WIP Wednesday 5/30/2012

Relay For Life 2012

Fundraiser quilt donated to office Relay for Life team

Purchased by $100 donation

Quilt top completely from stash

Original design. 48" square.

Completed 5/28/2012

Close-up

This week I finished and delivered a fundraiser quilt to benefit a Relay for Life team in my office. The quilt was paid for last week with a $100 donation, sight unseen, before I finished the quilt or showed it to anyone. I knew nothing about the pre-purchase until after I had given the quilt to the team's fundraising coordinator, who didn't want to say anything to me ahead of time, in order not to influence my creativity. The funny thing is, I spoke to the buyer of the quilt last week, discussing how the color scheme had changed. She told me that whatever I made would be beautiful. She gave no clue that she had already planned to buy the quilt. Wow!

There's more to the story. As I was running out of time to finish the quilt on Monday, the quilt became smaller than originally planned. I ended up leaving off four rows of checkerboard and the border. I felt badly that the quilt was going to be so small, but I began to get the hunch that  maybe whoever got the quilt needed it to be small - lap size rather than my usual throw size. Get this, as it turns out, the quilt is going to be given to a 14-month-old little girl. At 48" square, the quilt is just the right size. Amazing!

As for future quilts, I have nothing pressing right now. It happens now and then, and I've spent the last couple of days going through papers and planning a vacation to visit my daughter Lisa in San Diego. My tentative quilting plans for the next few weeks:
- Make a couple more Echoes quilts for the Redwood Center. I purchased background fabric months ago to go with leftovers from A Study in Stripes and Cristine's Bosties.
- I am participating in a trade for ATCs (artist trading cards), which must be mailed by the end of June.
- I'd like to finish up a Fourth of July wallhanging; the quilt top has been sitting in my closet for nine years or more. Yes, I do have a handful of UFOs.
- I have a shirt that has been waiting for months to be cut out and sewn together.
- I'd like to make another mixed media wallhanging. I have a couple of greeting cards that would be good starts.

We'll see what this next week brings. Hopefully I'll be working on something again.