Billy and Eileen, Two Special People, Two Special Quilts

If you know me then you know that I spend a LOT of time with my family.  I hang with my cousins and their kids, my aunts, my grandparents, and my parents and then sometimes my friends. 

Well, it sucks when family moves but it happens, so my Auntie Eileen and Uncle Billy moved to Arkansas and we missed them, but hey it's fun to visit down there too!  Then Billy got sick and started chemo and I just had to make something for them.  Well...as you may have guessed if you saw the post about my WIPs I'm not a fast finisher but hey they got there on Monday, just as he is about to start radiation.  Thought counts I say!

So, I made Billy a quilt.  I used the "Blue Ice Quilt" pattern from Quilting Modern: techniques and projects for improvisational quilts By: Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen.  I made the blocks a bit bigger but that is the great thing about the patterns in their book, you can just do what you wanna do it is improvisational!  The finished size is 82.5"x59.75" after washing.

The solids I used are Lime, Raffia and Ivory Kona Cottons.  The prints for the crazy pieced centers all came from my stash and the backing is Joel Dewberry Woodgrain in Dill and Bark.  I quilted Billy's quilt with vertical lines a little less than 1" apart using Aurifil thread.  

Do you spot the elephants?  Ya he is a republican and I just happened to have some elephant fabric!

As I was working on Billy's Quilt I thought about how caregivers are often overlooked and I wanted to make sure that my Auntie Eileen had something to keep her warm as well so of course, another quilt!  The idea for this one was pulled from a quilt by Katie Pedersen and I just used HSTs and made them BIG to make a simple and fast star design using prints from my stash in aquas and limes on an Ivory Kona background.  I like how their quilts have some of the same fabrics.  The back of her quilt is Amy Butler's Passion Lily in Fern.

I quilted Eileen's quilt vertically with straight lines in a mossy green Aurifil thread like Billy's.  Her quilt is 65.25"x54" after washing.

Before I bound the quilts I called and sent out some e-mails to my family looking for prayers.  My friend Emily often writes prayers in the bindings of her quilts and I loved the idea of collecting prayers for both of these quilts.  I wrote the prayers and thoughts from their family in the inside of the bindings, I had enough to cover all 4 sides on each and then stitched the binding down by hand.  Billy and Eileen will not be able to read the prayers in the binding (though I did give them a card with what is written in their quilt) but they will always be wrapped in prayers and thoughts from their family.  

I am so happy to be able to have made them these quilts and bring them some comfort and warmth from family even when we cannot be with them.  

Today I am linking up with Sew Thinky Thursday where Emily is asking the question, "What is the most meaningful thing you've ever made?"...ya got that covered see above.  Thanks for reading, I know, long post but hey glad ya made it this far!