Quilts for Healing...

This poignant "Quilts for Healing" project is an inspiration.
Cancer touches all of our lives sooner or later. Often times it strikes when we least expect it. How many times have you heard someone say, "a close friend or family member was diagnosed with the big "C"?". Scary stuff. How do we help or do something that can create community and make a difference? Judith House did just that. She had a vision.

Judy began quilting in 1986 and eventually taught and lectured on art quilting. Her work was recognized at local and nationwide quilt shows. When she died, she was leading a group of contemporary quilters who were creating quilts for donation to a local area hospital. On July 28, 2005 JUDITH A. HOUSE, a well-known quilt artist, died in her home under hospice care after a nine-year battle with breast and ovarian cancer.
A fantastic website, the "Healing Quilts in Medicine", is a tribute to the quilts inspired solely by the healing properties of the different components used in Cancer treatments. This is the vision of Judy House who died of breast cancer in July 2005. Judy said, "We are dedicated to projects that bring beauty and education through art quilts into hospitals".

Here are a few of Judy's inspiring words:
A dear friend of mine who lost her battle with Ovarian Cancer said, "Cancer equals WAITING". You are either waiting for doctors appointments, tests, results of those tests, treatments, and results of treatments. This is stressful time for the patient, their family members and friends. I would therefore like to provide them with something pleasant to look at and reflect on during those often-difficult moments.

In 2005, before Judy died, from Cancer, she organized a group of 37 art quilters to make art quilts based on the plants and animals used in chemotherapies. These quilts now hang in the oncology areas of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. You can view images of these quilts by going to the Walter Reed Quilt Gallery.

Since the Walter Reed project, a group of quilters from the Washington D.C. metro area have continued Judy's legacy and are involved in several healing quilt projects. We call ourselves Fiber Artists @ Loose Ends. We have been working with the Gifts of Art at the University of Michigan and the Society for the Arts in Healthcare to bring healing quilts to new venues.
Log onto www.healingquiltsmedicine.org, you will be delighted and inspired.

A Quilter named Lisa Ellis is the gal who hosts and maintains the online "Quilt Gallery" for this project. She shares her ideas and process for "Healing Quilts" with Quilt Guilds all around the country. Her work is amazing, log onto her website and see what you can do in your own community. What a wonderful world of sharing and caring!

Mary Jo's Cloth has many new fabrics and some of your old favorites that are waiting to become an inspirational quilt. Check out our website, click onto the "Quilting" for the widest selection of quilting favorites. Also always take a moment to look at the SALE page, always the best price on discontinued, remnants and overstocks.

Do you have a sewing project you would like to share? Now is the time, send us an email with a description and a few photos and you may be our next "Featured Article".
Thanks in advance, we always love to see what you are up to.
Enjoy this early summer day.