This weekend marks the start of the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy
I've struggled to decide which of my quilty finishes I wanted to share with you, but I've decided on this incubator quilt.
Back in February/March we learnt that two of the regulars at our local quilt shop who were expecting Grandchildren had lost them within hours of their due date. Both babies had been still born. The mother of one of the babies asked our Local Quilt Shop if they could donate some quilts to the unit at the RVI in Newcastle where premature babies are cared for and where parents of still born babies are allowed to spend a few precious hours with their babies.
So far the shop and its customers have donated over seventy quilts for this cause. I have donated two so far (you can see my other one here), and I fully intend to keep making one or two a month. But this was my first one:
That's the background of the reason I made the quilt, but it was also a quilting journey for me: I had been watching some of the fantastic Granny Squares blocks popping up on Flickr with fantastic colours and fabrics. They looked so modern and bright. The work I had done so far felt old-fashioned and boring compared to these beauties. So I raided my stash, determined to make something "modern". I cut 1.5" squares of any fabric I deemed worthy and stitched them into the rainbow you can see. Then for the first time I used white as my background - not off white, but proper white! To finish off the quilt I used the bagging technique. I didn't use any batting, as I wanted to keep it light and soft, but I didn use flannel on the back - my first time using it. It was sooo soft and lovely! A little bit of quilting and it was ready to hand over.
Not only is this quilt for such a great cause, but it also marks a change in my style: an attempt to move towards more modern fabrics and colour combos and towards doing my own thing, not just always following patterns (though are some very good patterns out there that I will definitely be following in the future).
I hope someone, mother or baby, is able to draw some comfort and hope from this quilt. If you would like make a contribution to the charity, you can find more information here.
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Margaret Gunn
www.quiltsoflove.blogspot.com
Good luck in the festival =D
My latest themes for my ipads & cell phone quilted covers are the animals of Africa.
I hand stitched an elephant onto my grans cell phone cover for her Tracfone SVC phone for seniors, with the big keys and letters on the screen so she doesn't need to wear spec's when she makes a call.
My favorite animal motives are the chubby hippo and giraffe as they look the cutest on fabric.
I can't help daydreaming of the African bush at sunset whenever I see these animals. Once you go on Safari in Africa, the enchantment never leaves you.