I finished my first ‘blanket of love‘ quilt last night. This was the one that we did as a learning project at the craft group.
The nice thing about doing these sorts of projects to give away is that you can try fabric combinations that you wouldn’t normally use (I used a yellow polka dot, a gold floral, a blue/green floral, a deep cyclamen pink, pale pink for the backing, and deep green for the binding), and try out new techniques (large free motion stippling in the border, echo quilting around the hearts, blanket stitch — with new machine — for the raw edge applique around the hearts).
The finished quilt size is just under 24 x 24 inches.
Blanket of Love quilt
Detail of Blanket of Love quilt
Update 25 November 2008: Someone asked about who this Blanket of Love quilt was for.
My reply: No-one in particular. That’s the whole point of the ‘Blankets of Love’ (BOL) program.
The BOL quilts go to maternity hospitals and are offered to parents of stillborn babies, or babies that die very soon after birth. Some parents wrap the child’s body in the quilt and it goes into the coffin; others wrap the child in the quilt then take the quilt home as a memento. According to some stuff I’ve read, the quilt often retains the smell of the baby. And according to a friend, often it’s the father who will pick a quilt out for their child as it’s too upsetting for many mothers.
The quilt gets a label that doesn’t identify me – I still have to label it, but it will be something like “Made with love by Rhonda” and I’ll leave enough space for the baby’s name and a date if the parents wish to add that information later.
Update 3 November 2009: I just got an email from my friend Bobbie, which said:
“Just spoke with Maureen [the owner of a fabric store in town]. She said someone lost a baby last week at the hospital and has chosen your BOL.
She has decided to keep it as a memento and told Maureen how much it means to her to be able to hold it.
She doesn’t know who you are but Maureen of course guessed with your little tag on it.”
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
Very nice Rhonda. Are you going to do another now? I’m still quilting mine and will leave the binding until I can show Lynda how to do it. I’m also ready to quilt my Japanese Meshwork now. I actually used fusible webbing tape to join the wadding to the meshwork panel. So only the border sections are wadded. This brought the borders level with the thick meshwork. Not doing much sewing at the moment, the garden calls me each day right now.
Wow–absolutely lovely 🙂