No one fights alone

I finished the quilt for the young woman who I advise and shipped it off to her.  She was diagnosed with fibrolomellar cancer...a rare form of liver cancer that strikes young adults.  The quilt is "silver and bordeaux," our sorority colors and is backed in stars.  The Big Dipper is in our crest.  Messages of hope and encouragement fill the back of the quilt.  

Sorority Life

I am a chapter advisor to an amazing chapter of Greek women.  We rally to support eachother and do what we can to help those in need.  We are a sisterhood.

 

I received a phone call a few weeks ago that one of my chapter members was diagnosed with cancer...her last semester of college.  Instead of enjoying her last semester she is starting the battle of her life.

 

Our colors are silver and bordeaux and the closest I was going to get with quilting fabric at my LQS was maroon and grey.  I bought 12 different fabrics, 6 of each color, and cut 10 inch squares to make a quick and easy quilt top.  I had just enough fabric leftover to cut binding strips.

 

                                             

 

I just picked up the backing from the chapter house.  I bought a white on white print covered in stars and left pigma pens at the house for all of our members to write a message to their sister.  The big dipper is in our crest and one of our recruitment songs says "the stars and the dipper shine down on my sisters and me."  I am planning on sandwiching and quilting Wednesday night and binding on Thursday so I can stick this in the mail.  Our member will be wrapped in love from her sisters and have a constant reminder that we are in this one together.

 

Better photos will be posted after the quilt is finished :)

 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish it Friday.

My Quilt is Finished

I finished 3 of 4 quilts in time for Christmas.  Since the last one was for me my deadline of Christmas was not firm.  I finished up my quilt Sunday afternoon on the drive back from my parent's house.  Now all of us have the same quilt. 

 

We all have grey ribbons on our quilts in support of my Dad and his battle with Glioblastoma.  I am happy to say that he is responding well to his chemo and had another clear scan a few weeks ago!!

 

 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish it Friday.

Christmas Quilting

I finished the last quilt in the nick of time for Christmas, sewing the last bit of binding to the quilt around 9:30 on Christmas Eve...talk about cutting it close!  Below is a photo of my Dad with the quilt.  To say he loved it was an understatement.

 

 

There is a grey ribbon appliqued to the corner of each of the quilts that I made for my family.  We are all in this battle called brain cancer together.  For those that don't know, my Dad was diagnosed with Glioblastoma in March 2013...to say this year has been rough is an understatement.  Our world as we know it was forever changed with the diagnosis.  My life is lived in 8 week increments, from one brain scan to the next.  I love my Dad so much and it makes my heart hurt so much that he (and the rest of us) have to go through this, but we are in this together; hence the matching quilts with the ribbons.  

Below is a photo of my Mom and Dad, my brother, my sister and I.  I have started my version of the quilt but didn't get it finished in time for Christmas.  I am hoping to finish it on New Years Day while my hubby watches football and my girls are with my parents.  My sister was very excited to "make the blog."

This is my Dad and my youngest N.  They are buddies...always have been and always will be. 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.

Cancer Sucks

To say my world was rocked two weeks ago is an understatement. Exactly two weeks ago my Dad was rushed to the hospital via ambulance after suffering what he called an "earthquake" on the left side of his body while at work. I was on the road for work and rushed home, packed a bag and started the 1.5 hour drive to my parent's house. Thankfully my Aunt was home and talked to me for almost the entire ride to help distract me from the unknown in the emergency room.

They thought he had a stroke....what the doctors would tell us later that night would forever change my life. My Dad had a brain tumor with a large cyst attached to it, much like a water balloon. Several days in the hospital and more tests we knew that his full body scan was clear and surgery to remove and biopsy the tumor was scheduled for March 18th.

Surgery went well and he was discharged after only 4 days. Friday we got preliminary Pathology indicating that the tumor is rare and malignant. We are waiting on final pathology from the research hospital and he met with his neurological oncologist today to develop his treatment plan.

My Aunt (same one who talked to me on my ride) called me on the 15th and asked me to pick her up at the airport on the 16th, she was coming to surprise my Mom and be there for everyone during this marathon. She said she was bringing fabric and we were going to make my Dad a quilt. The backing fabric looks like tree trunks and is quite fitting for my Dad...I have table that he made out of tree trunks. Grey is also perfect as it is the awareness color for brain cancer.

Saturday night we started cutting and sewing fabric at my sister's house. On Sunday, my sister decided that she wanted to learn how to sew and sat and sewed strips together for 2 hours. We sewed and cut on Monday night after the surgery and on Tuesday I left and headed back home, returning on Friday. My aunt sewed all day Friday to finish the quilt top and on Saturday I basted and started quilting. Quilting was finished late Saturday night and I bound the quilt. I am a crazy person who loves to hand bind so on Monday I started to bind the quilt, finishing late Tuesday night so my husband could deliver the quilt when he went to my parent's house Wednesday morning.

I just Facetimed with everyone and got to watch my Dad open his quilt. He loves it. I hate that these are the circumstances that he got his very own quilt, but I know that quilts bring comfort and I hope this brings him a ton of comfort. The quilt tag reads:

"The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience. Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around…Throughout history, "tender loving care: has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing." ~Larry Dossey
"Wrapping you in tender loving care."

Sorry for the cell phone photos...my sister is sending me better, daylight photos and I will update.

My Quilt Story

When you receive a phone call from your Mom in the middle of the day and she asks you where you are, the news is never going to be good. I told her that I was working at home that day and she then asked if K (my daughter)was in the room with me, I responded "no." She then told me that she had some "not so good news." My heart sank as I knew that "no so good" is code for pretty stinky, really bad news. That is when she told me that our dear friend J had just been diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer.

You see, J is more than a dear friend, she is framily, which made the news that much harder to take. Framily is a friend that is like family. J's husband and my father have been dear friends since 6th grade and I grew up with J and her family. J and my Mom were pregnant together. J and T (her husband) were some of the first people that I told when I got engaged. T gave the blessing before dinner at my wedding reception, they were some of the first people that my husband and I told when I was pregnant with first K and then N. They are framily that I know would do anything for us if we ever needed them.

So when my Mom told me that horrific news, I knew that I needed to sew something and I needed to get it finished quick. I immediately hopped in the car with K and headed to the fabric store. On my way there, my Aunt N called me. She is the quilter who inspired me to start quilting and told me that she wanted to help me with the quilt and told me about a quilt that she made for her sister-in-law. With that J's quilt was born. I returned home and got on the internet while my Aunt headed to her quilt store clear across the country (California...and I live in NY) and I looked at fabric while she looked in her store ((Oops-A-Daisy by Keiki for Moda) . My Aunt N and her quilt group made the nine patch blocks on the front, cut my inner border and made my binding.

Fabric was put in the mail and I immediately started to reach out to J's family, friends and framily to have them send me their left hand print. I set out to make J a quilt with the hand prints of all those who love her and support her...to wrap her in love while she kicked cancer in its behind. The response was overwhelming and I knew that I was not going to have enough fabric. While on a business trip, I stopped at one of my favorite little quilt stores and low and behold, they had just received some fabric from this line in the prior day. The fabric for the nine patches on the back as well as the cute white flowers on the back were added to the quilt.

There are 47 handprints and puppy prints that were sent to me from all across the country. The out pouring of love for J was amazing. I had never appliqued a quilt before in my short quilting time and took this on knowing that it was for someone who my family loves and is praying for. I finished the quilt in 3.5 weeks, start to finish, which is a record for me. Through every snip of the scissors, stitch that was made (and ripped out- there were quite a few as I quilted half of the quilt and ripped it all out because it was not good enough for J), prayers were said for her healing.

My Dad and his friend, also part of the framily, flew to Florida to deliver the quilt to J in September. I wish I could have been there with them, but know that J was wrapped in our love, support and our prayers.

I thought she was the one who could beat cancer, that she would be one of the 5% that do, but God had other plans, J went to heaven on Tuesday, November 8, 2011. I hope that the quilt can bring comfort to her family just as it brought her comfort during her battle.

We love you J!