New Directions

Tops by Priscilla

Before all the Covid stuff started CiL was working on a small new project that I'm excited to tell you about! As some of you may know, when CiL started years ago I was working at one hospital. Then, after getting my NP license I moved to the other large area hospital (literally next door).  Together, these medical systems serve a large rural area covering much of North East Texas.

CiL has continued, all this time, to distribute quilts only at the first hospital. The program is very well establish and flourishing there and we have just about the right amount of quilts to meet demand. In my new setting at the other hospital a copy cat of the original CiL program wouldn't work, but there are needs that could be filled. Fortunately, a former co-worker and friend now leads the patient and experience program and was very open to me dropping by her office and offering unsolicited ideas!

Top by Deb

 They are now working on something based on the "Comfort Cart" program used in some hospitals. (For those of you familiar with healthcare, the idea of a comfort cart is to be complementary to a Crash Cart, for when a death is expected.)  To be clear, this isn't a CiL program, it's the hospital's program, but CiL is going to try contributing some quilts to be on the carts as it rolls out.

The hospital team has decided to trial their new program (which hasn't rolled out yet, as you can imagine amid the chaos) on the NICU first. The hospital NICU is prepared to care for babies born as premature as 24 weeks and unfortunately not all of them make it home.

Vintage top by Theresa, sent in by her daughter

Athough CiL doesn't officially accept child quilts we did have 4 small UFO tops on hand and then Erin sent in a smallish finished quilt. So, sometime soon these first five quilts will go up to the hospital for the trial of this new program.

PLEASE don't inundate me with baby quilts! I know everyone loves to make baby quilts, but hospital beurocracy is slowing down the roll out of this program and our quilts will only be one of many things on the carts so I do not anticipate demand will be very high at all, at least for a while. I will let you know if and when there's a need for more! 
 In the meantime I don't have any place to store them and I don't want to have to figure out what to do with them if my supply significantly exceeds demand. If you want to scratch that baby quilt itch I always recommend Jack's basket. You can see one of the quilts Christine and I made with its new precious little owner here.

Quilt by Erin

 So, that is the new news here. No idea if the new outreach will fly or flop, but it's exciting to grow! Stay tuned for updates, but probably don't expect one soon. Hospital committees move at the speed of molasses. ( This is why the CiL was originally launched under the "better to ask forgiveness than permission" philosophy.)

Adventure cat explores a tree downed by storms

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The March/April drive is going on 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

Spring to Finish Challenge

I've decided to participate in Jacquie's Spring to Finish challenge. The deadline is May 31 and I'm aiming to get both NICU donation quilts done, the plume quilt done, rainbow strings done, couple of squares a completed top, and the body of the bargello sandwich quilted. Last night in a burst of motivation I finished the plume top and the Portals on Arabia quilt.

This top is about 66 X 77. It's supposed to be a twin, but looks fine an a full size bed. That lump in to the lower right is Wilson, by the way.

MIA

So I've been out of the loop for almost a week. Four consecutive all-day's at work plus my thesis deadline (Friday) have kept me busy and without much energy for quilting. I have decoratively hand quilted several more 'portals' on the NICU donation quilt I'm calling "Portals on Arabia." There are two left to go.
I tweaked the color to try and make the quilting show up better but the metallic threads in the linen just obscures it in the photo.

I turned a stack of 42 10" layer cake pieces into 42 of these 9.5" (plus sashing makes them 11.5") blocks over the last few days. I decided that I need to finish something or else I'm going to lose my quilting momentum; I haven't had a finish since the Whirligig quilt and all my current major projects are stalled due to factors beyond my control. I had already decided the I wanted to mimic this quilt with the Plume layer cake that I absolutely couldn't resist. It's not my normal style but I chose it because the Plume fabrics have such beautiful, large motifs I didn't want to chop it up. Plus it'll be a really quick finish and it will be nice to hold a freshly washed, completed quilt again.

The sashing is fine ribbed corduroy. I made sure that the ribbing runs long ways on all the strips so that it feels nice to pet. This is going to make a twin size quilt for a little girl and should be finished within the next week or so.

Wilson has been taken off crinkly ball probation and is enjoying his reward, as you can see.

PS- I wanted to share this post I ran across on Quilterblogs about a great thread and odd-and-ends storage system. I immediately made a trip to Walmart and found these double-sided plastic carry-alls in the hotwheels section, as promised. You can't get better sewing storage for a more reasonable price!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Trying new techniques on a couple of quilts for this great project.