Friday, January 22, 2016

Status Report

There's so much to catch up on here in The Magpie's Nest that I hardly know where to begin. My head is not fully in the game at the moment either. Let's see... how about a list?

  1. I finished the binding on the second twin's quilt. Need to get that photographed.
  2. I'm more than halfway around the binding on a Parts Department quilt, then that will also need to be photographed.
  3. I'm making more of the 12" Ohio Stars I made for last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge to fill out a second Parts Department quilt. 
  4. As the blocks are coming in for Miss May's Foot Square Freestyle (F2F) quilt I'm sewing them together. 
  5. My sweet, charming father-in-law passed away. It's a good thing really, we just have to adjust to the new normal and sort out funeral arrangements.

The one item I can elaborate on a little bit right now is the F2F quilt. When we began our swap Miss May knew she might not see her blocks or be able to assemble them into a quilt. We didn't know it at the time but she is in the late stages of ovarian cancer. A drug trial did not have the desired benefits for her. The rest of the swappers have now taken it upon themselves to make their blocks for her immediately instead of waiting until her scheduled turn in May. They are being sent to me and I am sewing them together according to the plan Kate and Avis devised digitally. They also created a virtual quilt for Miss May so she can see what her quilt will look like.



I have about half the blocks here in The Nest. I put them on my design wall this morning to show you the progress so far.


Once again the quilt will be larger than my design wall so what you see above is not entirely true to the design plan. Almost a whole column has been left out. Nevertheless, you can see that it's coming along nicely. I'm expecting blocks from Germany, France, the UK, and Australia any day now.

When this top has been assembled my son will do the quilting. Our hope is that we'll be able to get this done and shipped to Miss May before it's too late. Whether she has time to enjoy it or not, it will eventually be donated to the M.D. Anderson Ovarian Quilt Project to be auctioned off to raise monies for research into the screening for and treatment of ovarian cancer.

Speaking of the Foot Square Freestyle swap, I haven't been very good about posting the blocks I've been making for each month's participants. You can see all the blocks that have been made over the last seven months by all the participants by clicking on the highlighted phrase above and scrolling down.


12 comments:

  1. What a wonderful gift of love for Miss May, and I truly hope she lives so she can see her quilt in reality. A digital layout, looks so good, and how great the " Long-arm-quilter-in-residence" will do the final quilting. Lovely blocks and gorgeous colours.

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  2. It's been said many times, but once more won't hurt....thankyou so much Sue for taking on the big task of assembling, binding and forwarding the quilt on. And big thanks to your son too, I'm glad you have him to quilt it for you. It's looking good on your design wall so far.

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  3. You're dealing with a lot, here. I hope Miss May gets to wrap herself in her quilt.
    Hugs to you and your son for doing such a kind thing.

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  4. The blocks look amazing in real life, so much better than the flat images in the virtual quilt! I hope the rest turn up soon so you can pace yourself with the assembly; it's logical that you do it, but I feel badly that you have ended up with so much work. I hope you will tell James for all of us how grateful we are for his kindness in looking after the quilting. I'm sure he's going to do a wonderful job. Miss May has sent me several emails saying how pleased she is with the virtual quilt and how happy she is that we've taken on the mission of spreading the word about ovarian cancer.

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  5. It's lovely to see it coming together on your design wall. It already looks very good!
    I'm sorry to hear about your loss, best wishes for the coming weeks and months as you adjust to the new reality.

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  6. We are all so grateful that you are able to piece the quilt and your son can work his magic on the quilting. I can't wait to see it when it's finished. I hope my blocks arrive soon - I've just learnt that the ones I sent to Christina in early December aren't there yet :(

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  7. My condolences on your father-in-law's passing. Miss May's quilt is beautiful, and all the hands used to make in are loading it with comfort for the recipient.

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  8. Sending hugs to all who are making Miss May's quilt blocks and to you for assembling it, your son for quilting it, and most of all to Miss May who is coping with the cancer. Kudos to all - and to the caregivers of M.D. Anderson (they do awesome work there).

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  9. The blocks you have received are looking good together. I hope the others are not too far behind!

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  10. I am so sorry for your loss.
    I hope you and your family find kindness, friendship and love amongst yourselves to honor this life.
    Thank you Sue & son also taking this quilt on for Pat. It looks wonderful already!
    Hugs
    Esther

    esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com

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  11. Lovely on the design wall! Fingers crossed for no postal glitches. I echo the thanks to you and your son for the finishing.

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  12. it's going to be a beautiful quilt! <3

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