Warning - content isn't exactly the normal happy fluff that usually posted on here. The following is a story which I've rarely shared because I don't often like sharing in such a public way the rough and ugly of my life (of which I have my fair share I can assure you). But it's for a good cause - I promise.
Our oldest son is always keeping me on my toes, and he certainly has thrown a lot of surprises at us since the very beginning. Some great and amazing moments that I wouldn't trade for anything, and some pretty scary moments that would terrify any parent. Probably the scariest thing we had to go through with him was shortly after he turned a year old and just a week before Christmas. My mom was watching him for the day because he was teething and he had a high enough fever where he couldn't go to day care. Right around naptime, his fever spiked really high and he had a febral seizure. Freaked us all out quite a bit. Between the super high fever and the fact that he had had seizures before, we ended up taking him to the local children's hospital where he was admitted and kept overnight for tests and observation.
Thankfully, all the tests pointed to it being a febral seizure which he would outgrow with age. And thankfully, since this incident, he hasn't had any more seizures. Even though the end result was good, it was still a pretty stressful and scary situation which I hope to never repeat. However, thanks to the kindness of strangers, the whole thing was made a little more bearable. After a round of tests, we came back to the room to find that several gifts has been left for our son from items donated to the hospital - some toys, a puzzle, and a stuffed dog. It was a much needed distraction for our little man and really helped to releave some of the stress we were under. Oddly enough, the stuffed dog became a cherished lovie and went everywhere with our son for a long time afterwards.
Anyways.... That whole story has some relevance to what I've been working on lately. I never forgot the kindness our son was shown during his hospital stay, and I've always wanted to find a way to sort of pay the kindness forward. This past summer, I fell in love with an "I Spy" quilt I made for my boys out of charms squares I had been collecting. Loving the quilt so much, I raided the novelty print section at Joann's and bought enough 1/4 yard cuts off novelty print fabric to make some "I Spy" quilts for my Etsy shop. Well.... From those 1/4 yard cuts, I cut out enough squares to make 4 half-square triangle and 6+ square "I Spy" quilts. Way more than I could reasonably sell in my shop!
Three of those quilts were made and given away as gifts, one was made and sold at a craft fair in November, three more were made and are listed for sale in my Etsy shop, leaving me enough squares left over to make 3 more quilts.
At first, I wasn't sure what I would do with 3 more "I Spy"quilts, but then I heard/saw several people talking about and posting on blogs and Instagram about making charity quilts, and then the local quilt guild which I recently joined decided to have a goal this year of making and donating 100 quilts to charity. Ahhah! So, in between other projects when I needed something simple to work on, I've been working on turning the pile of squares into three quilts. I finished the quilts up last week and I'll take them with me to the next quilt guild meeting to give to the lady in charge of making sure the charity quilts end up where they are supposed to go.
I also cleaned out the pile of quilts I had in my closet and pulled a few out of my Etsy shop that weren't selling to donate as well. This stack of 8 baby and kid sized throw quilts will end up going to Munson Medical Center's Pediatric and NICU units. I pray that they can provide some small amount of comfort to a child and family going through a crappy situation.
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