Busy doing sew and sew

With just two months to spare, Bradley is finally getting down to serious business on the Eagle Project.  Hooray!  Although it looks like it is (well, it is) down to the wire, to a certain degree I am somewhat understanding about that.  Way back when he was just a wee little scout he was all excited to go and get his Eagle.  He had a project he was excited about (refurbishing and resetting a Welcome to our city sign), but when he went to the city to get the project signed off the guy there pretty much smooshed his little scout heart.  He told Bradley that he could do that if he wanted, but pretty soon they would be developing the place where the sign went, and when that happened they'd just tear his sign down.  That bummed him out enough that he couldn't muster enough energy to think of another project until now.

Bradley has decided to do a project making quilts for Shriners Hospital.  Shriners Hospitals are wonderful hospital throughout the United States that provide, completely free of charge (regardless of economic status), orthopedic care for children age 18 years and younger.  Some of the Shriners Hospitals also do burn care as well.  (For more info on Shriners, you can check here: http://www.shrinershq.org/Hospitals/Main )

When Jacob was 4 years old he had surgery at Shriners on his club foot, so we know what a wonderful place it is.  Jacob received a donated blanket there, and he loved it.  It had yellow flannel on the back, so he called it (in his cute 4 year old speak) his "Lello blankie".  For many nights after his surgery when we would do our gratitude journal, Jacob would say he was thankful for his yellow blankie. (Totally tender mommy moment: I just went and looked back at that old gratitude journal and found that for many nights he would say he was thankful for Mommy and his yellow blanket.  Awww--I didn't remember him being so thankful for me, too.)

Anyway, Bradley has been working on getting quilt stuff together around here.  Some of the ladies in the neighborhood have donated fabric, and I have been working with some of that fabric to add a little variety to the quilts.  I have been working on a rag quilt (and have a second one planned to do but as of yet undone), as well as piecing together a quilt top.  It's been kind of fun to see these little projects I've been working on come together for Bradley's Eagle project, and I've been pleased with how they've turned out. 

Here are two of the things I've been working on:

The rag quilt

I still have about half of it to put together, as well as clip all the seams and wash it up...it's taking a long time, but I really like it.

The pieced quilt top

Looks like I'm kind of into that checker-boardy pattern right now, eh? 

This one went together MUCH faster than the rag one.  The black fabric with the pink roses was donated to us, and I thought on its own it wasn't a terribly "child-like" fabric, but I think putting it together with the brighter pink and white squares cheers it up. 

I hope that these quilts (as well as the dozen others we have fabric for) will help bring joy and comfort to a child being treated at Shriners, just like Jacob's "lello blankie" did for him.  Good luck getting all the quilts done Bradley, I'm proud of you for working on getting your Eagle.  After all, better late than never!