Comfort Quilt

There was a secret project I was working on over the summer. I couldn't share it until now. I've been running the Sewn Together Bee for over two years now. As we neared the end of the last round of the bee one of our members experienced a tragedy in her life. Her mother passed away and her grief was consuming. Unfortunately, she also missed out on her month in the bee after working so hard on all of our blocks. 

So we did a little stalking and came up with a color scheme and a plan and got to work. It seemed like she gravitated towards blues and greens and also pinwheels. So the members of the Sewn Together Bee started creating pinwheel blocks for her and sent them to me to finish. 

I ended up sashing the blocks that came in small. We made them any size or pattern we desired. With sashing they all ended up 12.5" unfinished. Time was of the essence, since I spent much of the summer gathering the blocks from all corners of the globe. I went with simple straight line quilting on the diagonal to accent the movement of the pinwheels. 

The backing is one Michael Miller print that I picked up thinking the yellows and oranges would contrast nicely with the greens and blues on the front. And I bound it in a simple Kona Olive, then wrapped it in love with a note on behalf of the entire bee. 

Then, one day, unexpectedly I received a beautiful note in my mailbox. It brought tears to my eyes. I rarely have time to sew anything for myself these days. Sometimes I get frustrated and convince myself I'm not joining any more bees or swaps, ever. And then there are days like this, when I am reminded why I do so much sewing for and with others. The reward is much sweeter. I would rather brighten someone else's day over making myself a new dress any day.