end of the day, it honestly didn't look like a whole lot less either.  I think we'll be making these again at our next month's sit-n-sew :*)

While we were working away, Alecia (on the right below) came in and thanked us all for making quilts for these sweet children!  Then she announced that she would be presenting a quilt that day to a little DS girl who had been struck by a car last month.  We were very excited to see a child receive one of our quilts!

This precious little girl innocently chased a ball into traffic and was struck by a car.  Fortunately, she survived, even though she will still have to undergo surgery for some remaining brain injury.  She is a very brave and sweet girl... you can tell she was pretty overwhelmed by the sight of all of us in that big room staring at her LOL!!!!

I'm planning to try to get my quilt top sandwiched, quilted and bound by our next meeting on May 6.  I've also volunteered to bind some for those who are only able to sew up the tops.  It really makes me feel good to know that my Guild is part of a greater community of people who give to others in need.  And I am humbled to think that a little child will someday own this simple quilt I have made, and hopefully feel all the love and joy and prayers I have poured into each stitch!

The Scrappy Bargello baby quilt is now OFF the Design Wall!  But I still have Fantasia ...

and Happy Dance ...

           .....up on the Design Wall, ready to receive some love.  I've resolved to make 4 of these Happy Dance blocks each week so it doesn't get stagnant - they are so much fun and go so quickly, I don't think that will be a problem :)

Check out the other projects on design walls at Judy's Patchwork Times!

And I'm linking this up with Sharon's Let's Book It linky party
because Bonnie's Scrappy Bargello has been in my Patterns to Try book for ages now!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=