I haven't found the words to describe the Quilts for Pulse project, the impact it has had on our community, our guild, myself, and I am not sure I ever will. The QFP top that was started at our annual Gruber's retreat has now been quilted and photographed, so it's about time I at least blogged about that.
Nine of us made the retreat this year; each of us made an oversized heart block from Happy Zombie's Love Quilt pattern.
We each selected a color; you know I don't even remember for sure which color I chose ;-)
Mary, of course, selected turquoise blue!
Coming up with the block layout was a group effort and was not taken lightly...sure wish I had input from eight others all the time!
The quilt top was finished in July at our retreat. It sat patiently waiting to be quilted while I helped with other aspects of the QFP project. Due to the overwhelming generosity of the worldwide community, our Orlando Modern Quilt Guild set about making quilt tops from the incredible number of heart blocks sent in, quilting and binding those tops, photographing each completed quilt, distributing quilts to those affected by the Pulse tragedy, and writing thank you notes.
As for the quilting, I quilted various patterns in the heart blocks and the phrase "love is love is love" in the negative space. I didn't mark the letters or lines, preferring to quilt organically as if I were writing those words. I have messy handwriting ;-)))
Serendipity has been a common theme when discussing QFP with my guild friends. (One day I hope someone writes all about that.) When it came to the binding, I was in a hurry and grabbed from my leftover binding collection. While stitching the binding to the front, I realized the fabric was all from Amy Butler's LOVE fabric collection! During our Gruber retreat photo with the quilt, Stephanie and I realized we were both wearing our Glamp Stitchalot t-shirts designed by Monica aka Happy Zombie (not planned). The backing is Amanda Jean's Good Neighbor's fabric line. Serendipitous, indeed!
Our heart quilt was finished (just) in time to be professionally photographed (thank you Paula Kennedy!) for QuiltCon's Quilt For Pulse exhibit. After the photo shoot the quilt was gifted to a 911 operator who had to listen to and transcribe all the horrific emergency phone calls from that terrible night.
Nine of us made the retreat this year; each of us made an oversized heart block from Happy Zombie's Love Quilt pattern.
We each selected a color; you know I don't even remember for sure which color I chose ;-)
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| Lovely Mary! |
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Coming up with the block layout was a group effort and was not taken lightly...sure wish I had input from eight others all the time!
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| Love these girls!!! |
As for the quilting, I quilted various patterns in the heart blocks and the phrase "love is love is love" in the negative space. I didn't mark the letters or lines, preferring to quilt organically as if I were writing those words. I have messy handwriting ;-)))
Serendipity has been a common theme when discussing QFP with my guild friends. (One day I hope someone writes all about that.) When it came to the binding, I was in a hurry and grabbed from my leftover binding collection. While stitching the binding to the front, I realized the fabric was all from Amy Butler's LOVE fabric collection! During our Gruber retreat photo with the quilt, Stephanie and I realized we were both wearing our Glamp Stitchalot t-shirts designed by Monica aka Happy Zombie (not planned). The backing is Amanda Jean's Good Neighbor's fabric line. Serendipitous, indeed!
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| photo by Paula Kennedy Photography |
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| Our quit label |
Quilty friends definitely do rock! I am so grateful to my retreat friends for helping make this quilt for someone in need and so appreciative of the generosity of the worldwide quilting community that made it possible for the OrlandoMQG to deliver almost 1,800 quilts.
If you will be in Savannah next week for QuiltCon, please stop by the QuiltsforPulse exhibit and see photos of all the quilts made and donated. There is an official meet up at the exhibit Saturday at 12:30, but at least one member from our guild will be there during all hours of the show.
Hope I get the chance to say Hi! and Thank You!
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.
