Emily's Blanket

Many of you know my dear friend, Emily. In 2005 (wow!) we went to Spain and studied abroad together for a semester. There, while on endless bus rides, we became best friends. I have such wonderful memories of running through raining plazas, travelling the pilgrim's path, eating more pastries than we could count, buying dried fruit, attending class, checking into hotels together, and eating weird and gross foods. We spent endless hours talking about life, about our dreams, and about John. I watched Emily prepare for her mission, and laughed with her about her visit to the doctor.


When we came back home, I worried I wouldn't see her again, at least for some time. She received her mission call to Madagascar and went home to Virginia. But after talking with John, she postponed her mission to go to school and, ultimately, to marry the man of her dreams.

Emily and John didn't mind that I was dating a boy that was in high school, and so TJ and I would double date with Emily and John. Every Friday morning I drove down to school early so that we could have breakfast together before class, and I can't help but laugh at remembering John's worry about my ravenous appetite. :)

I certainly didn't miss Em and John's graduation lunch at the Brick Oven and I admit I cried as I watched them pull out of the parking lot, on their way to Virginia for medical school.

Then the texts and phone calls from Em about just how Elder Morris was doing - what he looked like, what he said, and what they had done that day. On more than one occasion I was jealous that she could see him and was mad that John wouldn't let Emily just ask TJ if he would marry me. :) I was flattered that John said TJ was a wonderful missionary and, in all honesty, glad that my three good friends could be so close together.

John and I arranged for me to fly out to Virginia without Emily knowing about it. He sent her on a scavenger hunt one day that ended at the airport, and with a bit of work during the day, I convinced her it wasn't me. Oh, it was so exciting to see her. :) And she had just hoped and hoped it was me. I brought her the baby blankets I had made for Lizzie, who was almost part of the family, and we enjoyed a beautiful drive back to their apartment at Virginia Beach.

We had pizza at the beach that night, with really miserable service, and then the three of us went and walked along the beach. Oh, and we saw a lot of weirdos. :) We enjoyed a lot of pastries (it's a traidition, now) and delicious, juicy peaches.

Emily's dear parents came to help us load everything John and Ems owned into a trailer, and again, the group drove away, this time to Charlottesville. At least this time I got to join the ride.


Oh man, this is the funniest picture of John... :)

Over the next week we worked to make the new apartment home, everything from the furniture in the family room, to the little bricks on the back porch. I guess I've gotten carried away, but I have so many wonderful memories and it feels so good to write them down.

John and Emily flew into Utah on Saturday night and on Sunday morning they came to TJ's Homecoming - my gosh, Lizzie is darling, and they told me that family member #4 was on its way! We enjoyed food after TJ's talk (John's pretty sure everything is better in Utah, including the food) and had a great time on our double date on Monday. Emily and John watched TJ hold my hand for the first time since he came home from his mission - they smiled, as they'd watched us together for so many years.

John passed away two days later, and my heart felt like it broke. Even now I mourn his loss, and my aching for Emily has never actually gone away. I was at her side all through the next week, at the funeral, at the cave, at the luncheon, and at the airport as we shared breakfast and helped her get Lizzie on the plane. And then it felt like there was nothing I could do - I prayed fervently, of course, shared many tears with her, texted, talked, e-mailed, and sent packages.

When she sent the e-mail about baby John's birth, I had an idea - for Christmas, I'd make her a quilt with all the people she loved. And so I e-mailed the same group that she had, deleted her name, and invited everyone to join me:

All,

I know that each of you know Emily in some way or other, or she wouldn't have e-mailed you about her beautiful baby John. I am so very blessed to be her best friend (I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels that way) and have been thinking a lot about a memorable gift I could give her for Christmas. I've made a decision and would love to involve each of you!

I'd like help from each of you to make a quilt for Emily with your names on it. I think it will be a wonderful surprise for her to receive and certainly a memorable gift.

If you're interested in participating, please do the following by September 1st.

1. Cut a piece of PRE-WASHED COTTON fabric to 8.5" x 4.5". Choose any fabric you like - I think it will be a ball to have all different fabrics as they'll tell about the people that give them.
2. Get cross-stitching floss (about 30 cents for 25 feet at Roberts; available at any craft store) that will match your fabric (or look however you want).
3. Stitch your name into the fabric (you can put a short message if you want - "I love you! Love, Rach" is enough text to fill that space and remain legible). The most legible way to do this is to pull the floss far enough through your needle so that the floss is doubled up when you're stitching.
4. Send me your piece(s) of fabric by September 1st. so I can put them together, tie the quilt, and edge it.

Please send to:
Rachel Morris
HOME ADDRESS

Please keep this a surprise - I do not want Emily to find out about it!

Please feel free to be creative and make it personal as that's what will make it a loving quilt for Emily. Additionally, some of you are members of whole families that are close to Emily - you can choose to do one for your whole family or one for each member - it's particularly fun to have each family member do their own handwriting (kids in their big letter scrawl, or a picture, or a trace of their handprint).

Thanks so much for all your help.

Last, I know this is a long list, but inevitably I have missed a few - pass it along to those that should be included, please. (I will take care of her immediate Petersen family, so don't worry about reaching out to them).

Thanks in advance - I look forward to hearing from you.

Rachel
(Rach Rach, as you may know me from John)

And then the responses started pouring it. It was so exciting, and overwhelming, to see just how much people cared about and loved my dear Ems. TJ and I excitedly checked the mail together everyday, and happily collected all the fabrics from around the world, literally, as our gift started coming together.

After a few stragglers came in, we started really working on things in October. I took care to carefully document the compilation of the blanket, but lost my phone before saving them. What you don't see before this picture is all the work that went into getting things to this point! We actually received fabric in all different sizes and spent a LOT of time figuring out how to make them fit on a quilt that wouldn't take over Emily's world. TJ and I spent a lot of time drawing out different designs on paper, in Excel, and on the carpet.

We finally figured out what design to go with and laid all the squares out (after moving all our furniture) and it was SO crazy! After talking with Mom Morris and Sara Morris, we thought that it would be a good idea to have a central fabric that tied things together. We bought a couple different options, but liked yellow the best, to pull out all the happiness that the quilt holds.

Back to the drawing board, this time with the additional yellow fabric. TJ picked out the design we went with, and I think it turned out great. We decided to put all the family pictures in the middle, in a square around a picture with her and John. After a lot of contemplation, we decided the most fitting words for the middle of the quilt were "It's All About Love," because this quilt represents hundreds of hours of love for her.



After picking the right order for the pictures, we sewed them together and tried to make a square and it was a MASSIVE failure! :( Nothing aligned, nothing was center, and all my pieces were the wrong length. I, of course, cried. And then I spent a lot of time unpicking, with TJ telling me that it was going to work out. I was so worried about letting all these people down! After a lot of time and help from my sweet husband, we got the center actually in a square, with everything aligning.

Then we laid out all the squares around it and focused on putting the colors into chunks instead of having sheer chaos. Here everything is laid out just as we wanted it:


Starting to see some progress:


And even more progress:


We FINALLY finished the front and I was absolutely ecstatic. :) It was starting to look like a blanket! A real blanket!

I forgot to mention the saga about the fabric for the back. Sara and Mom also suggested that tying to the back would decrease the busyness of the front, which I thought was a great idea. So, for the back I wanted a fabric that wouldn't need to align perfectly with the front - something like a paisley pattern. I went to the fabric store (by myself - big mistake) and spent TWO HOURS rummaging through fabrics and trying to find the perfect match, not only for the yellow, but for Emily, who has unique, but darling, tastes. I went with a blue/gray paisley with bits of gold (not quite yellow) all over. I thought it was perfect.

And then I brought it home and of all the people that saw it, only ONE person like it! :S However, the money was spent, the fabric was cut, and I just hoped and prayed that Emily would be the second person to like it.

My sweet roommates came over for a get together and I begged them to tie while they chatted - they did! It was the night Emily was flying in and everyone tied as quickly as possible until Emily arrived, when we hurried and put everything away! As Emily was here the next few days, we couldn't work on it at all. When she went to stay with her family, we raced to finish the tying and then Sara Bullock was so kind to edge it for us.

Here it is, finished:


And this is what the back looks like:


We gave it to her a couple days after Christmas. We folded it so that she could only see the back when she opened it - watching her start to unfold it was priceless. She was a bit confused of why there were names of people she knew on a quilt, and then I explained it to her, and we opened the whole thing for her to enjoy.

She sent out an e-mail to everyone that helped and let them know that this blanket is one of her most prized possessions. I might be crying while writing this, as I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful friend. My hope with the blanket was to remind her how many people love her and to help her feel surrounded by their love, especially when John feels far away.

My sweet Emily, Merry Christmas. It was worth every second. I love you always, and can't wait for all the memories to come.