The Therapy Quilt

  The Therapy Quilt is so named because I had to learn to sew again this year.  I took for granted the dexterity, the fine motor skills it requires for each block to be made, for a quilt to be assembled, for a quilt to quilted , and for a quilt to be bound.

  I was in the middle of making circles for the Quilty 365 challenge at Quiltyfolk blog, when my world crashed down around me.  So in  August when I returned home,  I began OT/PT as an outpatient.  My desire/dream/goal was to sew again.  I tried and had a lot of disappointment.  I kept at it with the attitude that I did not have to be perfect, banish the quilt police, just sew.   And so the idea of the Therapy Quilt came to me.

   I pulled out my box of circles and found ones that I wanted to use first.....Birds, Blooms, and Bits from Friends.  That was the way I defined the selections in my head.  If  I was going to reclaim my passion, it was up to me to figure out how to sew again.  Even my excellent therapist could not help me there.

   By trying each day to piece two circles together, and then to join them into a 4 unit section, etc, I began to see my fine motor skills improve.  Not each intersection matched,  and some are only close enough.  Before I would have ripped forever, today I move on.
   I graduated from OT/PT in November.  Able to walk again, to write again, I can accomplish many daily tasks, but still with numbness in my hands and feet and legs.  Such is life.

   The Therapy Quilt got pinned finally and was ready to quilt.  I had attempted free motion quilting on a couple of small projects and thought  I was up to this size.  There's not a lot of open space between those circles.....so wiggly lines and some meandering would just have to do.   It was a challenge and I was not exactly thrilled or happy with  the first section or so.  
Yet by the time---2 days later-- that I finished the center portion, I was feeling better about it all.    I moved on to the border  after practicing the leafy vine by drawing a few dozen pages in pencil.   And a few days before Christmas, it was almost done.    My confidence back, I went on and quilted my bow ties quilt and got it finished first.

   From Pat at AmityQuilter blog, came the circle in the bottom right corner.    The Charlie Harper cardinals are from Wanda at Exuberant Color.  She's a treasure and I look to her as an inspirational mentor.

The Therapy Quilt is 42'' by 50''.  The  small circle squares are 4 1/2''.

   So here's to starting a new year off with hope....hope for healing, hope for recovery, and hope for future and the quilting I love.

Linking to Quilty 365.

Happy stitching.