Applique, Arizona & Alzheimer's

For the first letter of the A-Z Challenge, I could have chosen any of these A words, so I figured I might as well use them all. I normally avoid writing about personal issues on this blog because I don't like having personal information on the internet, but this time I simply can't write about this quilt without telling a bit about my life.

 I started this quilt about 5 years ago. It was primarily the left-overs from a block of the month kit sold by Jo Ann's. I've worked on it in spurts. I never had a plan for it, so other quilts had higher priority. With the A-Z challenge coming up, I wanted to write about at least one newly finished quilt, and this one only had a few hours of work left to finish it.

I only had the hand sewing left as my trip to AZ approached. I really wanted it finished for the A day, so I decided to take it with and do the hand sewing while I visited with my family. The day before I left, my vacation plans abruptly changed. My grandma has Alzheimer's. She left her independent living facility and somehow ended up four miles away at church, without signing out or telling anyone, on a day that was in the upper 80's.

So, rather than doing the touristy stuff we planned, we had to find her a new secured place to stay. Her old place wouldn't let her stay there unless someone was with her 24/7 and they only allowed overnight guests for 14 days. All the family was under the gun to find her a new place fast.

I've always wanted to make my grandma a quilt, and this was my wake-up call. I needed to give her one before she completely forgot who I was. Right now she knows she has a granddaughter named Melissa, but she doesn't know I am her.

I sat with her for a day as I finished sewing the binding. I decided if she liked the quilt, I would give it to her, and if she didn't I would make her one once I got home. She loved it the moment she saw it (I should mention that hot pink is one of her favorite colors). I gave it to her at least seven times. It was joyful and sad at the same time.  It was joyful seeing her happy, genuinely surprised reaction each time, but it was sad knowing that in five minutes, we would replay the same conversation.

Well, enough of the story, on to the quilt. As I mentioned before, this was a block of the month kit. Each block kit came with enough materials for two of the same blocks. Because this was just the left-overs on clearance,making a normal-sized quilt was a challenge. I tried many layouts before I settled on using rows of the same background color.

This was the first quilt I tried to applique.  I had a few false starts until I figured out how to do it. I did start and finish at least two other applique quilts after starting this one, so I felt like I did a better job on them.

The applique quilts my mom made were always finished with a thick zigzag in a matching color, so I figured that would be a good way to start.

I used the left over fabric from the kits to make the border. I wanted something fun for the corner blocks as well, so I used some leftover fabric to make a heart.

Since I started quilting this about five years ago, I was not very happy with the back of the quilt. I generally quilt much better now, and I thought the back was too messy. I was also unhappy with the white sheet. At the time, it was the only color that was close to matching. I decided to solve both problems by turning this quilt into a duvet cover. This time, I got lucky and found a sheet that was a perfect match to the border color. I used the top and bottom of the sheet for the finished edge of the duvet slit. I am not a fan of closing duvets with buttons because they can be lumpy if you toss and turn and end up with the duvet below you, so I used hook and loop tape in pink.

I really enjoyed working on this quilt over the years, and I am really glad my grandma loved it. I hope that maybe she'll remember me when she reads the inscription I wrote when signing the quilt. And eventually, I will have this quilt to remind me of her and how much she loved spring.