Neesie

I'm afraid I'd have to draw the line, at quilting someone's underwear.

Deborahlees

I agree.....I had no problem making "Memory Quilts" for my grandchild with my husbands shirts and blue jeans....but thats where I draw the line !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deborahlees

Hello Everyone, I have already heard from the Director of the local Hospice. He is very excited about my idea. The Volunteer Director will be calling Tuesday for details....I want to stay positive with this whole venture.....
I know I am going to have to do a show and tell quilt....and of course my closet is empty because I always give everyting away....I think I will make a simple but happy D4P....and see how fast I can sew.....I think when I quilt I will do FM hearts.....

jcrow

My sister was diagnosed with inoraberable cancer and had 3 1/2 months to live. She, I and all her friends were quilters. We all made blocks and sent them to one of her friends who put them together in a quilt. We gave it to my sister. She didn't get to use it very long, but she was buried in her pajamas and slippers and had that quilt covering her. It meant so much to all of us. She had made a beautiful quilt and it covered her casket during the funeral and her daughter received it afterwards.

Sierra

Before I began making quilts we lost a baby grandson. My daughter took her older son's quilt, made by a close friend, and other tiny trinkets (grandmother's small cross, a crystal birthday candle holder from a very dear friend, etc.) and put them in a box the size of the casket her husband was making with a cousin. (Kubler-Ross says the more you do the better you feel later when you lose a child.) The quilt was the most significant thing since it was the one thing that could be seen, although her husband and my sister were the only ones who saw the baby after the autopsy (required to help medical research find a cure for what killed the child) nestled in that quilt. My sister said it was beautiful (in a very sad way)! The quilt was such a comfort to my daughter (makes me cry as I write this!). It may have been what started me quilting since I did start right after that. And the friend who made the first quilt sent a new quilt to her when she heard that the first one was now "gone". There can be magic in quilts, and I think it is called "love".

DeAnne-Mn.

There are several organizations that contibute to larger city hospitals that have NICU units for preemies. There is a need for burial quilts/blankets as many are unable to provide for the infants. Newborns in Need is nation wide and needs all the helpers they can find. If you contact them or even your local hospital more information can be found. I like all of the above ideas and have much to think aout. Thank you for starting this thread.

Deborahlees

Thank you for your kind words. Yes my local quilter friend mades for a local hospital, she knits little tiny premie caps and blankets for them to wear on their final journey.....

leighway

My SIL's mother, a dear friend to us all was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She had some embroidered blocks way back in a closet that HER mother had done back in the 40's. She gave them to me and asked that I put them in a quilt and I understood she wanted it before she passed. It came out beautifully and I was able to take it to her and put it on her when she was close to the end. She kept fingering her mother's stitches.
After she died, the quilt was carefully folded and passed on to her granddaughter, my niece. So we have a great-grandmother's needlework, passed to her dying daughter, quilted by my niece's aunt and in the hands of my young niece to use and pass on to her children. Quilting heritage...

HillCountryGal

After reading all these posts...
What I see is a group of people with kind and loving hearts!!

I used to work for our local Hospice. One of the things our volunteers made was lap robes. Actually, they were ment to cover a person's lap while sitting. Nothing special, not quilted. Some were made from fabric, while others were croched. I can tell you most families were very appreciative of the effort. Whatever came of them after the family member passed away I don't know. Another thing we offered to family members was taking an article of clothing and creating a pillow. This was well received.

Each family deals with death in their own way and it was ours to honor that family.



Y'all make me proud to be a part of this group of compassionate people.

TanyaL

Before a quilt is given to a person who is dying, you definitely need to inquire as whether or not it is really wanted. My mother was in the hospital for a week before she died and kept sending home everything that was given to her except for flower arrangements. Her body went from the hospital to the funeral home and then to the cremetory. No one saw her after she left the hospital, but I was with her when she died. A week later, when all of her grandchildren and greatgrandchilren could come from two continents, we had a memorial service and a month later one of her grandsons took her ashes to the cemetary where she had a couple of decades before purchased her monument . He made arrangements for the final date to be engraved. If a quilt had been left with her, it would have just been something else to be taken care of along with her clothes, furniture, etc. Only the things that were memories from their childhood were wanted by the grandchildren. My brother only wanted a grandfather clock and I have had more than I could handle with the rest of the estate. It isn't that a quilt isn't nice; it is that with everything else that is left by the deceased it would have lost among the bulk of things - and it's only memory would have been of her death, not her life. I'm very glad no one offered us one.