Hunter, Archer, Angler and Trooper

Krishna Janmashtami is Lord Krishna's birthday and is a significant festival for the Hindus.
How significant, you may ask?
It is a bank holiday, making it official that it is a day of feasting, temple visits and celebration.
My father was just 53 years old when he passed away. It was the day of Krishna Janmashtami.
For my family, the festival is no longer associated with Lord Krishna. It will always be dad's death anniversary.

A new quilt

Today is February 14 and most of us celebrate it as Valentine's Day but for the families who lost a loved one last year on this day, I believe that it will forever be a day of loss.

Binding in process

Losing a loved one on Valentine's Day must be especially difficult.
Of all the loves in our lives, our love for our children must be the strongest, purest and most selfless.
So the loss of a child must also be the most gut-wrenching of all losses. We love them even before we see them and keep loving them forever.

These muddled thoughts about love, loss and kids swirled in my brain - over and over again. 
So I did what we quilters do - turn to fabric for comfort and meaning. I made baby quilts.

This Lily and Loom charm pack had a campsite, outdoorsy theme with blues, greens and grays. 

Bear Mountain from Lily and Loom

I used fabric from my stash to cut additional 30 squares so that I had enough to make two quilts - each with a distinct personality. The greens went to Hunter and the blues went to Angler.

Here is Hunter.

Hunter - 31" by 31"

Hunter - Added squares from stash

 

Hunter - Dog in a Truck backing

Hunter - Green Pieced Binding

Meet Angler.

Angler - 31" by 31"

Angler - Getting Closer

Angler - Snow covered peaks

Angler - See the binding sliver?

Angler - Backing (same as Hunter's)

Angler - Light Blue Pieced Binding

The other Lily and Loom charm pack had an outer space theme with blues, grays, orange and yellow. 

Space Camp from Lily and Loom

Once again, I split the charm pack into two to make sure that the two quilts looked distinct from each other and added coordinating fabric from my stash to make sure I had 36 squares for each quilt.

Meet Trooper.

Trooper - 31" by 31"

Trooper - Astronaut

Trooper - Added Squares from Stash

Trooper - Pieced Backing

Trooper - Baby Elephant rules

Trooper - Bright Blue Binding

And here is Archer - she is my favorite.

Archer - 31" by 31"

Archer - Quilting Detail

Archer - Stash Squares

Archer - Wavy Stripes Backing

Archer - Bright Blue Binding

Archer - Completed

These four quilts were made for the Stillborn Bereavement Group. Instead of using my professional looking label, I chose a hand-written label sewn by hand. I believe that this deliberate act allows me to dwell upon each life lost as I pull the needle trying my best to conceal the threads.

Hunter - Label

Angler - Label

Trooper - Label

Archer - Label 

Today, as you hug those you love, send a kind thought to those who have lost a child, be it to stillbirth, gun violence, or just plain estrangement.

I will send these quilts to Sue in New York.
Thank you, Sue, for coordinating this effort.

I will be linking with all my favorite linky parties. As usual, a word from you is a world to me.

Love and Lust

It is Valentine's Day.  I am thinking about Love. And Lust.

So many times, I have heard Love and Lust being mentioned together as if they belong together, as if one leads to another, as if they are similar items grouped together like "table and chair" or "pen and pencil" or "bread and butter"

In my opinion Love and Lust belong together but more like Night and Day.
Yes, they are opposites.

Lust has reasons. Love has none.

When my heart is full of love, my thoughts are focused on the other - the person I love. Selfless.
When I am lustful, I am focused on me. Self-gratification.

Since I am a lark (morning person) and Paul is a night owl, we agreed to have separate bedrooms.

Sometimes, when I see him sleeping, I will watch him for a bit, mouth open, covers askew, arms and legs all over the bed.
Sometimes, I will plant a gentle kiss on his forehead and let him sleep in peace.
Sometimes, I will jump into his bed and be all over him (hoping to get lucky). 

Sometimes I am in Love and sometimes I am in Lust. You know which one is which.

Love embodies patience.
Lust is hurried, impetuous and intolerant.

Love is a cool breeze, while Lust is a scorching volcano.

Fortunately for me (and Paul) Love and Lust are inextricably intertwined.  Just like the dark and light colors are twisted together in this quilt.

Although this blogpost is titled Love and Lust, that would be such an inappropriate name for this baby quilt.

I am going to call it Tropic Frolic, because of the bright colors playing with each other.

The finished quilt measures about 40 inches by 45 inches.

And I am very happy with it.

And one more picture...just because.

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This year, instead of buying a Valentine's Day card, I decided to make one. With fabric.
Chose this bright and spicy hot fabric.

Do you see hearts? Well, I see kissing lips!

I chose Lust over Love. Definitely made him laugh :-D

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Whether you love new patterns or lust for gorgeous fabric, Connecting Threads may just be the ticket.

I will be linking with all my favorite linky parties. I'd love to hear from you. How was your Valentine's Day - Loving or Lustful?  Please do not hold back. I did not :-D

This blogpost contains affiliate links.

Valentine's Day + Love of Fabric

Valentine's Day is just around the corner.  Love is in the air and so are commercials for candy, chocolates and everything pink.

And red...lots of red.

Come on people - love is a multi-hued expression!!!

Have you heard the saying - To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides?
Now, that evokes images that are bathed in yellow.

Sunny...so orange too.

When you miss your loved one, aren't you feeling blue?

And if you are jealous, doesn't it equate to being green with envy?

A life filled with love is a colorful life.  A life devoid of love is colorless.
This is reflected, in much too obvious ways, in Indian culture. A widow wears white.  Similarly, black is considered the absence of color (joy) in other cultures.

Today, I want to share a very personal story with you. A story about Love and Color.

It was a Saturday in 2007 when Paul proposed to me.  We were in love. I knew we would get married.  But the moment he went down on his knee and asked to marry me, changed everything. Suddenly, I had this overwhelming feeling of being immersed in happiness.  Like a blank canvas magically filled with colors.

The next day, I was attending a meditation and prayer event.  I wore a green saree with a red border.  I felt like a bride. There was just one thing missing.  I had no bangles. I wished I had bangles.  I wanted red glass bangles to match the border of my saree.  The bride is incomplete without bangles.

No one else knew that I was engaged, because it had just happened the previous evening.  Folks at the meditation event did not know that I was even dating.  So what happened next is completely magical. Shilpa came up to me and handed me a small rectangular cardboard box. It contained 12 red bangles. I just looked at her, completely stunned. How did she know? She did not, but the universe knew what I needed. I immediately but carefully slipped the bangles on to my wrists - two at a time. The bride was complete. Filled with color, I felt complete!!!

I am sure that when my heart is full of love, magical things happen around me.
On this Valentine's Day, I wish that your life is filled with both Love and Color!!!

You may have guessed that I am working on a rainbow mini quilt.  Those are the pictures. They show my love for color, usually expressed through colorful fabric.

Now a bit of news about my love of colorful fabric - I became a Craftsy affiliate. Yay!!!
I have loved Craftsy for a while now. I have mentioned Craftsy classes and supplies on my blog and have also whole-heartedly recommended them to fellow quilters.

Then what is new, you may ask.  Now, if you click on any of the affiliate links on my blog and buy something, I will get a tiny commission from Craftsy for directing customers to them. 

And this brings me to the really exciting news - the Craftsy Sweetens My Life Blog Hop.  Check that link and you can see the various giveaways and the detailed schedule.

This is the first time I am participating in a Blog Hop and I will be sharing my Craftsy love and some giveaway goodness right here on my blog on Valentine's Day.
Hint: There are freebies :-)

Hope you will stop by and check out the goodies!!!