Red, White, and Blue Quilts Delivered

Linda and I (but let's be honest, mostly Linda) are still chugging away on last year's RWB blocks.  We've just got a few quilts left to go from these, which as many of you know are perennial favorites at the hospital. 

These went up with a delivery last Friday while I there with my first level students.  In order to make the drop off work Chaplain Perry actually had to take my keys and go load the quilts from my car into his since I'm not allowed to leave the building while my students are there. So kudos to him. This brings our total to 781!

I love teaching nursing school. I love first level especially because of the rapid changes. The students come in as regular college kids and end the semester as baby nurses.  It's like watching a baby go from rolling over to crawling to walking.  

One of my biggest goals for them is to learn to Talk. To. Patients. And get comfortable interacting with people. You wouldn't believe how many 19 and 20 year olds don't have much experience talking to adults outside their own age range. We've actually had to drop students before and send them to work in some kind of customer service job for a year (ie McDonalds cashier) before trying again.

Of course some of them take to this better than others.  I was proud of one student this week, our first week out of the lab, who spotted a military tattoo and immediately engaged with the patient, asking what branch he was in and talking about her own family's military service.  

There are so many veterans and family members of veterans in the hospital, and although they don't universally want to talk about their service it can be a great way to connect. As is, of course, these patriotic quilts.  The chaplains always describe these as some of the most cherished and well received quilts CiL gives out.   

Same quilt as above, just flipped over

My students all survived their first hospital day, and most of them even enjoyed it! I hope your own week went well and Spring is springing wherever you are!

Future nurses of America

 Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

Four Finished

Four finished quilts, that came in the mail already finished!  My favorite kind.  These are being dropped off at the hospital today along with a couple dozen others.  

Alice sent in this pink and green diamond pattern quilt

I was getting some papers signed at the hospital the other day and made an impromptu visit to Chaplain Perry. They're made a serious dent in the 50 quilts I dropped off right after Christmas!  Perry said that a lot were given our during Snow-vid week and the week before.  Lots of deaths, and a few people just stressed beyond their wits who needed comfort. 

The green ivy reminds me of St. Patrick's Day this week!

As you might have seen already, in lieu of our usual bi-monthly block drive I am directing CiL's participants toward the H2H quilt drive during March and April.  

One of Mina's famous scrappy house quilts

Sarah had a neat idea for the H2H drive this year: in addition to selecting several charities to benefit she is also encouraging people to try to think of "Hometown Heroes" who they could gift a quilt to. A Hometown Hero is someone who was under extra stress or danger due to the pandemic but kept serving their community.

Everyone can probably think of someone they know, at least on friendly wave-and-smile terms who fits that description.  Sarah suggested mail carriers, teachers, or pastors as a start.  I want to suggest one more who have suffered this past year but might be forgotten: funeral home directors and staff.

Amy A. sent in her QAYG courthouse steps quilt

There was a day at work when I was taking care of post mortem arrangements for a patient.  We're supposed to have 2hrs to get a body moved so that the room can be turned over to admit another patient, but on this day the morgue was full, not just the fridges, the overflow too.  This happened more and more during the Covid surge and eventually we got a refrigerated 18-wheeler trailer, but this was before that.  The frazzled house-supervisor directed me to call the chaplains, who were helping to handle the body situation.  

I was trying to get a picture where you can see the cool stairstep quilting

I was then told that a local funeral home was offering transport, free of charge, using their vehicles to move our excess bodies to another hospital with a larger morgue until the receiving funeral homes could come get them.  The friendly young man who arrived soon after to pick up the patient said they actually called in in on his day off to do pick-ups.  

Love this bird backing Amy used. 

This funeral home paid an employee extra in order to help the hospital out of a bind.  So that an ambulance wouldn't be tied up transporting a body, so that a hospital room could be cleaned and a patient get out of the ER that much sooner, in order to help their community cope with the pandemic.  They did it just because they had the tools and resources and wanted to help, I don't think they got any other recognition.  

Linda made her string quilt in a blue and green pallette

Dealing with the increase in the number of funerals, as well as the bio-hazards associated with Covid deaths has placed funeral homes under a lot of stress this year.  If I can make a few extra quilts for Hometown Heroes I definitely know where I'll be taking them!

Shamrocks in the quilting! Again, perfect for St. Patty's Day mood

Sorry, no cat pictures this week.  Twice a year I have to drag their fancy Litter Robot litter box outside, disassemble it, and deep clean it and this was the week.  I remind myself that it's worth it for not having to scoop a litter box the rest of the year, but the cats are decidedly less cute when I've accidentally sloshed cold, sludgy, litter-pee-water over my shoes...

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

Love Bombs

Someone from North Dakota is love bombing CiL with quilts anonymously.  This is the second time I have received quilts with no note enclosed, my address as the return address, and no other information.

I can tell by the tacking number that they originated in Bismarck, ND.  So thank you, whoever you are. Your quilts arrived safely and they're lovely!

I really like the rainbow variegated thread used in the chain quilt. 

The second quilt is a neat sampler of vintage patterns and fabrics in pastels. 

Beautiful! They've been labeled and added to the next delivery for the hospital.  

Sundae is fiercely guarding this pile of quilts! Or it's just possible she's yawning.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

First Strings of the Year

I decided to go ahead and get working on the string blocks during our snow storm.  These are the string blocks foundation pieced onto batting that CiL did for our Jan/Feb drive.   You can see my tutorial on how I am assembling and "quilting" them here. 

I'm having a lot of fun picking our color groups and playing with  patterns. The top quilt is pink, purple, and yellow moving in a diagonal across the quilt.  

Next is blue, aqua, and green color blocks.  I've decided it looks best when I have all the stripes slanting the same direction. 

I tried to get pictures of the diagonal wavy quilting I did through the blocks, but it's hard to see. You can just see it on the upper right against the navy blue fabric.  

I've gotten lots of blue blocks already so I did a color fade on this one. Lastly, the one I showed from the tutorial, is an orange and red checkerboard with horizontal quilting lines through the blocks.

They're fun to make and easy because the quilting step is basically already done! Sundae is also enjoying these pre-padded blocks. She's an expert at keeping them from flying away ;)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

March-April Block Drive {Hands 2 Help}

So, someone forgot about that whole 28-days-in-February thing.  And someone is me.  March 1st snuck up on me!   For March and April this year we won't be doing a traditional block drive, instead I'm going to direct you toward Sarah's annual Hands2Help Drive over at her blog.  You can register and post pictures (even if you don't have a blog). There are prizes! 

Every year Sarah chooses different charities to feature for quilters to make quilts for.  Covered in Love is one of the selected charities this year, but please look at the other charities and make a quilt for any of them! Some only need smaller quilts or tops, which would obviously be a lot easier to complete.  

Sarah also posts coordinated tutorials along with the drive every year to inspire everyone and this year's theme is strings! How perfect, right after our string drive.  You can see all the tutorials for different kinds of string quilts on her blog here to give you some ideas. 

So, please go check out the Hands2Help drive! I'll be following along with all the linkups to see what things people make :)