. Here it is:
This is my
Whimsical Flower Garden that I made as a donation for Happy Chemo earlier this year.

First off let me tell you, I
LOVED MAKING THIS QUILT!!! (
It was actually hard to give away!)As a cancer survier myself, when I joined this
QAL I found my heart and brain going right...in other words...I wanted to create a
realllll happpyyyy chemo hug! LOL! Something different and unique.
My husband and I were practically newlyweds ourselves, our girls just two and three years old when my own diagnosis of Stage 3 Hodgkin's Disease threw our sense of normalcy out the door and was replaced with a new routine of doctor appointments, IV's and chemo followed by
days of sickness. (
Not to mention with the domino effect cancer has on your poor family.) To this day, I will never forget, after 10 months of chemo, I then had to have daily "
follow up" radiation for a month. My mom would pick me up from school at lunchtime, my two toddler daughters would be smiling at me from their car seats, excited by our "
trip". My appointment was an hours drive away. They'd drop me off to get "
zapped", go refill the car with gas, return and we'd go for a picnic lunch in a nearby park. (
I seriously can not ever repay my mother for her unconditional love and support to my husband and I during these times!!)
So....with every flower sewn on this quilt,
I found myself willing happy thoughts of a healthy,
loving journey to the recipent of this quilt.
That they too are surrounded with the love of family and that they too have the courage and determination to LIVE life despite their obstacles of cancer!

I went through ten months of very advasive chemo and one month of daily radiation.
I found daily comfort in a
blanket my mom knitted me, thus my genuine inspiration to create a quilty hug for someone else as our quilts make such a difference.
Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my story.
If you are new to my blog, Welcome and I hope you like what ya see and will return. I have a Tuesday Linky party that finds us digging through our archived blog posts and rejuvinating them according to a specific theme here every Tuesday!
My linky is called:

I hope you'll stop by and link up with us!!
Happy Quilt Festival to everyone!
I can't wait to start visiting everyone's elses entries this weekend.
Here are my quilt stats:
Title: Whimsical Flower Garden
Created by and Quilted by Me: Val Reynolds
Size: 42"x64"
A BIG Thank you to Amy for creating such a very
cool festival of quilting inspiration!!!
With smiles,
Val:)