Sew Some Love Sunday - H2H 2nd Check-In - Hometown Heroes Link Party

Welcome to another edition of Sew Some Love Sunday!!  It's time for another check-in with Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  This week, our assignment was to tell about our Hometown Heroes.  Our challenge from from Sarah:

I have a special request for each participant in this year's Challenge!  I would love for everyone who participates to also make a quilt for a front line worker or first responder (a "Hometown Hero") in your own community, as a way to say "thank you" and maybe even "hang in there, we see all that you do". 

Here's my story...

I wasn't sure who I would make a Hometown Hero quilt for.  As I thought about various frontline workers, I found it difficult to choose just one to receive a quilt.  Alas, the more I thought about it, I realized there was one person that I saw more often than anyone else.

You know there's a pandemic going on, right?  It's better, but it's not over.  Back in March 2020, things got a whole lot crazy really fast.  The country (and most of the world) locked down, but still the mail was delivered.  EVERY.  DAY!!  Many of those days, our mail was delivered thanks to our neighborhood carrier.  This is normally the most I see of her, as she zips through her route:

Stock photo, as I keep missing her.

She is so conscientious that the day there was an unfortunate incident on the street in front of  our house, instead of waiting in the truck for her supervisor or maintenance, she got out to WALK the rest of the mail deliveries on our street.  Now, that's dedication!

On a whim, I ran out to flag her down a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't forget to put a letter in the mailbox.  I wanted to discover what her favorite color was.  Wonder of wonders, her favorite color and  the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Color of the Month for May are one and the same...

RED!!!

I searched through patterns that I've been meaning to make and decided on one.  I even went so far as to enlist fabric support from my good friend Needleb:

Then...

In a moment of clarity, I realized the phrase "go big or go home" would not apply, here!  I've got a LOT on my plate and if I wanted to be successful in completing a Hometown Hero project by the deadline, something was going to have to give.  Scaling back the scope of my project (and, therefore, my stress level) would need to occur.

Enter my May 2021 TABLE SCRAPS Challenge entry...

It started with a selection of strips from this Quilted Scrap Basket:

Using the Red Braid Runner tutorial by Anorina @ Samelia's Mum, 

the strips I chose...

Quickly progressed...

To a quilt top:

A few days later, it was quilted during a marathon longarm session:

The quilt is shown below waiting for binding (which has been chosen), but I'm not sure that I will have time to complete it today:

Here's the selected binding, fresh from Libby's scrap bin:

Thanks, Libby!! It was just the right shade of RED!

Binding sewn on...

... And binding sewing down:

Driveway shots...

Late evening table photos...

Edited (eventually) to add a photo of the delivery:

Photo currently unavailable!!

Thank you to all the postal carriers for risking your health and well being in order to make sure the letters, bills, and oh-so-many packages arrived in our mailboxes and on our doorsteps!  You made the pandemic feel a bit more like "normal life" was still going on.

Thankfully, there's a vaccine now!  Doctors have a better idea of how to treat those who contract the coronavirus.  Fewer people who get sick need to be hospitalized.  More of the cases requiring hospitalization are recovering with the newer interventions.

As I said earlier, it was a challenge to choose just one recipient.  Every frontline worker deserves our gratitude for keeping things going in the face of a global pandemic.  I hope YOU will say a special thank you to those you encounter.

More stories of Hometown Heroes

@

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Ready to pop in a gift bag:

Binding, compliments of Libby @ Life on the Hill:

There's still time for YOU to honor your...

Sharing with Kelly

for

Needle and Thread Thursday

and

With Cynthia

for

Oh Scrap!

Until next time...

Give a quilty hug to a Hometown Hero!!!