It's Time Again for "Challenge Walk MS"

Kathi and I have been friends for over 35 years. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in her early 30's. It has progressed to confinement to a wheelchair but her faith, sense of humor and spirit has never diminished. I made this colorful lap quilt for her last year and she loves that it draws people to come over and talk to her.

My niece also has a long time friend, Rita, who has MS. As part of Team Momentum, Abby will walk with friends who have known Rita since High School.

Abby raises additional money by raffling a quilt that she and I make. This was last year's and we will be starting another very soon.

The T-shirts for the walkers and volunteers become the focus and create the theme. Tropical stamp fabric was perfect for the sashing and palm tree flannel became the backing. The hibiscus flower was scanned from the logo and enlarged. I used fusible web (see "Mon" entry) and machine applique to create this shadow effect.

“MON” Japanese Family Crests

Yae is a very special lady in my life. At age 80+ she still works as an aide at my school and is respectfully called Grandma by the students. Over the 20 years at South Pointe Middle School, I was blessed to have Yae worked with me at various times. Yae survived internment camp during WWII without bitterness, recovered from brain injury due to a fall, and continues to work daily with kids at risk. I designed and made this quilt with love and admiration for the person she is.

My design was base on "Diane's Garden" , a "stained glass" look achieved by fusing colorful pieces of fabric onto a black fabric background. I used Lite Steam-A-Seam2 to apply crest appliques to background, a double stick fusible web sandwiched between transparent papers. Applique design is 1) traced in reverse on paper liner 2) second paper liner is removed, 3) web side is ironed to wrong side of fabric, 4) design is cut out, 5) remaining paper liner is removed, 6) fabric cut-out is ironed to background fabric, 7) edge is machine appliqued using a blind hem stitch or zigzag.
Mons are Japanese family crests handed down from generation to generation through the female members of a family. I found these in books and online although I had to redesign them to minimize the number of parts and increase connections. After Yae received the quilt, she told me that her family has a crest. I wish I had know this ahead of time and could have used it too.

The day I decided to give Yae her gift turned out to be the one year anniversary of her husband's death. I didn't intend to cause her grief but unintentionally she said I made a sad day better.