Saturday 28 March 2015

Ella Blue: A Finished Quilt

I have been very quiet on my blog. Part of it was the business of work and life. Then a tragedy struck a close friend of mine and I have been navigating through my grief. I will blog about it briefly in another post, but for now I wanted to share this finished quilt, Ella Blue.

This is not a baby quilt. It was never my intention to make a huge quilt amongst all the other quilts on my list, but when I heard about a co-worker's 11-year-old daughter, Ella, being stricken with cancer and fighting for her life, I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I dropped everything and made a quilt for this brave little girl, using blue as the main colour because that is Ella's absolute favourite colour.

I used Jeni Baker's Giant Star tutorial not realizing just how giant it was going to be. My 6'1" husband is holding this quilt over his head and it is almost touching the ground.
 The star itself is made of Elizabeth Olwen's Wildwood line for Cloud 9, a line I have been drawn to and finally purchased while on a recent shop hop. I find it sweet and feminine without being too "little girl." The background is Kona Lake .
I did a free motion meander all over the quilt in a light blue Aurafil. Honestly, I had a need for speed and knew I could fly through the quilting. It was a BEAST, though, and so my meandering is not as smooth as I would have liked.

For the backing I used a blue flannelette that I had in my stash. The blue worked well with the front and I had lots of it, and again, since speed was of utmost importance, I pre-shrunk it and went for it.

The binding is a scrappy mix but mostly Alison Glass in this gorgeous blue.
 I also made my first ever quilt label. I used this special ink and some tiny stampers and some more Kona Lake, pressed over. I didn't really want to hand sew it so I machine sewed it but I really need a better way. The quilt is bunched up here so it looks wavy but it is actually pretty straight. This is definitely something I need to practice.
"Made for Ella. Because she is strong."
The quilt will be delivered, along with other gifts, to the mother at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto. It is one of the best children's hospitals in the world and though Ella has a long fight ahead of her I feel like there is every reason for optimism. I hope she loves it, or that it at least can provide some comfort to a family member who is sleeping by her side in the hospital.

Lynn

5 comments:

  1. Ella Blue is absolutely gorgeous and I'm sure will provide much needed comfort to Ella and her family!

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  2. Awesome label! Love the quilt, and I'm sure Ella will enjoy her snuggles in it. Well done.

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  3. I'm sure the whole family will appreciate your kindness the colours are beautiful x

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  4. It's a lovely quilt, Lynn. Big enough for more than one to snuggle under. I know it will be treasured by that special little girl. My prayers are with her and her family. The extra love sewn in will go a long way!

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  5. What an awesome gift. I hope she feels better soon.

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