For those of you who know me and my family well, you are already aware that our oldest son, Jarrad was recently diagnosed with lymphoma over Christmas. While I was in Florida with Jarrad I had my husband mail me an old quilt of Jarrad's that was in desperate need of repair. I needed something to do with my hands as I sat with Jarrad at different appointments and his first chemo. But first I need to give you some history behind the quilt.
My first quilting lesson was back in 1987. We were living north of Kansas City at the time in a little town called Parkville. Downtown Parkville was very quaint and had a few shops, one of them being a quilt shop. I was so excited after my first lessons and proceeded to make this twin sized quilt for Jarrad's bed.
Well, fast forward several years......Jarrad went in the Navy and unbeknownst to me he took the quilt with him. Trust me when I say that the Navy laundry was not kind to Jarrad's quilt. I believe it had bleach water thrown on it at least once, if not more often. And the binding had become nothing more than shreds from the rough laundering.
Fast forward several more years......now Jarrad is married with 2 boys and I spied the quilt folded neatly in a basket on the floor of their living room. The basket held several quilts I had made for Jarrad over the years and they got plenty of use covering the family while they laid on the couches and watched TV.
Three years ago I whispered to my daughter-in-law that I was "stealing" the quilt back....with the intention of repairing it and giving it back to Jarrad ready for another 25 years of use. Well, the quilt got put into a UFO(unfinished objects) bin and then we moved twice. Fast forward to this Christmas and I remembered the quilt lanquishing in a bin in my new sewing studio.
So, Joel sent it to me in Florida where I began making the necessary repairs. I'm not sure why, but somehow I had thought to save all the leftover pieces of fabric from when I originally made the quilt and they were all together in a plastic bag in one of my bins. Thank goodness I had them as I used those scraps to make new binding, an applique and a quilt label.
When I took my first quilting lesson, it was just to learn how to piece the front of the quilt together. They also taught me how to layer the front of the quilt with batting and then a piece of fabric on the back. This is called the quilt sandwich. Well, the sandwich needs something to "hold" it together. That is usually hand quilting(back then that was the only way to quilt) or you could put embroidery thread "ties" thru the three layers at regular intervals to hold the sandwich together.
I had "tied" his quilt, but the rough handling in the Navy all but destroyed those ties and the three layers were hopelessly flopping around. I knew it would take me way too long to hand quilt this quilt, so, I decided to do "big Stitch" which is something fairly new in the quilting world. It is still done by hand, but it goes much faster and is decorative and works well to hold the sandwich together.
This is what the "big Stitch" looks like from the back. As you can see, the quilt layers are now securely sewn together and the entire quilt will hold up much better to many more years of use. I altered red, cream and blue threads.......using number 8 Perle Cotton thread which sewed beautifully.
There were some areas of the quilt that had ripped and instead of trying to make the quilt perfect once again, I decided to highlight the age and distressing the quilt had taken on thru the years. Here I did a simple "X" around an area that had lost the cream and navy fabric. Who knows how that rip happened? But I think it adds to the charm and the "story" of Jarrad's quilt.
I do need to backtrack a bit. At some point during his Navy years, Jarrad brought the quilt home and I attempted to machine quilt waves on the border. I say attempted because that was before I knew anything about machine quilting. Now I cringe to look at my first try at what was a new art form at the time. Trust me when I say my machine quilting has come a long way from that first primitive attempt. But I am leaving it, as it is also a part of the history of the quilt as well as a history of the progression of my quilting skills.
Here is some more of my early attempts at machine quilting. Sigh......I was trying to make a center medallion. Oh, well.
Jarrad has become so involved in renovating VW buses and is in the middle of yet another renovation. I just had to make an applique of a VW bus in the hopes of putting a smile on his face as he uses this quilt during his chemo sesssions.
And I finally did what I should have done all those years ago......made a label for the back of the quilt giving it some identity for years in the future.
Here it is.....with all new "ties", red, navy and cream big Stitch, a new sturdier double binding around the quilt, a fun applique for the front and a label on the back. This was a labor of love and I pray it will bring comfort to Jarrad and that he will be able to feel my love as he lays under this during his recovery.
As I watched Jarrad trying to get comfortable during his first chemo session, I realized he was wishing for a more comfortable pillow. Ta-da.....I dug out a soft down pillow leftover from my home dec business and made a cover for it complete with the Bible verse I am reciting over and over during Jarrad's battle with cancer.
The quilt and pillow are going in the mail tomorrow so he will have it to use as he wishes. I'm so grateful to have sewing as an outlet to show my love and care for our son. This was a true labor of love that helped me feel like I was doing just a little something to ease Jarrad's suffering.
So glad I'm a quilter,
Debbie
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