Tannie's quilt

I didn't think I'd be posting a quilt story so soon, but I gave one away this week, so it's time for the whole story.

Tannie is my nephew's grandma from his mom's side.  (The nephew's dad is my hubby's brother.)

Tannie has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  She's had surgery and the level of disease was assessed and she'll be going through chemotherapy and radiation soon.  So Tannie needed a quilt.

I had this one finished, waiting for a home, so off it went.  I sent it home with my nephew, as his grandma is watching him this summer while his mom works.  I haven't heard if she's gotten it yet, but I really hope she likes it.

The story behind the quilt (because it started before this blog, even if some of you remember the finished product from March 2010):

I went on a shop hop in the summer of 2009 and bought a load of goodies:

If you look closely on the left-hand side, you'll see the fabrics and pattern.  The daughter of the shop owner designed a few quilts that could be made with a set of fat quarters and a bit of yardage.  The shop name is Hearts to Holly, so the fabric bundles were named Holly Bunches, so previous entries about this quilt call it the Holly Bunches quilt.  I chose these and thought I'd love them till the end, but, well...the more I looked at them and the quilt, the less I liked them.

(I'd credit the pattern better, but I can't find it - that makes two patterns my sewing room has eaten lately - the first I hadn't even made yet!)

So I worked on it on and off for a while, but you all should know by now that if you don't give me a deadline, I won't get it done...  But I kind of did have a deadline because one of the gals I went on the shop hop with rolled her eyes at my purchases and said I'd never have them done by the time the shop hop rolled around the next year.  Challenge anyone?  (I totally nailed this one too, by the way!)  Machine quilted it on my little machine (please forgive the puckers!) and bound it and everything.

And then it went into a closet.  I had hoped I'd love it and want to use it on the couch (it's throw-sized, though I didn't actually measure it...duh), but I didn't love it that much.  And I didn't have anyone I wanted to give it to (I need to have at least a small reason) and I didn't want it to get half-used by sitting around because then I wouldn't feel right giving it away.

When I heard Tannie's diagnosis, I knew where the quilt was meant to go.  Sometimes they take a while to figure it out, but quilts seem to know where they're meant to end up. 

And here's a closer photo of some of the fabrics.  It's In the Pink II by Buggy Barn for Henry Glass.  I don't often do a quilt in just one line, but this pattern worked out nicely that way.

In other news, the internship is 2/3 over.  I have 13 little exams to take during my internship and I've taken 11 already.  I'm feeling more comfortable in the lab.  Better able to recognize the bacteria that I need to recognize.  Remembering which tests to do to what to identify the bacteria.  Just about in time for me to be done!  But right now I've got a 3-day weekend and am looking forward to getting another stack of books at the sale on the 4th!  (And hoping to have time to read them and quilt soon!)

Have a great weekend and happy quilting!

Katie