Blocks of Love

This spring, when my daughter and her husband and their daughter visited for the first time in awhile, my beautiful Amanda introduced me to many cool new (to me) things. She expanded my quilt pattern horizons and inspired me to try some new things. She showed me several sewing and quilting blogs I had never visited before. And she introduced me to charm squares, jelly rolls and honey buns (I already knew about fat quarters - so there!)

We had a fun time creating - she made 3 quilt tops and did several projects while she was here. How she managed to do so much, I don't know. (I got to hold beautiful little Abby while she did all that!) A picture of one of the (finished now) quilt tops she made while she was home is here.

Here in Florida, we are no strangers to weather emergencies. After 2004 and 2005, with Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina hitting so close to home, I feel like a veteran weather survivor. So when Manda introduced me to Anna Maria Horner's newest book and blog, I was saddened to see her post on the flooding in her hometown. She, apparently is a woman of action, though, and has created the Rainbow Around the Block quilt project to give folks in her area who lost their homes and possessions a gift of love. I have been intrigued as her children created quilt block drawings and she made quilt patterns from them and shared them on her blog. I have been meaning to sit down and make some quilt blocks, and somehow, I just haven't done it.

But as I was rummaging through my stash the other day, I found some quilt blocks already made - just sitting there. Three blocks. These are left from a quilt I made my grandmother back in 1993. She wanted something sunny and cheerful. Gram lived on a lake and always loved gardening. Although it isn't sunny very often in the Pacific Northwest, the quilt reminded me of a sunny day in Grandma's garden by the lake. I hope the quilt cheered Gram's last years.

The quilt is gone now. And Grandma is gone too. But I still have these blocks. What was I saving them for? No idea. So tomorrow, I am going to package them up and send them to the address on Anna Maria Horner's website. Hopefully, she can use these blocks in her project and someone will know that despite the weather, people do care. I promise, these blocks were made with love.

I think Gram would approve.