Getting The Bags Ready

We are getting ready to present the quilts to the Shaar, Frenkel and Yifrach families. We wanted to come up with a good way to present the quilts, and so asked our friends to sew some bags from the extra backing fabric.

Thank you, Roxy and Sorcha, for your neat and quick stitching!

Here are the bags, packed with the quilts and ready for gifting.

I just love this "view from above"!

All your efforts, all the blocks we received from Israel and the world, all your loving notes, will soon be presented to the families they belong to. Thank you again for being part of this project. It couldn't have happened without you.

Quilting

Terry, our quilter extraordinaire, chose this perfect, perfect pattern, a swirl with a hint of hearts, with variegated white-blue thread.

The back of the quilt

Close up

The overall effect

This quilting united the blocks in each quilt, and gave the quilts yet another layer of love and care.
Thank you so much, Terry! It's gorgeous.

Are You Ready? The Quilts are Here.

When the quilts had been collected, Minna and I just sat on her couch and looked at them. The quilting is gorgeous, an overall pattern in variegated thread that ranges from white to blue. The quilting itself hints at the shape of a heart.

It was a feast for the eyes and for the hearts.

(Many thanks to the quilt holders!)

Quilting the quilts!

Right after we invited quilters in Israel to contribute blocks for Unity Quilts, we got an email from someone called Terry:

"I have a longarm quilting machine... I volunteer to quilt these quilts..."

Wow! What a difference Terry's immense generosity made, right from the start.

We knew we were working with an expert, and she was incredibly generous with her time, as well donating the batting, and taking care of the quilting.

Here is Terry (on the right), together with Carol, who took care of the binding together with Ramona.

Terry created a block for each quilt, and they were sewn onto the backing.

Every single quilter who donated a block owes a huge thank you to Terry and her wonderful partners! Thank you for turning our blocks into beautiful quilts!

The Last Quilt

Minna pieced together the final quilt.

It's hard to describe how careful we were handling all the blocks!
Not only is each block precious "beyond rubies" - but we were also sewing them into quilt tops for 3 bereaved families. We wanted these quilts to really glow.

 Here you can see some of the rows sewn together:

The final quilt top is gorgeous. Thank you, to each of you, for giving your time and effort to help create these quilts.

Next Quilt

Elisheva was making a top, too, and discovering for herself how challenging that was.

It's hard to describe how emotional this process was.

The blocks are not ours. Nor is the finished quilt. 

We are simply "shlichim", transforming your loving handwork, into other people's comfort.

Each block is precious to us, as each block was a gift made with love. 

We wanted to create something as beautiful as possible, and sometimes that meant squeezing a hem here, or adding a strip there. We had to be brave.

I believe it was worth it. Here is the next top. a perfect balance of energy and peace, and overflowing with love.

First Quilt

Cindy got straight to work on her quilt (this would be last October.)




She started piecing columns together, and noticed straight away how hard this project was going to be. Although we measured each and every block, and even made some sewing adjustments to individuals blocks when necessary, they were not going to join together like some neatly cut 9-patch.



It took a lot of effort to line them up - but what a joy to see them coming together!

And here is the finished quilt top - full of energy and love, and definitely a Unity Quilt. The work of many hands, united together to create something unique and beautiful.