A Quilted Hug

Jan 5, 2012

To me, a comfort quilt is like a quilted hug. Something to wrap around you when you need to feel held and safe.

Shea brought me a comfort quilt to quilt that had such a bittersweet purpose. It was made for her friend whose husband had passed away. He was so young and such a fighter. But his time here was over and he left behind his wife and two young children…..gets me everytime I think about it.

Shea made quilts for Sarah and both of the children, which you can read more about here. She quilted the kid’s quilts but had a special idea in mind for Sarah’s quilt.

Shea knew that she wanted a scripture verse quilted on the quilt and, of course, I agreed. But I wanted to try something a little different. Normally, when I quilt words or phrases in a quilt, I like them to blend in with the quilting so that it’s almost like an “I Spy” type of quilt. But for Sarah, I wanted the words to be upfront and easily accessible. But as you can see, the front of the quilt is busy and it would be hard to see from the front. So I decided to quilt the words so that the are visible and legible from the back. Which is a bit trickier than one might think.

I loaded the quilt like normal and quilted a swirly design along the top, bottom and edges, leaving myself plenty of room in the middle of the quilt. (If you try this on a longarm, make sure to pin baste the center area really well) Then I took the quilt off, and loaded it upside down and then proceeded to quilt the scripture verse.

The great thing about being a machine quilter is that I never know what quilts are going to come my way, each one presents a new thing to try. And I am so thankful to have played a small part in this quilt.

Now I am off to hug my babies!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).