A Finish for a Very Special Person

I can hardly believe it!  36 blocks, 3 quilts and a year later I am completely done with the Skill Builder Sampler.  I have loved every minute of it and can't thank Leila enough for hosting this fabulous quilt along.  I have learned a ton.  I finished the third and final quilt of the series yesterday.  This quilt has some of my favorite blocks on it, and definitely some of the hardest.

This quilt is for someone near and dear to my heart.  It's for my Grandma Leona.  Growing up we lived across the country and only saw her about once a year, but we were really close, because we wrote letters back and forth my whole childhood.  My Grandma is an amazing woman and one of the most giving people I've ever known, particularly to her family and loved ones.   My Grandfather died in his early 50s (I was 4 at the time), so she was widowed at a very young age.  She worked, but was always in debt, because she gave everything away and was always putting other people in front of her own needs.  She would have given you the shirt off her back if she thought you needed it.

(You can see from the back I have 3 "branches": Bare Branches, Tree Roots, & Cucumber Vines from the Free Motion Quilt Along):

5 years ago my Grandma had a stroke and didn't receive medical attention for several days, and as a result she never fully recovered.  She's been declining ever since.  She recently made the move from Sandy, UT to my Aunt and Uncle's home in California to get the assistance that she needs. She has moderate dementia, and the depression and anxiety that comes with it.  It's hard to see my grandmother without the spunk and vitality I grew up knowing.  One really hard thing for her is that she literally spent her entire life serving others, so now that she's not physically able to do that she does not have a single hobby and is extremely bored.  This obviously does not help the depression.  I'm sending this quilt out to her in hopes that it brightens her day, and as a small token to her for being such an amazing grandmother.  She's still on the other side of the country, so I can't give it to her in person, but I am sending it with all my love.

This picture is of my grandmother in front of her home in Fresno, California in August of 1987.  It was the day my family moved from California to Pennsylvania (that's our moving van in the background).  We had lived with my Grandma that summer while my dad started Grad School in PA.  





(This post is part of my 2012 Finish Along, One Thing: One Week Challenge, and TGIFF).

(My original goals for 3rd quarter are here)