Elijah's Quilt & GOOD NEWS!

If you've been following my blog since early May, you are probably very familiar with the stories of Elijah & Autumn.  These two young adults, ages 19, were in a tragic automobile accident Friday, May 8th.  Autumn was not expected to live but is now in Craig Rehab Hospital in Englewood, Colorado and is improving daily.  Elijah has been unconscious since surgery the night of the accident.  His legs were crushed and he received multiple lacerations.  He was recently transferred from ICU to a longterm acute care center.  Within days of the transfer, Elijah began tracking people with his eyes and moving his head and arms.  He continues "inching" forward every day with progress.  His caregivers feel it will not be long before he is fully "awake".  The tears still flow every time I think of him starting to gain consciousness.  You can follow Elijah's and Autumn's story here:  https://elijahandautumn.wordpress.com

If you haven't read my blog before, check out my prior posts for pictures of signature quilts being done for both Elijah and Autumn.  I was so very blessed to have my quilty friend in San Antonio volunteer to complete a quilt for Autumn.  It is in the mail as this blog is written so I will have it delivered to Autumn soon. You can check out my previous post for photos of Autumn's quilt.

I have the honor and privilege of completing Elijah's quilt as my son has been friends with him since childhood.  As is always the case, I don't seem to be content with anything "easy", so I offered for the family to advise me of anything they would like to have "written" on the inside border of the quilt.  The family chose two Bible verses: one was 1 Peter 5:10 which refers to our suffering for a short time and then being strengthened by God.  The other is Elijah's favorite verse, which is Galatians 2:20 referring to a believer in the Lord Jesus being dead to their own desires so that Jesus Christ might live within them to complete the walk of faith.  After much quandary, I ended up free motion quilting 1 Peter 5:10 around two sides and the bottom of the quilt.  It fit EXACTLY.  I also wrote Elijah's name at the top center of the quilt.  Then to the left and right of his name, with my Bernina 9mm stitch, I wrote Galatians 2:20.  Here is a photo of the whole quilt sandwiched and ready to put under my Sweet Sixteen.

Following are photos of the free motion embroidery/writing.  The name Elijah is at the top middle of the quilt:

To the left:

to the right:

Starting at the top right hand corner  and going all the way around the bottom and up the other side is the verse which I free motion quilted:

Besides the fact that I still have to cut some threads, the excessive stitching pulled the corners of the main body in just a bit, which is why it is not laying completely flat in those areas.  I used two layers of stabilizer but still had the pulling.  I chose to do the lettering prior to sandwiching for fear it would look even more uncomely if it pulled together when sandwiched.  Oh well....if you do a lot of free motion quilting like I do, you will probably agree that once it is quilted and washed, it will probably look great.  I hope so!  It's good to admit that sometimes our projects aren't always "perfect".  

So I hope to have this less than perfect friend of mine quilted soon, bound and delivered to Elijah along with "Jesus Goggles" (see prior post) for his mom.

So have a great Thursday and Friday and join me as I link up with  http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com   http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com