Thursday, September 10, 2020

Two for Wrap A Smile


As many of you know, one of the charities that I love to support is Wrap A Smile. They provide comfort quilts to several Rotary International sponsored surgery missions, where medical teams travel around the world repairing cleft palates and other disfiguring conditions. Wrap a Smile was the brainchild of Terry (Hodskins) Fullam, who passed away this summer.


To honor Terry's memory, quilters have been making scores of quilts with the letter "T" in the designs. My red, yellow and black quilt was the 100th T quilt! And to make it extra special, I was able to present it in person to Terry's successor, Ann. 


Ann and her husband Steve live in Maine, and the timing was perfect for Sean and me to meet them face to face for the first time last month. Well, it was mostly "mask to mask," but we did take the masks off to share a socially-distanced outdoor picnic dinner in a local park and snap a few commemorative photos. It was a delightful evening with new friends, with lots of great stories and laughter.


I also had this little quilt in a simple patchwork squares design ready for Wrap a Smile, so I hand delivered this one, too.


The yellow border fabric is sparkly, and the precut 6.5" squares feature flowers and butterflies.


I try to make the backings fun on the quilts I make for children, using bigger chunks of large scale prints in colors that coordinate with the front. The center lavender piece has tiny hummingbirds on it; so cute! The red, yellow and black backing on the T quilt features cafe tables and chairs, the Eiffel tower, and little dogs wearing berets. Novelty fabrics just make me happy!


 We're hoping to visit Ann and Steve again as we work our way back south along the Maine coast. Sadly, all the Rotaplast surgery missions are on hold because the pandemic, so the need for more quilts is "on pause." I won't have more quilts to hand off to Ann, but I know our shared love of travel and quilting will give us many hours of great conversation. 

17 comments:

  1. I love the idea of T quilts to honour a special person and they work they did.... so much important work is having to go on hold... sad isn't it.... So lovely you could meet Ann and catch up...
    Hugz

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  2. How wonderful you were able to meet Terry’s successor!

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  3. Very nice. Glad to see! Thank you for all you do.

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  4. Congrats on donating the 100th "T" quilt in Terry's honor!!

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  5. Louise both quilts are so pretty, and I love the smaller print and novelty fabrics on them, so fun! Is that your own design on the T quilt?
    Nice photo of you and Ann and how nice to meet someone new and share a picnic. Glad to see you are doing well.

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  6. How fun for you to get to hand off the 100th quilt in person!! I hope the mission gets to start up again soon.

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  7. How wonderful that you were able to meet Ann to personally hand off the quilts. Neat idea, too, to make quilts with a T in them to honor Terry. Great finishes, Louise!

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  8. Great quilts with fun story. Your timing was perfect and so are all your comfort quilts. You do inspire us.

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  9. Wonderful quilts! Fun meet-up!! And fun that yours was number 100!

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  10. I read about your visit with Ann and the hand off of the quilts on the Wrap a Smile blog a while ago. I want to start making some quilts for them since my husband is a Rotarian (who had never heard of the program before I mentioned it). Hopefully the missions can get started again soon. Enjoy your voyages back to the warm weather.
    Pat

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  11. Congratulations of the 100th "T" quilt! What an honor it must have been for you to be able to personally present the quilts to Ann. If I remember right, you actually recognized some of your quilts in pictures with the children who received them. So very, very special....a "goosebump" moment.
    You have a heart of gold when it comes to giving & doing for children. THANK YOU!

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  12. The red, black and yellow T quilt is bright, bold and very fun. The backs of both quilts have some really fun fabrics. How fun that you were able to pass on the quilts in person. Happy sailing and stitching.

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  13. The red, black and yellow T quilt is bright, bold and very fun. The backs of both quilts have some really fun fabrics. How fun that you were able to pass on the quilts in person. Happy sailing and stitching.

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  14. Your colours for the T quilt looks great and wonderful to be able to hand it on personally. As always, simple bright quilts always a winner.

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  15. Cute quilts! And how exciting to meet up with an online friend and hand off quilts for a great cause. It sounds like a win-win-win day for everyone!!

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  16. The T quilts are wonderful tribute to the memory of the man who began this charity. Hopefully when this nightmare of a pandemic eventually quieten d you'll be back to making more Wrap A Smile quilts.

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  17. What a wonderful idea to remember Terry with T quilts. And I’m really blown away by the fact that you were able to meet up with Terry’s successor. Who would ever think that timing and location would work out that way! I wonder how many quilt collections are on pause right now. At least we can keep making and have a hefty stockpile for when quilts are needed again.

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