Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (Part Two)

Continued from Part One...

So, whatever happened to my last round robin? It's a mystery to me.

Prior to her disappearance, the last quilter to work on my top emailed me extensively about her addition. I was thrilled and touched by the thought and effort she was putting into it. Since this was to be a quilt for my son's graduation, the ladies had asked me to share a little bit about him, his likes and dislikes, favorite things, hobbies, etc. She had latched on to his love of country music and playing guitar and, in January 2008, shared this picture of her addition to the quilt:


The notes on the staff are for the song, My Wish, by Rascal Flatts, one of my son's favorite country groups. The lyrics couldn't be more perfect for the occasion. In addition, she told me she had ordered the sheet music to include with his gift. Her thoughtfulness, honestly, brought me to tears.

But then we lost contact. The emails trailed off, and the two quilt tops she had in her posession were never sent on. Of course, our first thought was that something drastic must have happened. Countless emails were sent, phone messages left, letters mailed -- no response. A call to her place of work assured us that she was okay (though she wasn't available to talk). We had no choice but to give up and hope that the quilts would appear... but they never did.

And almost two years later, I'm pretty sure they won't.

Since then, we've put it behind us, more or less. Every so often, though, I would think about that round robin, and the fact that my son never got his graduation quilt. His younger sister has since graduated and received a quilt from Mom, but I continued to hold off on his, in the hope that just maybe...

And then one day recently I had the thought -- why not just RE-make that same quilt? The thought had never crossed my mind before, but when it did, the possibility was exciting. It didn't have to be "the quilt that never came to be."

A few days later, I went out and bought some more of that "uninspiring" blue and gold fabric...


... and started in on the re-creation. So far, I've completed the center block, and started the addition of the first border, originally made by my friend, Maura, from New York.


And yesterday, this came in the mail...


Rascal Flatts Greatest Hits: Volume One, for Piano, Vocal and Guitar, which includes the music for My Wish. I ordered it in preparation for the music border to come. Whether I finish this quilt in time for Christmas (not likely) or his birthday in May, this will be part of the gift. :o)

So now I'm excited to get this border finished and to move on to the next. As disappointing as it was to never have that quilt top come home, I am still grateful to that quilter for inspiring the theme (and if, by some miracle, she reads this, I hope she knows that the thought that went into it was very much appreciated). I see my rendition being somewhat different from the picture above, using the same idea, but making it a bit more of an expression of me. When you think about it, that's how a gift from a mother to her son should be.

And maybe it was all meant to work out this way, for just that reason.

Continue to Part Three