Four Movies Later ...

... and I've finished the hand quilting on this baby quilt! YEAH! All I have left to do is the binding. I'm going to follow Auntie Eileen's advice and go with the straight binding instead of the bias binding. I'll try bias binding eventually but for my first go, the simpler the better. I now need to study up on binding instructions.

I've fallen in love with this quilt. I love the plush minky backing ... that's the soft, bumpy green fabric you see in the bottom right of the photo. So cuddly warm. This will be a very warm quilt. Not meant for tropical babies. Better suited to winter wonderland babies such as the one this quilt will be going to. Denver has enough of a cold season to warrant a cozy baby quilt, I think. That's where this one will go.

In September Bart and Terin had a little boy, Beau Edwin. Bart was the assistant coach when Luke first went to Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. That same year his coach, Jack McGetrick, was diagnosed with cancer. Bad cancer. All cancers are bad but some are worse than others and Jack's diagnosis was a particularly tough one. If someone could survive cancer by pure strength of spirit, resolve and "fight", Jack would still be here. He fought for his life with a toughness I and others still marvel at. To be that kind of support for Jack and for the lacrosse team, was a role Bart surely hadn't anticipated but that he took on with grace and care and then was left, after Jack passed, to step in as acting coach last year until a new coach was hired this year. Not an easy position for Bart but we so respect the way he handled himself and the team.

On a personal note, when Kevin and I had to make that truly awful phone call to Luke ... only 6 months after he'd left home ... to tell him I had breast cancer, Bart was really there to help Luke absorb the information and to give him perspective. Bart's Mom, too, had gone through the whole breast cancer thing so he was a particularly excellent support person for Luke, as was Coach McGetrick. Luke, at 18, had known a few others with cancer and in all of those situations, the result had been death. So, you can imagine where his first thoughts went when he first learned his Mom had cancer. Telling him, especially from so far away, was one of my most horrible nightmares. Thank goodness for Jack and Bart and his team mates who were there for Luke.

When we would visit Louisville to see Luke and to watch some lacrosse games, I can't say enough about how warm and caring both Bart and Jack were to us and to me and Luke in particular. And that is why this baby quilt is for Bart and Terin's little boy, Beau. It's my thank-you to Bart. I thought of him and his family with every little hand stitch I put into it. I can't wait to finish it and mail it off ... though I'm going to miss it. I would like to make a quilt this cozy for everyone I love.

Four Movies Later ...