Thursday, July 21, 2022

Karen's Quilts

Very cool scrappy border blocks

Happy Friday once again, quilters! This week I have 5 quilts made by Karen M. and sent in to Covered in Love already finished. Hooray!

One of my favorite parts of teaching nursing school and also training new nurses in the hospital is seeing them years later all grown up and independent. I had enough students shadow me as a nurse that I run across them pretty frequently. It's always sweet when they remember me.

LOVE the colors and fabrics in this one

Once I had a first level student with me and we were taking care of a very elderly nursing home patient with heart failure. The woman had severe dementia and didn't respond to us at all, but she sang hymns loudly with a nice voice that echoed down the hall. 

It's easy to tell when nursing home patients are favorites of the staff because their skin is nice and well taken care of.  This lady had pristine skin and someone had packed her a travel bag with some thickened juices, applesauce and extra diapers. 

So simple but I love this one

Her heart failure and immobility led to severe edema in her lower extremities. Edema is the collection of fluid in tissues where it sinks in when pressed and doesn't rebound quickly. When we turned this lady my hand would practically sink into her skin and be enveloped.  My first level student was absolutely fascinated seeing something she had learned about in class in real life. She brought one of her classmates back from lunch with her and excitedly asked, "Can I show my friend the edema?"

Awesome quilting pattern

I remember thinking, this kid is going to be alright. She's going to become a nurse, and a hell of a good one.  Couple years later I was in a code situation, my patient's heart stopped and alarms were going and all the calvary was on the way. I looked up at the ICU nurses crowding into the room and saw that same student in ICU nurse scrubs.  All grown up :)


We haven't finished on a picture of Sundae-Monday in a while!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The July/August block drive benefiting Uvalde is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

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

5 comments:

  1. Wow, so many wonderful quilts from Karen! Love the stories of your experiences with students and patients too.

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  2. I love Karen's quilts! She must be such a creative person to sew so many different blocks, designs and color combos. Both Karen and your nursing student are making the world a better place :)

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  3. Love the second and third quilts - the two improvised ones. They look fun and like a good sew ;) Thanks for another inside into your job. xo

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  4. Awesome quilts from Karen M., a fabulous story from you, and a fine Sundae-Monday photo finish, Kat!!

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