Yolanda's quilts in the hands of friends

Here are some amazing quilts that have been helped along by loving friends to Yolanda. She is super encouraged when we send her pics of her WIPs, so it's really fun for us to all be cranking away to help her. None of these pics are mine... They were taken by the amazing women who worked on these quilts: Janice, Lori, Pam, and Alison.

Gavin's Quilt - Yolanda and the bee

I haven't been able to blog super much lately. Partly due to the fact that most of my house is in boxes or already at the new house... We are also remodeling the new house, so even though we are planning to be fully out of the old house in 2 weeks - almost the entire ground floor of the house doesn't even have walls yet. The whole thing is daunting.
Then there's the fact that I spent 7 glorious days in Hawaii with my family and I just haven't picked up the post-aloha speed again yet.
And then there's my friend, Yolanda. I've mentioned her before here on my blog- Yolanda is a Bee Happy member and one of the most generous people I know. Until recently, she was the pres of the Orange County Modern Quilt Guild. But recently she found out she has cancer. And that totally sucks.
Our very tight knit bee (we've been together for years now and probably send an average of 10 emails to each other every day) - has rallied. We've placed all other projects on the back burner to do a number of Very Important Projects for Yolanda. Since Y is feeling tired these days, we asked how we could help with some of her Works in Progress (WIP) and UnFinished Objects (UFOs, yeah I know). We felt like if she can know we are all working to be her extra hands and energy right now, she can keep her faith and energy focused on healing... And know how much we all care for her. People from all over the country and even the world have sent me emails asking how they can help. One amazing woman in Australia (Jeannette) even had me send a quilt for her to piece and quilt down there. I could just cry thinking of how amazing people can be. Some of the people have never even interacted with Yolanda, they just care.
I've been driving to south Orange County to spend time with her nearly every week. We play with fabric and figure out which projects are fun ones to have people help out with. Our time is always too short and I love seeing her amazing happy face light up while we play.

Last week we were working on her grandson's quilt. Our bee members (and other non-bee generous souls) sent in squares in three sizes per Y's directions...either 10", 5.5" or 2.5" - in reds, greys, and blues. (we still need more tiny ones, if you're feeling inspired...). Yolanda and I laid them out on her design wall - so cool with its frame and all... And she sat at her machine and sewed while I ran around alternative between handoffs, layouts and pressing. It was so fun. Isn't this quilt going to be fantastic?
Yolanda really has such a great eye for color and cool quilt concepts. It's been fun for me to pass off her many UFOs through the mail to other folks. Seeing her ideas has really inspired me. I'll post some pics of what amazing people are doing to help out.

moving

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"Reality sets in. This would be about 1/2 of my fabric. Now that it's packed it finally feels like I'm moving."
(taken at Home)

Tropical bag

A few weeks ago, my friend Yolanda gave me a stack of precut scrap strips to play with... For years, she and I have exchanged goodie bags and boxes of scraps... I took the little stack to Hawaii with me and played around with needle and thread... And ended up with this hand-pieced, hand-quilted piece that I turned into a bag.... And of course, who should get the bag, but the generous lady herself?

sewing at sunset - kauai

 Instagram photo :

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"Sewing at sunset. (Hawaii-style)"
(taken at Nihi Kai Villas Poipu)

Lo-tech girl and hi-tech guy - instagram pic

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just enough - instagram pic

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"At the end of the "Blended Family" quilt, this is all that was left of the thread I was using to quilt it. (that's called "dumb luck")"

Finished - Blended Family Quilt

Here it is! My quilt inspired (and made for) an amazing family I know who we're joined in marriage 18 months ago (yeah, their wedding gift is late). I've been friends with the wife for many years and was overjoyed that after a few years as an amazing single mom of three boys, she met a beautiful single dad with two boys and a girl. Their wedding was amazing and this quilt was in sketched form in my journals for over a year. Then I finally got to work on it and it's been in progress since January. Well, this week, they get it in the mail and they know it's coming, so I can share it here before sending it...
I knew this quilt had to be great because Laura is an unbelievable graphic designer and her mom is a quilter, so I needed to really go for it on this gift... I'm really happy with how it
came out.
Congratulations, Laura and Nate! Your beautiful family is an inspiration!!!! Check your mail!

Mod Mosaic for a friend

You know how some friends are so extraordinary that everyone around them agrees on their fabulosity?
I have a guild member who is that awesome. She's so awesome that over 20 of us made squares to celebrate a special birthday she has coming up as a surprise. This was a huge undertaking, and I only submitted a few squares, while others made huge contributions, but it turned out so pretty that I had to share.

Baby Quilt

My friend, Eliza, recently came to a sewing date with swatches of an entire line of textiles she'd designed on Spoonflower.comwww.spoonflower.com - we stood around her, "ooohing and aaaaahing" over it all. The patterns are all based on the security patterns inside envelopes. I ordered it as soon as it was available for buying - and loved it when it arrived.
I used the cheater print she designed with 5" squares of dozens of different variations of patterns. Then I used a well known "charm square quilt" pattern by Elizabeth Hartman of the Oh Fransson blog...
(I used linen to complement the pattern and variegated thread to quilt it)
I took it today to Malibu for our Mother's Day festivities to photograph before giving it to its new owner.