A Boy and His Quilt

It happened! The thing that I love! I found a picture of a kid wrapped in a quilt that I made! This is a boy in Mexico. He looks so happy to have (a) a quilt and (b) trucks on his quilt! And I am so happy that he has it wrapped tightly around himself, as if he absolutely loves it, and also he has it right side out, so I know it's one of mine! Truly the stars were aligned.

Here he is in a group.. the others have theirs folded or back-side showing, so you see how lucky I am to have found this great display of quilt love. This definitely made my day.

The Children

When I make quilts for kids, I picture this in my mind:


two girls in Guatemala:

a boy in ? (I think Guatemala, but I'm not sure):

a boy in a Jordan refugee camp for Syrians:

This is why I continue to make quilts for kids.

Wrap a Smile

Quilts Beyond Borders

Sunshine Quilt Guild (online)

Join me?

Join Us at Sunshine Quilt Guild

Being helpful to others makes one happy. If you want to get in on the happiness, join us at Sunshine Online Quilt Guild and help us make quilts for kids and teens. We support two programs: Wrap a Smile (make quilts for kids having cleft lip/palate surgery) and Quilts Beyond Borders (quilts for kids in underserved areas, often in orphanages in hard-to-reach places). We have a lot of fun, and the service is rewarding. Join us at our group at MeWe (similar to Facebook but no ads and no privacy invasions). Here is the link:
https://mewe.com/join/sunshineonlinequiltguild


Examples of some of the fun we have:

Round Robin quilts

Block Lotto challenges

Quilts made from the Lotto blocks

Just for fun quilts

Occasional Retreats

Best of all, the kids who receive our quilts are comforted at a scary or unpredictable time in their lives. We are happy we can help them in this small but beautiful way.

(This quilt was made at our 2017 retreat in Omaha.)

(This quilt is the one shown above at Quilts made from Lotto blocks.)

My Fabric/Blocks Are in Egypt

At Sunshine we make quilts for kids; we send the quilts to two different programs: Wrap a Smile and Quilts Beyond Borders. Wrap a Smile gives quilts to kids following cleft lip/cleft palate surgery. One of the surgical programs (Rotaplast) is currently in Egypt doing surgeries, and posting pictures from time to time. This picture shows a child after surgery wrapped in a quilt. I could see some familiar pieces of fabric. Tammy identified the quilt.

My friend, Tammy, collects our blocks and makes them into finished quilts. So... this quilt is one for which I made five of the blocks -- the big four-patches, and Tammy finished up and sent to Wrap a Smile. And now there it is, cuddling a child.

This feels really good.. I get to see some of my work doing what it's meant to do. I am hoping for more familiar fabrics and quilts before this mission in Egypt is finished. Stay tuned.

Friday Books: Nothing Today but a Broken Heart

No book report today! I'm reading two books simultaneously and am about halfway through both of them. I don't like reading this way. It slows me down on both books! Hopefully I'll have something to report next week.

Meanwhile, I want to tell you a sad story. About three weeks ago a young mother was driving her children and some nieces home from a fun event. No one knows exactly what happened. She probably hit some ice; somehow she lost control. (It has been a bad ice season.) Her car spun around and ended up slamming into a truck. Three little children died. They were 11, 5, and 5. They were cousins: each of them was the daughter of one of three grown sisters. The driver lost a daughter, and so did her two sisters. The driver was badly hurt and has been in the hospital in ICU for three weeks, unable to speak and barely moving.

Here's where the story circles around to my family. While sitting in the ICU waiting room this last week, waiting for Mother-in-Law to recover from a stroke, we realized that the family sharing our space was the family from the above tragedy. They had been camped out in ICU for a long time; we could see that from the boxes of food, blankets, pillows, and other supplies they had with them.

We spoke to various of the survivors: two children, one of whom survived the accident, the husband of the injured driver, and the grandmother.

I cannot begin to imagine their pain. Their lives are forever altered. I literally hurt inside my chest, thinking about what they are going through. While we were there the young mother was transferred from ICU into a rehab hospital, so we no longer shared waiting room space with that family. I am glad we were able to speak with them and give them our condolences.

I know people all over the world are hurting from some terrible things. This family has touched my heart because I saw them up close. If you are a praying person, please pray for the M/P families as well as for other families around the world who are touched by tragedy, loss, fear, and pain. I believe we can help each other through prayer and hope.

My Outdoorsy Saturday

Saturday was an outdoorsy day for me. First I went to the site of a Monster Dash run. Daughter was running the 10-mile race. Son-in-law ran the half marathon. I stayed for a little over two hours. Saw Son-in-law; he waved. I didn't see him in time to get a picture. Waited to see Daughter. I finally realized I was standing in the wrong place to see her. The ten-mile finish line was in a different place. Oh, well, it was a beautiful day, though a bit chilly. I was glad I had bundled up in wool sweater, layers of hats, and my winter boots.

Next, I headed to church where I dressed up as a bed and participated in the Trunk 'n Treat we hosted for the neighborhood and for our church kids. I couldn't use my trunk as it's in the shop for repairs, so I just used a table.

Here's an idea of how a Trunk 'n Treat trunk should look:

I had a craft item for the kids to participate in if they chose to. Almost every kid wanted to and found it fun. I was so pleased! Some kids even came back to make a second one. They made "quilts"... 2.5" squares glued onto a grid that I printed on cardstock. Some used markers, but most used the fabric squares. Some worked really hard on theirs, a few rushed through but still enjoyed it. I very much enjoyed watching them, and I took pictures of each kid with their quilts. I will share them with you here, for the joy of having had fun with the energy of all those kids! (The first little guy was a tad too young for my craft activity.. isn't he so cute??)

After all that time outside on a windy, chilly day, I was pretty well chilled to the bone, though strangely I didn't feel cold. At home I warmed up my bones and took a little nap. Husband had spent the same amount of time at his parents' house, helping them re-organize some stuff in their storage room. We got home at the same time and both napped.

Happy Halloween!