Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A Special Recovery Quilt

Here is my most recent quilt creation. My youngest brother Luke had congestive heart failure from a defective aortic valve and a damaged mitral valve. He has had to go through a lot of pain through the surgery and recovery, and I wanted to do something heartfelt to show I loved him while he got through this recovery period of at least six weeks. And so the Recovery Quilt idea came to me. My 6-year old daughter has been learning some basic sewing, and did the embroidered message in the middle as an added touch of love.
I love this inverted squares quilt pattern, and have been excited to make one since I saw a picture of a similar quilt. I asked my brother his favorite colors (red, blue, and green,) and I went shopping for masculine fabrics. The ones I found were quite linear, and I am excited how it all went together.
I quilted concentric squares around each block. I think it is harder (or maybe just tedious?) to quilt straight lines! I can whip out some free-motion whirly designs much quicker :) But this looks nice and it turned out alright.
I really liked how the back turned out. I love the strip of little squares as a top and bottom border. That all came about because I accidentally miscounted the length the backing needed to be. But what a happy accident, it turned out cute!
The stitching also looks great on the back.
And the verdict? My brother really likes the quilt (yea!) He uses it to snuggle with and try to stay warm enough during this recovery time. Just my little gesture of warmth and love!