3 stories of bustling: A Year of Quilting Therapy (LONG post, with lots of pictures)

After I had my hip replaced last December, it took a long time to be able to do much of anything.

Several weeks.

As soon as I could, I started making and finishing quilts again.

In March, Anthony needed a small surgery that he would need to stay overnight for, for observation.

So, I brought a quilt to finish.

Good thing I finished it that night!

He was discharged first thing in the morning. Easiest hospital stay/surgery he's ever had!

This quilt was the result of several unfinished blocks from a few quilts that were just the same.

I wanted to make something that could be contributed to an adoption auction.

Some friends (who we haven't met in real life!!) were raising money to adopt their two cute sons from China.

The back is flannel. :) So cozy!

When Anthony went through his initial 14 months of intensive treatment for leukemia in Seattle, our older two children stayed at home with Andy.

Our middle 3 children stayed at the Ronald McDonald House with Anthony and me.

They went to school at the Hutch School in Seattle, and had quite the experience there.

When Anthony developed fevers though, he'd have to be admitted to the hospital.

I don't know how many times he was in-patient at the hospital during that time.

The middle children couldn't stay at the hospital with me, so Andy would come over the mountain and take care of them.

Daniel and Kelly couldn't miss school, so they would often stay with friends we trusted.

One of those families has grandchildren now.

I've never been able to figure out how to adequately thank them for serving us in such this way.

Can't really.

So, the grandchildren get quilts!

This one was for Baby V. He's a cute boy.

Another flannel back.

These blocks were left over from another quilt made later in the spring.

I was trying to figure out how to best use them, and not let them go to waste.

I asked opinions on Facebook, but ultimately took Kelly's suggestion to add navy to it.

I love it!

This quilt is waiting for a little one someday, of the wedding couple.

So, my niece and her fiancee decided on a short engagement.

I was trying to figure out a decent wedding gift for them.

I haven't done good wedding gifts for a long time.

Then, I realized I could make them a quilt!

I liked the idea of using their wedding colors, coral and turquoise.

I wanted to embroider their monogram in the middle of the coral block.

But, that wasn't meant to be.

It was so cozy and pretty though!!

They loved it!

I made and gave away 2 quilts like this this year.

One was for our friends' granddaughter, and the other was for a friend whose niece and newborn baby were having a hard time this winter.

I made this quilt with different widths of strips.

I loved it!

The pieced flannel backing is so comfy, and I made my first official binding with this one. It's the same fabric as the border, but turned out great!

This one went to my doctor's new baby.

My doctor is the first one who actually listened to my hip pain after more than 5 years of complaining about so much pain. This is what led to my hip replacement just a few short months later.

My friend does a lot for me, and she had a birthday.

2016 was the year of being extremely broke while working on paying off debts.

NOTHING extra.

I didn't know what to do for my friend's birthday.

That morning, I had sudden inspiration to make her a quilt!

All day on Facebook, I posted updates, while blocking her from seeing them.

(love that feature!)

It was a challenge, but I got her quilt done before the end of the day!

Pieced flannel back. I've been loving using fabric from my stash. :)

Sometime closer to September, I started thinking about Childhood Cancer.

Anthony fought and beat leukemia.

Childhood cancer research is NOT funded anywhere near where it should be.

Childhood cancer is different than adult cancers.

Adult cancers are often the result of lifestyle habits.

Childhood cancer is more organic in nature.

It's not right for children to die.

So, rather than raising awareness for breasts (which everyone already knows about: breast cancer), it would be far more appropriate to raise awareness to help children who haven't had a chance to grow those breasts.

Ok, off my soapbox now.

I made a goal to raise at least $150 for organizations that benefit children fighting cancer.

So, people could earn entries into a raffle for the quilt for any donations they made to Strong Against Cancer, Seattle Children's Hospital, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Washington & Alaska (or local Ronald McDonald Houses), or Soulumination.

This project made $255!!!!!

I can't wait to figure out next year's project.

I got the idea to do this fundraising, and then had a specific dream about the center fabric.

I searched EVERYWHERE possible, online and locally.

Couldn't find the fabric.

Searched eBay a few times, and finally found this vintage sheet. It matched the dream.

So weird, because it doens't really go with the other fabrics on the quilt.

But, it was meant to be the center.

The raffle winner was another cancer mom.

Amazing cotton back.

Later in the fall, my sister lost her loved one.

I had thought a few weeks before that I should make her a quilt.

I thought, why would I do that? It would be great to do, but then I'd feel like I needed to make all my other 5 siblings quilts too. Which would be great, but I never have enough time to get all the laundry done each week!

Well, when I heard about her loss, I kicked myself for not listening.

I finished the quilt in a hurry so I could bring it over to her when we headed over to Anthony's next appointment.

Cozy flannel back.

I made a couple of quilts in this pattern, a different color version than Baby V's.

I made one for one of our daughters' youth leaders, one for Anthony's water therapist's first baby, and another one.

They dont' have much visual oomph, but they are cozy and they work!

For some reason, I always mis-measure and count on needing way too many blocks.

Weird, since I used to be so good with numbers.

Anyways, I now have enough extra sailboats and pirate ships to make another quilt or two with just those blocks.

A friend asked if I could make her a bed-size quilt.

I'm not so good at making large quilts for other people.

I can make the tops just fine, and they turn out fabulous.

But, to hire a professional quilter is expensive, and I'm still working on learning to finish binding nicely.

So, she asked if I could make a doll quilt for her daughter's babies.

They just repainted her bedroom, and I planned out some doll quilts

Doll quilts are great for learning to machine quilt, and for learning what types of batting works with that process.

One went to my friend's daughter. Another went to another friend's daughter, and 2 went to girls in Anthony's school class.

Lilly's Christmas quilt.

I started on this and was not liking sewing half hexagons together.

Once the strips were sewn though, it was a breeze to sew them together!

For Daniel's Christmas quilt, I had the idea to make square in a square blocks.

We had 11 year old Pokemon fabric.

Again, I had friends vote on their favorite layout on Facebook.

We most all agreed the X's and O's was best.

I made up Daniel's quilt top first, and again had so many blocks left over that I was able to make a lap quilt. Kind of like a mini-version of Daniel's much larger quilt.