John's Quilt

The day after we found out John had cancer, I decided to make him a quilt to use during his treatment and stay at the hospital.

I had big plans to give it to him on his first day of chemo and radiation.... well... it ended up taking me a little longer than I thought to complete it. John is now on his 4th week of radiation - but it's finally done!

I started by stitching together about 40 squares and mailing them off around the country to his family and friends. I had everything planned... except I didn't plan on how long it would take to get them all back!

I finally had to give up on some people and I ended up with 32 squares. 32 squares of personal messages, prayers, drawings and signatures for John keep near him and to help him through his cancer treatment. I gave it to him for his birthday on Friday.

When he opened the package - his first words were, "It's a blanket. Thanks."
I had folded it wrong side up - so he couldn't immediately see that it was a quilt. So I said, "why don't you open the blanket."

When he finally gets the clue... he opens it and finds the quilt.




I was so nervous! I wasn't sure if he would like it... he doesn't really like quilts - but he loved it!



He was so touched by everything his friends and family wrote. It is such a wonderful expression of love.

Here's the entire piece:



(A little head kept getting in my way while I was trying to take this photo!)




Here's the square I made:




and a few of my favorites:




I tied the quilt instead of hand or machine sewing (deadlines!) and I used a technique where the ties are on the back of the quilt and the front looks like x's. I really like the way it came out. Here's the back - showing all the little ties.



Thanks to everyone who contributed to this and special thanks to Jolene and my mother in law for helping me finish the sewing! It's definitely going to be well used and well loved.