Doris and Becky

Happy Friday, quilters! I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and ate lots of turkey and pie. 

This week's quilts are tops made by Becky and quilted by Doris. Thanks so much to those ladies for their fabulous work.

It's been cold and wet here lately, winter has made itself known. The kitties are missing their porch time. Fudge will go outside for a few minutes and then come back in to warm up. 

I tried to have him wear his sweater the other day when it was particularly cold, but he pouted and refused to move (he did look very handsome, though).

On the day I flew to Santa Fe it was still pretty warm. The kitties woke me up at 6am with a gift, a freshly dead bird in my bed! With lots of loose feathers.

I'll spare you the picture. Fudge was very proud of himself and loudly protested as I took the bird back outside. 

After vacuuming the feathers out of my bed I did get a couple more hours of sleep. This is actually the first dead bird they've brought in. Usually they're only stunned and wake up to fly around my house causing chaos.

I wish they wouldn't catch birds, but I console myself that in order to be caught the birds have to squeeze their way into my screened in porch.

They look so innocent

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1600 so far! The Summer 2025 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Quilting by Doris

Hello quilters! Happy Friday.  I have two quilts this week from one of CiL's long arm quilters Doris.  This first quilts top was donated by Becky and then quilted by Doris. The second quilt is one of Doris' own that she donated to us.

How does time seem to pass so quickly? Summer is almost over and the nights are finally getting  cooler. Today is the kitty baby's estimated birthday and they are turning 7 years old. All of your quilts continue to be a blessing to families in the hospital. 

I love the wavy quilting panto on this very patriotic quilt.   Red white and blue quilts are consistently some of our most popular. 

Outside of quilting, I've gotten into the hobby of pottery painting. I painted this octo-mug a few weeks ago and was so pleased with how it came out!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1600 so far! The Summer 2025 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Tops by Becky {Merry Christmas!}

Merry Christmas, quilters! I hope you've all had a lovely holiday and are warm and snug. This week I have several tops donated by Becky. These first couple were quilted by Pam. I love the bold fabrics and how saturated the colors are.

Becky has a knack for choosing simple patterns and bold fabrics that really sing together.

Pam did a great job quilting this one with a stipple in the white spaces so that the texture enhances the design. 

Lastly, a really LARGE top of Becky's that I sent to Sundance to be quilted. I chose a pretty interlocking sort of geometric design.  Thank you to Becky, Pam, and Sundance!

2024 is coming to an end and I cannot believe it's 2025 already! CiL turns 10 years old in 2025! I will be resuming the Covered in Love block drives in January, so keep an eye out for that post soon. 

 Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Longarmers to the rescue

Hello! This week I have a couple of tops completed by Covered in Love's devoted long-arm quilters. First this pretty, sweet top was sent in by Holly and quilted by Linda. There are lots of strawberries in the fabric and it makes me think of the strawberry shortcake dolls from years ago.

This quilt is a very generous size, so I was very grateful to be able to send it to a longarmer instead of wrestling with it on my machine.

Next is a top by Becky.  Some of you may remember that Becky drove to meet me and dropped of a whole bunch of tops kitted up with backing and bindings.

This large top was sent to Mel in south Texas. Meloney had a rough bout with Covid and I'm so glad she's back on her quilting feet. 

The wavy lines of quilting are perfect to complement the super geometric plus designs. Thanks ladies! 

Fudge has achieved maximum coziness.

More Tops by Becky

A few weeks ago I made a post with tops that I finished from a quilter named Becky, and this week I'm back with more!

I LOVE the colors in this one with the golden yellow borders.  Blue, green, and purple and traditionally cool colors, but these shades feel warm and cozy somehow!

These aren't all of Becky's tops yet, either. This is just the end of the ones small enough for me to quilt easily on my mid arm machine. There are about 5 or 6 left that will probably go to longarmers eventually.

Becky met me in a parking lot almost a year ago with a trunk full of quilt-bits and it's the gift that keeps on giving!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 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

Busy Becky

Happy weekend quilters! I've been busy tackling the donated tops here at headquarters. For some reason I seem to always get a bee in my bonnet this time of year. 

All of the tops in this post were donated by Becky M. during last year's H2H drive and quilted by me. You can see some of her other quilts by following this link and scrolling down. 

I am in the midst of a 3-week stent working in the hospital (normally I only work 2 weeks in a row) so I am more tired than usual.  It is also the end of the semester for our nursing students and they are enjoying clinical time in the hospital.

This is a fun part of the semester, as they get to apply everything they have learned to real life situations and start to get comfortable in a clinical setting for the first time.  

I am protective of my students (my own first level experience was traumatizing) and I've been fortunate the past 2 semesters to be on a unit full of nurses, techs, PT and OT folks, dieticians, and many more who embrace the students and are eager to help them learn.  

Last week the orthopedic device specialist set up a little lecture for them about different kinds of traction, splints, casts, and braces.  One of the students got an arm cast put on and removed and it was the highlight of her week!

In many ways my goal with the students is not very different from the goal of CiL.  The presence of certain people and small things can change the perception of an experience completely.  A memory can be tender or harsh, sour or sweet, depending on who was around and how you were treated at the time. 

These quilts will help, hopefully, to soften and warm the memory of losing a loved one.

Fudge-a-roo

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 900 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

Quilt Roundup

Some big quilts today along with some big news! This great big, beautiful top was pieced by Sherrill and quilted by Pam. 

The big news is that after 7 years Covered in Love is expanding into a second hospital! As you may have gathered from my comments before, there are two very large hospitals in Tyler and they sit side by side.  With everyone's generous support and many new people joining in we have now grown to the point that we needed to expand!

Back during the Hands2Help Drive last year Becky donated some finished and almost finished quilts and also a bunch of tops with backing and binding.  We're finally starting to work on completing Becky's tops. Linda quilted these two on her longarm. She did a medallion design on the first quilt and side to side on the second. 

The "new" hospital is slightly larger than the one we have been in and also has a larger chaplaincy department with 24-hour coverage. All of which means they will probably distribute more quilts faster. 

This morning (2/10) I took the first load of quilts up to the new hospital and Perry and I met with their chaplains to introduce the charity and give them some ideas how to implement it in ways that work for them. It went great! 

This interlocking circles quilting pattern (above) is one of my favorites that Linda does.  Wendy, who helps with quilting for Cil, sent in this quilt of her own.  Lovely bright colors!

I'm excited about the exciting new opportunities for CiL to reach more East Texans and I know you all will be, too! 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 900 so far! The January/February drive is running 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