September 6, 2017

Blue Raspberry Kiss Quilt for Fallen Officers

I had the pleasure of helping out with the #blueRKblocks project started by Jessica Bloomberg @craftycop. Jessica is a police officer and avid quilter, and a true friend. She started a call for blocks to make a quilt for the family of a fallen officer in her area. What started as one lady making one quilt has turned into something much bigger than she ever imagined!


Over the course of several weeks, Jessica received over 2,100 blocks- enough for 50 quilts! Not only that, but she received backings, binding, and longarmers offering their services for free. I knew that sewing 50 quilts together would be a monumental task so I offered to sew some together for her. She's had so many people volunteer to do the same, she only needed to send me one.


Another friend and generous heart Star @starlitquilts offered to quilt the one I put together for free. She used modern loops and did a beautiful job of it. Star is also organizing her local quilters into making another whole quilt for the cause.


It was very touching for me to be able to sew these blocks together. They were made by 42 different individuals, all making and sending out of love and support for people they've never met. The binding was pre-made and donated, along with the text backing with inspirational phrases.


The block pattern is called Raspberry Kiss, and you can find a tutorial for it here on another quilty friend's blog- Jen @heritage.threads. Jen is a fellow boy mom and quilter and I just know if we were neighbors she'd be my favorite one.


It's such a delight to be a part of things like this- to know that a family somewhere will unexpectedly receive this quilt and know that many hands spent time doing something for them, thinking about them, and honoring them for their loss.


In other news, we have a new member of the family over here! She has been making appearances on my Instagram, but I don't think I've introduced her here yet. This little pup is Lady, a Havanese we adopted at 10 weeks old. She has been a delight (aside from the potty training!) and we can't remember life without her. She likes to be where I'm at, and pose front and center whenever I try to photograph projects, so I'm just going to roll with that and embrace my nosy new quilt model. I only wish she could hold quilts up, ha!

3 comments :

  1. Wow, enough for 50 quilts! That's amazing.

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  2. What an amazing thing to have happen! So cool!
    Also, love the new up :)

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  3. Each month one member volunteers to demonstrate the construction of a quilt block pattern and provide copies of the pattern to guild members. The following month, each member who made the block will bring it back to the guild meeting and be eligible to win all the blocks that were made!schedule a volunteer

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