Two Kwik Quilters: Deployment Quilt

Sometimes you meet amazing people....I met someone amazing in 1999.
I didn't know how amazing she was when I first met her....she was one of the wives I met when our husbands were stationed together. She was like me...we hung out at coffees, went to the same church, I even tried to teach her to quilt...the only person I ever FAILED at teaching (she is craft challenged...LOL). She is a tiny little thing...a whole 4'9 (and 3/4....that 3/4 is really important she says) and 89 lbs soaking wet....we teased her that she barely weighted enough to be out of a car seat! She was trying to get pregnant at the time and I know I said all the things that someone who has kids never had infertility issues says....gain some weight, relax, it will happen when you quit trying. Our husband were on different career tracts, they moved and we kind of lost touch, but I knew she was still trying.
In 2009 I finally heard she was pregnant and that she wrote a blog so I looked her up and caught up with everything and reconnected with her. I eagerly awaited every blog post and the baby boy they had waited so long to have. I was on the list for her husband to text as soon as she delivered....instead, I got a text that said to pray...that she and the baby were fighting for their life. By morning the update came that he didn't survive. Stunned, shocked, confused does not even begin to cover my emotions and I wasn't even in her circle of close friends.This is when I learned she was amazing. She learned how to live through having your heart ripped out of your chest...and she blogged EVERY.SINGLE.RAW.EMOTION. I truly have no idea how she did it.......
14 months later she had another sweet baby boy... that summer they moved back to town and now...I am his Mimi too!
I was there when she found out that she was pregnant with her third little boy...and I was crushed when she lost him too.
When her husband got orders to spend a year overseas, a deployment quilt seemed like something small I could do. So her husband picked the colors to match a Van Gogh print they have.

The plan was that they would make a "paper chain" from the fabric....at the end of the deployment I would take the pieces...make a quilt...a simple design, something traditional-ish. And then I got cancer...and everything I learned from her about being real, and owning your emotions....so I put it all on Instagram and Facebook.... the good, the bad, and the ugly....lots of selfies to prove the ugly...LOL

Fast forward....he came home early....YAY...but we always forgot to get the fabric and the "links" from her house to mine....and then they found out they were moving again (isn't the military "fun"?) I got the pieces Friday and they leave in the morning....she said no rush but I don't work that way. So I worked all weekend.

There is one strip for every day that he was gone. Each week has a gray piece on either side giving it a "basket weave" look. I used raw edge applique with No Fray by Dritz on the edge and "scribbled" all over them with thread to sew them down.

I quilted it with Aurifil thread. from my Happy Colors box that I got at market. I did loops in the center, meandered in the gold border and did loops and stars in the outer border....