Think Pink

pardon the crappy photo--this was taken at night and since i finished it in the car literally 5 minutes before taking this photo and then delivering it to my friend, this is all i got. too bad, it was quite a pretty quilt.

my friend CKN was diagnosed with breast cancer last november. she's a friend from college days so it's rather horrifying to have friends your own age with this disease. but praise God that it was caught in the early stages and she is expected to make a full recovery. having said that though, it's been a difficult journey--chemo sucks in all sense of the word--but her family & faith have really pulled her through.

CKN and her husband are just amazing people. they have been in east asia for the last few years, with their young kids, as tent-makers for God. during their time there, they fell in love with a little girl they were fostering (because of course CKN had tons of time to take care of other kids as she home-schooled her own 2 boys!!!) and eventually adopted her. because of the paperwork and all the ensuing delays, their sabbatical was delayed a year (until last year, 2008). it was frustrating but they trusted God through it all, and of course, as a result, they also are the proud parents of a beautiful little girl.

in november of 2008, as they were wrapping up their sabbatical time and preparing to move back to east asia, CKN went in for a routine check-up when they found the lump in her breast. it was amazing timing that they were here in the u.s. to get treatment, surrounded by their family and church community, who helped them in all sorts of practical ways. (plus it would've been really expensive to send this quilt internationally!! :-) obviously, we would all have preferred that CKN didn't get cancer in the first place, but God has His reasons, His timing, and mostly His provision and love during our hard times (because hard times will come).

CKN has a couple more courses of chemo to go, it's been rough--but she's a tough chick. and they are looking forward to moving back to east asia to continue the work God has set for them. i am so amazed at and inspired by their faith.

anyways, back to quilty stuff. here's a picture of a scrap of the pink ribbon fabric i found on ebay--it's so cool--it has chinese characters all over it as well as the pink ribbon. i had to get alex's chinese school teacher to help me translate some of the characters :-)

i have quite a pink stash (for that pink and white quilt i'll make in the future) (who knows when) and all the other fabrics are from my stash--which was pretty cool. i did buy some flannel for the backing, figuring she might like something cuddly. the pattern is from Moda and part of their breast cancer awareness project. it's really fast and easy and i can see myself making it again in the future (though hopefully not for the same reasons).

these are scraps from the project (all those corners from the star points). when i was binding it, i was doing it with some friends, and they all asked if this was going to be a cushion cover--another duh moment because of course this would've been a perfect size cushion cover--but i hadn't thought of it and so i made it too small and also was almost finish with the binding and didn't feel like ripping it all out. oh well, it's now a doll quilt though sophie never uses it and one day (many years from now) when i have my own studio, it would be fun to have a wall of mini quilts.

i like the back too :-) an extra block from the quilt and some Ava Rose.