Wheelchair lap quilts

 

Today I'm sharing two wheelchair quilts I made for the Joyful Stitchers in Alabama. I shipped these to my friend Doris, who delivered them to the group to distribute to folks in nursing homes. These are quite small, only 36"x48", in order to fit on a lap without getting caught in any wheels.

I thought it would be nice to make a couple of masculine ones. The first one features hunting themed panel blocks. The fabric has horses, foxes and hounds, and reminds me of my late step-father, Bob. Bob was a member of the Los Altos Hunt Club, which sounds very stuffy and la-di-da, doesn't it? Bob was a very down-to-earth guy though, and loved both horses and dogs.

I had a few different red, green and black plaids that I used both on the back and as accent fabrics in some simple blocks. It's a teensy bit Christmassy, but I think that's OK, don't you?

The second quilt features smaller panels that are also outdoors/hunting themed. Instead of the classic fox hunt though, the images are more rustic: a cabin in the woods, deer, bears, etc. There's a fisherman on the stream and even a moose or two. Meese?

I added a row of bear paw blocks just to feel like I actually did something other than sew squares together. Nothing wrong with squares, though!

The back of this quilt uses this ducks-in-the-marsh fabric. I hope both pieces bring a bit of warmth and perhaps some fond memories of being out in the wilderness to a couple of gentlemen.

Another RSC finish

 

Hello, quilty friends! Today I'm sharing two small pieces that were actually finished a few weeks ago. They have already been mailed off to Joyful Stitchers, who will give them away this holiday season. Each is about 36"x48" which is a good lap size for someone in a wheelchair. The narrow width helps keep the fabric out of the wheels.

The first one is made from one of my RSC block projects, Scrap Crystals. This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern that I reverse engineered. I think this complicated block really wants to be joined with, like, 20, of its buddies to really get the sparkly feel of the pattern. But after making six, spread out over 8 months or so, I wasn't feeling the love anymore. It was either stop at six, or make nine or twelve. Hm. Six it is.

To compensate for giving up before the full rainbow was achieved, I backed it with this fun nautical print. I hope someone will enjoy having this piece on their lap. There are certainly plenty of interesting scraps to peek at.

When I mail quilts off to charities, I like to pack the box nice and full. One little wheelchair quilt seemed insufficient, so I finished up this Scrappy Trips, too. Another Bonnie Hunter pattern, this one also wants many more blocks. I think that's true of pretty much all of Bonnie's designs! But once again, I wasn't feeling the motivation to sew up any more blocks, so another small piece it is.

The backing is a chunk of this cat flannel, which picks up a lot of the colors in the front. Plus: fuzzy kitties! What's not to love? And they are non-allergenic, to boot.

Meanwhile, we are now in an industrial boatyard having our bottom paint touched up. This yard doesn't normally work on pleasure boats, but builds and services large tow boats. So their lifting crane is GIANT. Our boat looks like a toy in their slings! The eight tires on this beast are each 10 feet in diameter. Yowza! It's a filthy yard, so taking quilt pics here is going to be a challenge.

Gracious Geisha

It's another gorgeous day on the Erie Canal! I love how flat calm the water is in the mornings before the breeze picks up. I have another little finish to share with you.

Gracious Geisha might look a bit familiar. I used the same panel in a larger quilt earlier this year. My preference is to only buy one of any given panel, since there are so many available. So many panels! So little time! But occasionally I find them two-fer-one on eBay at killer prices. So. Here she is again.

This time I combined her with two lotto blocks from Sunshine Guild members, and one of my own orphan blocks. This is a small, wheelchair sized quilt, about 36"x48". You can tell it's lightweight by my jauntily deployed pinkies. Yes, that's me in the photo, and Sean climbed off the boat with camera in hand.

I chose this lotto block because the purple lilacs matched the purple wisteria.

And this one has a combination of colors that felt quite Asian to me. You can see the simple big stipple quilting in purple thread, and the purple and red striped binding.

This one is my orphan block, made of pre-cut hexagons. Sewing these together requires Y-seams, not my favorite, so they'd been marinating in my stash for over four years. That's a bicycle handlebar shadow on the right. This one is my photo, can't blame that on Sean. Just keeping it real, y'all. If you're here for my photography skills, then perhaps you need to go outside and clear your head.

The back is a mish mash of Asian-inspired scraps pieced together. It felt like time to use these up and get them out of my stash. Sometimes those ziplock bags of random fabric take up more mental space than they are worth.

Gracious Geisha will be sent to Doris, my friend from the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild. Her local group, Joyful Stitchers, makes and donates wheelchair quilts to nearby nursing homes. I really love making these smaller pieces, and while most of my quilts are kid friendly, it's nice to also skew a few toward more adult interests.

Finding a local senior living center or nursing care facility is tricky for me. Just showing up somewhere with 2-3 quilts doesn't seem like the right thing to do. Which residents would get them? Having enough for everyone is good manners! So I'm grateful to have found Doris and her group, and add to their local efforts in Alabama. I had thought I might donate this quilt to a place mentioned by another blogger. Several of us asked in the comments for more information about the nursing care center needing the quilts, but the blogger never followed up. That made me a bit irritated! But rather than rant about that, this is a great time to say how grateful I am to the folks who DO follow through.

One of the reasons I continue to give to my favorite quilt charities is the positive feedback I get. At the very least, they all let me know when the quilts arrive. I'm not doing it for the thanks, but it's really nice to hear that the darned things at least made it to their destination! But most also send a sweet card or email with kind words. Joyful Stitchers, Covered in Love, Wrap A Smile, Quilts Beyond Borders, Little Lambs, Victoria's Quilts, Happy Chemo, Mercyful Quilts, Jack's Basket, A Doll Like Me: each one of these has been great about acknowledging my donations.



And speaking of Joyful Stitchers, Doris sent me this photo of one of my quilts being used on their bulletin board. Remember the one I made with train panels? Here it is, folded so just the trains are showing and being used to promote their sewing group. All Aboard! I'm just tickled pink!

Care and feeding of volunteers doesn't really take much, yet makes a huge difference. Many thanks to those who do it right!