Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting a Bloggers' Quilt Festival this week, in which we each select our favorite quilt, blog about it, then link over to her site. There's already quite a list of participants, so I look forward to perusing this eye candy a lot the next few days.

(I apologize for the photos in advance. I no longer have the quilt, and I didn't have a digital camera at the time, but I did scan the prints made of the quilt. However, I can't seem to comvert them to jpeg format, so I will have to link to them through flickr. Just click the highlighted links and it should take you to the photos.)

The Story:
When I first started working at my current job, Debbie had been there 3 years, working day shift. She was a terrific nurse, a favorite of the patients, staff, and physicians alike. Her husband lost his job, and they had to relocate to California for a new job, which was really closer to their families anyway.

Debbie was a free-spirit quilter, not following "the rules", but loving what she did and it showed. One of our most beloved patients was a young mom who had breast cancer. Debbie made the 8-yr-old daughter a comforter with broderie-pursed flowers and animals on it, as we all knew "T" would be losing her battle soon.
"T" would take it with her to chemo, wrapping up to stay warm.

The Quilt:
Before Debbie left, I ironed freezer paper to the backs of muslin squares and took them to work, along with a handful of Pigma pens, and staff and physicians alike signed the blocks with good wishes, simple drawings and whatever came to mind. The blocks were incorporated into stars, using a Judy Martin pattern, and the colored fabrics were all starred fabrics, mostly from Moda, as I recall. It was an early quilt for me, quilted on my little Kenmore, and the mistakes were plenty.

We spread it out on an empty bed and brought her in to see it. She was totally surprised, and all day long people came by and spent some time reading the many comments and signatures from her friends. She wrote later that she has it hanging in her new house, even though it is really lap quilt sized.

Probably the most precious block was the one drawn and signed by T's daughter, T2. I don't remember what it said exactly, but it was something to the effect of "thanks for taking care of us". T died 4 months after Debbie left. I hope T2 still has the quilt Debbie made her.

Thanks, Amy, for hosting this! If you want to see more entries, click the button on the left sidebar and it will take you right to the links of entries. If you have a favorite, you can post about it through April 24--and then be eligible for some terrific prizes.
Have fun!