Orange Peel

In 1983 I married the love of my life, Mitchell Jones. Mitch had a sister named Wendy who is quite the accomplished artist. As most families we came together for many holidays, birthdays and other celebrations. We were sisters-in-law but not truly close. In 2014 my husband was diagnosed with cancer just before Christmas; the news was truly devastating to us all. While Mitch was undergoing his treatments I felt I needed something to do to keep my mind occupied, so I started looking for quilt websites. I found MSQC and started viewing the tutorials by Jenny and telling myself I can do this, I had made two other quilts so making a quilt should be easy!!. I found the fabric line I liked, Wendy's favorite color is blue, then I found the pattern which I knew would be perfect to showcase the blue and white I had chosen, which I learned is also Jenny's fabric color combo, so i guess the project was meant to happen. Unfortunately my husband died 7 months after his diagnosis, The ensuing months later were spent working through my grief; trying to help my three sons deal with their loss; assist my Mother-in-law who had lost her only son and to be a sounding board for Wendy to help her with her grief process, Wendy was with me at our home the morning Mitch passed; in that instant of such loss we become so very close. I put away my fabrics and plans just to deal with all that was on my shoulders. In September 2016, more than a year after my beloved Mitch's passing, I felt the urge to pull out my fabrics and start projects in earnest, I made a quilt for my daughter-in-law, one for my granddaughter, a wall hanging for myself and this one for Wendy all in one month's time. The quilts were sent off to my long-arm quilter as each was completed. Then I waited and waited. The long-arm machine went down for over two months and my quilter had backlogs of quilts to work on. She promised me I would have all four by Christmas, as three were gifts. She made good on her promise as the quilts came back to me all in about 2 weeks time, between the end of November and the beginning of December. I made a mad dash to finish each before Christmas, I am not the fastest at hand stitching bindings, two were done but this one did not make it in time. I fell one week before Christmas on ice and severely injured my leg and ankle. Between pain, doctors visits and pain killers I just could not finish this quilt in time. I decided the best I could do was give the quilt to Wendy and say I need it back to finish. Wendy loved the quilt, brought her to tears; she understood completely the circumstance of needing the quilt back to finish, she said just when you can finish is fine. She did ask me to take a picture to show her friends so she could brag about it. I did and now I think I will be making some more. I told Wendy this quilt is meant to be a quilt of love, when she wraps up in it, hopefully she can feel the love I have for her as a sister to a sister and maybe, just maybe she can feel Mitch's embrace, too.