Monday, December 7, 2015

Festival of Trees - The Quilt Block

This last weekend was the Festival of Trees here in Utah.  It is an annual fundraiser held to benefit Primary Children's Hospital.  You might recall me sharing a while back about my sweet nephew David, who spent the first 2 months of his life at Primary Children's Hospital undergoing two major heart surgeries and one stomach surgery.  We as a family can never say thank you enough for the amazing care the doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and volunteers gave to David.  


So this year, my family and I decided we wanted to give back.  So we thought we could donate a Tree to the Festival of Trees.   We decided we wanted to go with a sailing or nautical theme since David loves all things water ;)  And the plan was to put this Smooth Sailing quilt (that I made Fall 2014 Market) under the tree.  So fun right!!!



Well. life happened, and we realized that we were trying to jump on the bandwagon way to late to have an entire tree done in time for the deadline.  And I have to admit, I was pretty bummed out, because I was so looking forward to being able to give back.   So I was surfing around the Festival of Trees Website when I found it!!!!   The Festival of Trees has branched out since the last time I attended (like when I was a young girl)  Not only do they auction off Trees . . .but they do Centerpieces, and Gingerbread Houses, and Wreaths, and you guessed it . . . a Quilt Auction!!!  I totally squealed out loud when I saw this!!!


I immediately called up the gal in charge of the Quilts and asked if I could still register.  I made it just in time and dropped my quilt off to her over Thanksgiving Break. I was able to include a  little note with the quilt about David and his experience at Primary's and how we are all hoping that everything from here on out is "smooth sailing" for him ;)   That made the whole thing so incredibly special and touching.


The quilt auction was this last weekend and I am so excited that my quilt helped raise quite a tidy sum for the hospital.  That was just an added cherry to the top of this whole experience!!!!    I can not even begin to express the joy and gratitude that has filled my heart these last few weeks.  I am so incredibly thankful that this love of quilting has allowed me to give back to those that gave us back our sweet little David!!!


I plan on making this an annual thing, and look forward to picking a special quilt each year to donate to the Festival of Trees!!  In fact, I have already picked one for this next year ;)  Remember all of those fun Snapshot blocks I have been posting all year . . . Hello next years Festival of Trees Quilt.  So fun!!!


And no, this is not my Snapshots quilt all finished.   I still have a block to go and then to put it all together and am so looking forward to quilting it.   This is the Fat Quarter Shop's Snapshots quilt that they are currently auctioning off and the proceeds will go to St. Jude's Research Hospital, another fabulous Hospital taking care of wonderful children!!!


Anne Sutton and Pat Sloan are also auctioning off their completed Snapshots Quilts as well.  So if you or anyone you know is interested in a stunning completed Snapshots Quilt, be sure and pop on over to bid ;)   All of the proceeds from all 3 quilts go to St. Judes, so amazing!!!


I am sure all of you have had the wonderful blessing and opportunity  of giving a quilt and seeing it bring joy and happiness into someone's life.  If you would like to share a story in the comments I would love to hear it ;)

I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Day and a very Happy Giving Season as well ;)


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6 comments:

  1. What a terrific story about David and the care he received at Primary Children's Hospital!! I've recently been quilting more since I'm now "retired". Quilts that have brought me joy to give and the joy seen when received are "milestone" quilts--one for my son's retirement from the Air Force, one for my grandson's graduation and one for my granddaughter's wedding (in progress for a January 2016 delivery). I'm thankful that my interest and passion for sewing can bring joy.
    Thanks for all you do to inspire me and others, Melissa.

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  2. Love your smooth sailing quilt Melissa! Now I want to make it, along with the hundreds already on the list! :-) So glad you could help raise money for the hospital! Hugs, H

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  3. Yay! What a great idea! Festival of Trees is so wonderful.

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  4. How wonderful. As always, beautiful quilts.

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  5. Thank you for sharing David's experience and for donating this wonderful quilt. What a special thing to do.

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  6. One of your QALs I donated to the ALSA Battle of the Flowers silent auction for this last year. http://justsomeboobs.blogspot.com/2014/03/alyof-march-complete-april-goals.html I don't know how much that raised but I was told that the 13 sock monkeys I donated raised over 300$ so that felt good. My sister had ALS and the ALS Association did a lot to help her before she died. They even got her a personal DVD from Howie Mandel (where he talked to her because she could never go on his show, super sweet dude) and a computer she could control with her eyes! I really like it when people support charities even after they aren't benefitting from them anymore. Thanks for sharing this, Melissa!

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Thank you so much for your sweet comments. I just love hearing from you!!
Have a Happy Quilting Day :)

Melissa