A Mother's Love: Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy's Creative Side is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival this month; be sure to check her icon to see the other quilts entered in this year's group!  Voting will open in a few days...(I am #309 if you like my quilt, either way, be sure to check out all the beautiful projects entered this year!)...

It has been a year since I first shared my quilt which I've called, A Mother's Love.  I Can't begin to imagine what this year would have held even if I had been told.

Last year we lost our triplet babies; the first at 12 weeks, and then the other 2 three weeks later.  I was pretty overwhelmed and yet I wanted to find a way to honor their memories even though I will not meet them in this world.  When I was at the quilt shop I was given a brochure advertising a contest to make a quilt top that used 1 jelly roll, 1 charm square pack, and up to 2 yards of other material.  This is the design that I came up with, although in the end I did not enter it in the contest, when it was completed I felt like I had won something in my own heart.

I worked at the quilt on and off for several months and yet every time I tried to complete it, my heart was heavy and I folded it away in disgust with myself.  In April of last year I contracted meningitis which made it impossible to work, but I was able to spend short amounts of time sitting on the couch at a table to piece some of the parts together; before I knew it, I had completed all of the top besides the sashing I added later.   I could see the goal in sight and suddenly I made the goal to myself  to have the quilt completed by mother's day 2011.

A couple days before the due date I finally had everything pieced, spray basted together and had only to add the quilt stitching.  I went with a swirling flower design that I randomly came up with in my head.  The quilt was finished and bound just before the goal I had set out for myself.

A month later we would find out that I was pregnant again.  This past February I gave birth to our precious daughter, Ziona.  I still am trying to figure out the best quilt design to honor this wonderful miracle that was given to us.  What I learned about myself was that sometimes I do my best work when I have not planned everything out.  I let my heart lead on this project and for now, it remains my favorite quilt that I have ever made.

SR-W46: "You're Going To Miss This..."

Never have I anticipated anything more than the arrival of our first child.  It was almost a year ago that we found out that we were pregnant and I am not sure you could have found two happier persons in all the world at that moment.  When we lost the first of our babies just after Christmas it was with the news that we had two more growing within me, so we dreamed, planned and hoped beyond all reason.  Our greatest joy was surpassed by our greatest sorrow when we found out almost 1 month later, near the end of January 2011, that our children had died.  There is nothing in life that prepares a person for that, but I had to return to work within two weeks of surgery.  Life goes on.  In April I contracted Viral meningitis and my world stopped as I was confined for almost 2 months.  All the meanwhile, I had stopped hoping and dreaming for a child, after all, we had been married for 7 years.  I finished my quilt in memory of my babies the day before Mother's Day, I was starting to heal a little.  Just as I started to get up and try to rework my muscles and gain strength we found out we were pregnant again.

I will be totally honest with you, I never thought we'd make it to 25 weeks let alone have hope again that we'd some day hold our own child.  

The last couple of weeks were emotional ones for me as I worked on gifts for friends who already had their children in arms.  A couple weekends ago my husband said that he had worked some overtime and he wanted me to buy the fabric for our little girl's quilt (I was going to wait to buy it until I had sold some stuff I had made).  He wanted to make sure we were hoping, planning and dreaming again.  So even as I was organizing and giving away fabric, I made a purchase of fabric (at the last possible moment) from the Fat Quarter Shop with a 20% discount code I had received through a PS I QUILT online class.  From that Monday night (11PM) the fabric was cut, shipped and received just a little over a day later on Wednesday(1PM)!  I joyously went down to our campus mail room to pick up my box!  I can show you the fabric, but I will not be able to post pictures of my progress (as per class rules) but hopefully I might be able to show you the finished quilt eventually.

From Kate Spain's Terrain line

Busted this Week:                   13.25
Busted from 10/01/2011:        156.75
Stashed this Week:                 18.75
Stashed from 10/01/2011:        27.5

Net Busted for 2011(from 10/01/2011):  129.25

So in my desire to rush this pregnancy I am reminded of this song, "You're Going To Miss This," by Trace Adkins.  Treasure the time you have right now!  See you on Wednesday for WIP's I can't wait to show you some of the things I am working on, some new starts today (and maybe more tomorrow)...

Project 2: In Memory of my Children

It is Mothers' Day and I had thought that I would be big and round with our twins by now counting down the 2 months left. It never occurred to me that we would lose them or that we would be married seven years without having children, but that is life. But remember, I am a mother too.

I may not hold my own children in my arms, but I have held many of yours. I have taken care of many children over the years, picked them up off the ground, soothed their anguished cries, fed them taught them, entertain them, and cheered them on. I have loved them. And today I realized that although my children are not living or growing, I am still a mother too.

About a week after we lost the children, I picked this fabric out (with the help of my Mother-in-law) to a make a quilt in their memory. I used 1 charm pack(fresh flowers), 1 jelly roll (fresh flowers), 1 yard of yellow print fabric, and 1.5 yards of the Smiling flower green fabric that is from the same line of fabrics as the charm squares and Jelly roll fabrics. To be honest in the beginning I had no plan what this quilt was going to look like. I just started pinning "Thangles" to my jelly strips and hoped for the best. I started by making some star blocks and while doing that I figured out that the same pieces also make a heart block as well. The slashing is solid Red Cotton used also for the back and for the binding. I stitched the quilt using an abstract flower stitch that I made up as I went along. This Quilt is big enough for a lap at 50"X50". For now I plan to hang it on the wall of my craft room.