Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Spring Daffodils, Sunshine, and Abundant Feathers "for the Babies"

In addition to my personal quilting projects and the quilting I do for clients, I also quilt tops for our Charlotte Quilters' Guild's charity outreach program.  Our guild donates to the NICU and Pediatric wards at both the Atrium and Novant hospitals in Charlotte, in addition to the women's cancer units and veterans' hospice.  Many of our guild's members make donation quilts from start to finish, but others will bring in piles of pieced quilt tops for other members like me to quilt.  

The quilt I'm sharing today is one of nearly SIXTY quilt tops that were made and donated recently by a single person, a guild member's mother who is ninety years young.  Every morning she sits down at her vintage Singer sewing machine and sets to work on making "quilts for the babies and children in the hospital."  Just imagine how much love and compassion this one woman has sent out into the world over the decades of her lifetime, working one day and one stitch at a time!

39 x 39 Cuddle Quilt with Abundant Feathers E2E

The sunny color palette and daffodil print fabric are so cheerful, perfect for the Spring season.  

Although this quilt is sized for a NICU cuddle quilt, the fabric prints felt more traditional than juvenile so I opted for one of my favorite feather designs, Abundant Feathers E2E, to soften the geometric piecing lines of the 9-patch blocks and sashing and to unify the scrappy fabric mix.  I scaled the feather design a little smaller than I usually would, to suit the scale of this infant-sized quilt.  

I LOVE how "Plain Backing" Shows Off Quilting Designs!

You can really see the quilting design on the tone-on-tone ivory backing fabric.  Seriously; I will never ever get tired of this design! 

Abundant Feathers E2E

There is a decent amount of backtracking in this design, so it takes awhile to stitch out and it looks best, in my opinion, stitched in a lighter weight thread to minimize thread buildup along stitching lines that are stitched over two or three times.  I used So Fine thread in color 403 Putty, which is just dark enough to look nice on the hunter green and reddish-brown patches, but not so dark as to look dirty against the creamy ivory sashing and backing fabric.  It's interesting to me that, while the predominant daffodil print is very much Spring, the overall color mix of this quilt has more of an autumn vibe with the orange, rust, and browns.


Samwise Makes a Cameo Appearance

Meanwhile, totally unrelated -- just had to share this funny moment that I captured on film this morning.  My husband Bernie is still working mostly from home with business travel curtailed, and he's about to log on for a conference call.  Our year-old puppy dog Samwise, all 110 pounds of him, decided to climbed up onto his lap.  Apparently, he wanted to be on the Zoom call, too!

The Challenges of Working from Home

Can you even resist that sweet little face?!  😍. Rottweilers are for snuggling...

Other family news: My older son, Lars-of-Ours, moves back home for the summer this Thursday.  Can you believe he's halfway finished with college already?!  I just had the piano tuned this morning -- the first thing Lars does when he comes home after dropping his bags in the kitchen is to head straight for the piano.  🎶. 

Son-the-Younger, also known as Anders, has AP exams from now through May 15th, and he will be completely finished with high school FOREVER by Memorial Day.  I cannot wait to unsubscribe from the school district's many email lists and phone blasts.  No more robot calls interrupting dinner to tell me about urgent PTO fundraisers!

For those who are mothers, or who will be celebrating their own mothers this weekend -- HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I'll be linking up today's post with the following linky parties:

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

17 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I don't know how many times my daughter and son in law have been disrupted on zoom for work with their dog Bean who thinks she too has to get in on the action. My other daughter that has not worked from home this whole time said she wouldn't mind working at home with her dog - but that is ok, their dog has our son in law working from home always as a free lance writer. Sometimes he finally has to put the dog out of the room so he can concentrate!
It will be so nice for you to have your sons home for the summer before two are back out of the house for college again in the fall - happy mothers day to you

Frog Quilter said...

Nice quilting!!!!

Jenny K. Lyon said...

Congrats on the impending Mommy graduation! I thought of it as going from everyday Mom to Consulting Mom. You have a new life ahead! You've done a great job and now your babies are launched/launching! Adorable Hubby photo! Usually it's cat-bombing but Rottie-bombing?

Brenda @ Songbird Designs said...

What a sweetie pie puppy!! He is adorable. My DH is still working from home too. Hopefully he will get to stay home as he volunteered to do a weird shift to support one of their company's in Australia. There are only four people in his group who do what he does and the other three have already started alternating going back into the cubicles they all love to hate so much! The one thing all this craziness has shown is that every one of them can do their job from home. OK, off that subject! LOL Our rescue Chloe loves to sit with her head in his lap while he's trying to work. Our fur babies are so sweet, aren't they?! Have a great day, Rebecca!

TerryKnott.blogspot.com said...

Sam is adorable! How nice to have a full house once again. I hear you about being finished with the high school communications. I didn't have the e-mail and text messages. . .just the robo calls which were annoying because they would come at dinner!!! Your quilting feather design has beautiful movement. I understand why you like it so much. Kudos to the piecer to make for someone in need!

LA Paylor said...

oooo that big baby... hold me daddy! Milo is often found standing outside the office door staring in at his daddy. Your quilting is beautiful. You've raised two beautiful sons, and seeing good moms gives me joy

The Joyful Quilter said...

That beautiful feather quilting really brings that simple 9-Patch quilt up a notch or two!! Any recipient is sure to be dazzled by its beauty.

Vicki in MN said...

That is wonderful you an help get the donation quilt tops quilted. Great feather quilting!

Darlene S said...

Really beautiful feather E2E quilting on the cheerful quilt. Thanks for the chuckle about Samwise wanting lap time during a Zoom call. Too funny.

Marie said...

What a lovely quilt, and what a prolific quilter! Oh my. Puts me to shame. So wonderful that she uses her time and talent (and you as well) for such worthwhile causes. Bravo! Beautiful work.

Preeti said...

You raise my spirits and warm my heart and then to top it off you share a picture of the darling duo - Bernie and Samwise. MWAH!!! Congratulations to Anders on conquering (almost) high school. Have a great weekend!!!

Becca // Pretty Piney Quilts said...

What a great post! First off, the quiltmaker is AMAZING for everything she does for the babies. You've done her quilt justice--it's a beauty! And who doesn't love a pet cameo during a virtual meeting? Samwise would surely be a hit if he was allowed to stay on camera. Congratulations on all of your exciting family news, and thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

Norma Schlager said...

Such a bight and cheery quilt with beautiful quilting.It will surely will be appreciated by the recipient.

Frédérique - Quilting Patchwork Appliqué said...

Happy Mother's Day to you Rebecca! This quilt full of love is beautiful, and your quilting gorgeous. C'est bien d'avoir les enfants à nouveau à la maison ;))

Ivani said...

Beautiful quilt and your quilting is awesome.
Happy mother's day!

Jennifer Fulton Inquiring Quilter said...

That is a lovely quilting design! Such a wonderful lady to have made so many quilts for charity. Congratulations on having your kids home soon. It's so nice when they return for summer! And a graduation--such a big step. Kudos mom!

Thanks for sharing on Wednesday Wait Loss.

Muv said...

Hello Rebecca Grace,

This post has made my day. Now I know what I want to do when I am 90. What a wonderful lady, such energy, and such an exuberant choice of fabrics!
Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks. Your post is this week's featured project!

Love, Muv