Flying High for Cancer Patients

Story originally published by Hood River News. 

Kate McBride has two loves: quilting and kiting. She also has a first-hand experience with the devastations of cancer, having lost her first husband to the disease. The combination of her passions and life experience made her want to get involved in the Kiteboarding 4 Cancer event in Hood River, Oregon.

McBride offered to make a quilt for the auction, and put over 300 hours into making the perfect creation. Her quilt shows intricate details of kites flying high above waves and foam, quilted with a swirling surf and bubble pattern by her friend Pat Roche. McBride based the quilt design on a poster for the event, which uses the Oregon cliffside as a backdrop, and is large enough for a king-size bed

She worked tirelessly to create the perfect quilt for a the auction. She found every last edge so that the quilt could be safely laundered and snuggled up in by the future buyer. McBride told the Hood River News that at times, she couldn't get away from the quilt, and she felt this paralleled the cause she was working toward. "When you have cancer, you can't get away from it. And it is the same for caregivers," she said. "So whenever I started to feel that way about the quilt, I remembered what it can be like for people fighting illness and I would tell myself, 'Buck up and get that stitching done.'"