Quilty Hugs for Palliative Care
I first became aware of the Positivity Quilt Along on Instagram. One of the talented quilters that I follow, Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts, mentioned that she was hosting a new free quilt along, with the goal of giving the finished quilts to charity. Well, I love FREE things, and I give almost all of my quilts away each year, so I clicked through to her website to get the details.
The Positivity Quilt Along benefits terminal patients at the Palliative Care Unit in Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, CA. The quilt drive is called Mercyful Quilts after the hospital that will receive them and was started by Bernie of Needle and Foot, and her friend Patty in 2018. You can read more about the requirements for the Mercyful Quilts on Bernie’s site.
Either way, Preeti came up with a design that only required a package of 10″ squares (sometimes called a Layer Cake), and 3 yards of background fabric – and away I went!
Fabric Choices
Preeti noted that there’s a particular need for gender neutral and masculine fabrics among the Mercyful Quilts. It makes sense – I mean most of the fabrics I see and am drawn to at the quilt shop are florals and other feminine patterns. But, I’ve been working on building up the non-feminine choices in my fabric stash so I was pretty sure I’d have something that worked.
I looked in my stash and found two promising choices:
Adventure by Elizabeth Hartman (Ten Stack), paired with Blossom by Christopher Thompson (yardage) – both of Riley Blake Designs.
Outdoorsy by Cathe Holden (Layer Cake), paired with Sweet Holly by Kansas Troubles Quilters (yardage) – both of Moda Fabrics
Quilt 1: Adventure and Blossom
Elizabeth Hartman’s Adventure Ten Stack has been sitting in my stash for awhile. I was drawn to its whimsical lemurs (I think that’s what they’re called), leaf patterns, and fabulous happy colors. I worried that the fabric would be a little on the youthful side for the Mercyful Quilts, but then I remembered that senior citizens aren’t the only ones who seek out palliative care. I also figured that I could send a picture to the coordinators, and if they said it wasn’t quite what they needed I could always find a home for this quilt with my other charity endeavors!
The Blossom fabric by Christopher Thompson is wonderful too. I’ve made several quilts with this fabric in different colors as backgrounds. I love that the dots are partially open, and that they’e not symmetrically placed. It means that I don’t have to worry about trying to line up the rows of dots! I’ll be picking up some more in several colors to keep on hand for future projects.
So, here’s my finished top.
Quilt 2: Outdoorsy and Sweet Holly
I first saw the Outdoorsy fabric on Pat Sloan’s daily videos and I knew I HAD to have it. I loved the boldness of the prints, the creativity behind the designs, and that it was definitely less overtly feminine than a lot of what I already had in my stash.
Sweet Holly was something that had been in my stash for awhile. I want to say that I picked it up from the clearance rack on a shop hop. I know that I liked that the dots weren’t just one color, and that they were small enough that from a few feet away it almost reads as a solid – and that the red was more of a maroon so it blended a bit more with the dark background.
So, here’s top number 2! I didn’t take a picture of the finished top from afar, so you’ll only see the layout from afar, and a closeup of the finished top.
Off to the Quilter!
So, that’s all for now on both of these quilts. They’re boxed up and on their way to my quilter, Short Story Longarm Quilting. Emily does a fantastic job, and I highly recommend her.
New to your blog but I’m glad I found it! I have quite a bit of the Outdoors line because I really responded to the theme. This would be a good pattern for that fabric. Thanks for the idea.
Thanks Sue! Welcome to the blog! The pattern is really easy to follow and makes for interesting movement on the quilt.
Both quilts are great, but I LOVE the Sweet Holly one. What a great background fabric. The layout is great, too.
Thanks Mari! My brother saw a picture of that one on my Instagram and threatened to steal it. It’s a fantastic fabric.
Oh my goodness! Two tops already and most of us are sewing blocks together (if not still cutting fabric). You are amazing! These fabrics are both wonderful choices. I love the look of both of these.
I think this is the first time I have come to your blog. I am going to go poke around and read for a bit. Nice to meet you!! Thank you so very much for participating and even making two!!
Thanks Bernie! I’m one of those weirdos that gets up super early in the morning and spends most of my before-work time sewing. I also tend to hyper-focus on projects and zoooom through until they’re done. Welcome to the blog!