In the midst of pain came On The Scene

Bonnie Hunter named this quilt pattern On Ringo Lake with her inspiration coming from pics of a small boat literally on Ringo Lake in Minnesota.

I changed the colors.
Increased the size.
Made the blocks incorrectly.
Skipped the pieced sashing and cut the wrong width of plain sashing.
Added a border that nearly drove me mad.
You see a theme of *ugh* going on here? LOL
I admit I was lost. Physically and most of all emotionally.

Center of the unfinished top

In the zillion tiny pieces of the red, blue, gray and black confetti border I saw the light.
I was crying. Too much chaos in my life.
My vision was blurry. I could only see the pops of the bright colors. No pattern was visible.
I was seeing the emergency lights the night I found my mother dead in her home.

Confetti border has about 2500 pieces

An ambulance came even though my husband told them nothing could be done.
911 sent firemen as well.
The street was a sea of flashing lights. Confusing chaos.

Not my pic. See the red, blue, gray and black?

Sounds receded. I was numb, yet felt so much.
Firemen who all stopped and shook my hand or touched my shoulder offering sympathy.
Ambulance EMT's leaned in to offer a comforting word.
Police officers who spoke to me gently and stayed until the funeral home arrived hours later.
So many kind people were there for me. All strangers.

I survived.
My husband kept encouraging me to move forward with this quilt. He told me how much he loved it. I couldn't see past my melancholy to love it.
Until I started the borders in late July.

OKC Police Honor Guard 2015

Amidst my tears, I saw that night again and knew the name of this quilt.
On The Scene.
My husband is a 31 year veteran police officer. He still works the street.
The vivid colors are his.
The vivid color pops are his normal.
His comfort.
It means the cavalry is there to back him up.
He is not alone.
God and St. Michael are always with him. However, having your fellow officers on a scene too is comforting.

St. Michael is the patron saint of law enforcement

Now I know why I chose these colors.
Why it is so eye poppingly bright.
God knew my husband wanted this quilt before it was ever created.
My 'mistakes' were His wonderful directions.
His creation from my lowly hands.

The backing has a Thin Blue Line

I present to you On The Scene.
Design by Bonnie Hunter, On Ringo Lake, 2017 Mystery quilt
Pieced (and altered endlessly) by me.
Quilted by Bush Family Affair quilt shop, Chickasha, OK

On the Scene, final stitch 12-27-2018

I sat alone late at night hand stitching the label. I finally felt some peace. My piecing mistakes were loved and wanted. My struggle had become a thing of beauty for my loved one.

Thank you Bonnie for designing this quilt. You are helping heal my family <3

On our bed finally

I finally was able to get a pic in the late afternoon sun. I was happy to have any sunshine at all! 

A close up in the sun. Quilting is a loose stipple to keep it soft.

And to really scramble your eyes ... a close up of the vivid design.

I am so happy this quilt is complete. Amen.

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt part 5 link up

How will these all go together?

My mystery quilt stitching paused for Christmas - my sewing table was relocated to serve Christmas dinner. Eeek! I really don't mind, though it is returned in less than pristine condition. I hauled it back into my sewing room last night and set it up.

So many tiny squares! 

That smooth, empty surface called to me ... to trim last years mystery quilt! On The Scene was stitched, quilted and in a bag waiting to be trimmed and bound. So I pulled an all nighter and did just that.

Stitching a mile of binding

I hand stitched the label on about 3am. I'm ecstatic that this is completed. It became such a long project. By the time the last stitch was done, I was ready for bed.

I did make progress on Good Fortune over Christmas. Mainly on the pressing and organizing front.

Needs pressing!

Clue 1 is now stitched, pressed and waiting.
Clue 2 is about 20% done. I need to make a thousand more neutral/blue HST's.
Clue 3 is almost done. All of the half chevrons are stitched and pressed. I pressed all billion neutral/green HST's though I will need to make a few to compensate for the few that I stitched badly, trimmed poorly, etc. Thank goodness it is only a few.
Clue 4 is cut and waiting. I copped out (according to Bonnie) due to only have a few fabrics available. I'm ok with it :)
Clue 5 .... do we have to discuss clue 5? I promise I will start cutting on it as soon as I'm done writing this blog post.

Pressed and ready to go

I'm joining the party linking up to Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Monday Link Up.