QUILTS OF LOVE

Hand quilting is such a labour of love. This is my second piece for charity, the first was given to a child in foster care sometime ago.

This time round it is an incubator cover for a premie yet to be born.

Preterm infants are born "too soon" and so their neurological systems are very immature. As a result, they can become overstimulated by external stimuli such as light and noise. Such over stimulation can lead to developmental and sensory issues in these children. These issues require occupational therapy to resolve. In an attempt to reduce stimuli some hospitals cover the incubators with covers to exclude noise and light. The blankets could be given to the families when they leave the unit as they cannot be "washed" and "sterilised" in the unit.

The "official" hospital incubator covers cost 200euro + vat each and as you can imagine very few of the hospitals have the budget for these resulting in the majority of incubators not being covered.

There are 19 hospitals in total in Ireland and 4500 preterm Babies are born each year in Ireland

I don't know who will inherit this incubator cover, but I'm sending it with my love. This quilt is special because the materials used are from all over the world. The Winnie the Pooh fabric is from Australia, the sashing and binding fabric is from Malaysia, the wadding is from Ireland and the backing fabric is Martha Stewart's. (U.S.). But I guess the baby will never know

Sometime earlier this month, I completed another quilt with appliques of Sue and Sam Bonnet.

This quilt is now hanging over a press door and cuts out the draft.

Another willow to my bow

Since I can't get enough of willow craft, I decided to sign up for yet another class in Killoscully. The class started at 10am and ended around 6pm. I managed to make a log basket during that duration.

Now more confident, I decided to purchase some willow. The willow needed to be soaked (to make it pliable ) so I used the bath tub as it was long enough to house the sticks. (a day of soaking for every foot of willow)

I wanted to make a bird feeder and I was very grateful to my cousin Paul for giving  me a few slabs of wood for the base. 

This is the first piece of willow craft that I made unsupervised.

I also made a fish platter which is perfect for sushi and deep fried calamari.

I found another interesting but more complicated bird feeder and this time round, I signed up for yet another workshop.