One Thing One Week Challenge

Amy over there at Amy's Creative Side is hosting her One Thing One Week Challenge again. Last week when she posted about it I committed to doing this:

I”m going to get started on quilting my neice’s cancer quilt. And finalize my projects for the two swaps I have ending soon. Oh maybe I can be superwoman and get it all done?

Yep I can be superwoman I have finished up/gathered up my swap things, and completely finished free motion quilting Rosemarie's quilt!!! I can't believe it either. I have pictures to prove! :)



Scrappy Pincushion Swap - ready to send!



Scrappy Mug Rug Swap



And finally, here's the quilting all done on Rosemarie's Quilt.

As my regular readers have heard, this quilt is a compilation quilt made with blocks from people all over the world. It was organized via a flickr group, and is being made for my niece Rosemarie who is 4 years old and has been battling Neuroblastoma, a form of childhood cancer for the past three years. She's a strong girl and we're hoping and praying for a cure. This month is childhood cancer awareness month, are you aware that each day 7 children die of cancer (yesterday one of them was a cancer crusades friend of my sister's). As you're getting out of bed this morning, the parents of some 40,000 kids are facing yet another day of treatment...of wondering, hoping, and fearing. Will this work? Will there be serious complications if it does?Did I make the right choice? FORTY THOUSAND kids who don't get to be kids today, they have to be cancer warriors instead. For them--conquer childhood cancer.

Today to help conquer childhood cancer, Chili's restaurants are donating every dollar they make to St. Jude's Research Hospital, to research for a cure to childhood cancer. Today Chili's will donate more money to find a cure than the American cancer society will. Will you help them? You've gotta eat right? Go eat at chili's and while your at it, hug your kids.

Gold is the new pink. I wear gold for Rosemarie (she's here in this video, wearing her super girl outfit). She really is my hero, she fights cancer every day.

My daughter, Allie playing with Rosemarie on our recent visit.

**Added to Fabric Tuesday, over at Quitstory. Go check them out - lots of creativity there!!

Let the Quilting Begin!

Today I basted Rosemarie's Quilt and started to free motion quilt it. Does anyone else do this? Today I had gotten the quilt all basted, rolled up, and under the machine, and not a minute into it I thought to myself, "I can't do this, I really don't think I can fmq a quilt this big!" lol. I got over that after just a couple minutes... although it's only my second quilt to free motion, it's about the same size as the first one too, I'm sure I can do it. What a big difference it is compared to doing little projects like doll quilts and mug rugs! Well as you'd know it about 4 minutes into the quilting the toddler woke up (just as I was finding my groove). So the rest (or some more) will have to wait until after her bedtime! Here's a little peek though:

DQS9 Recieved, More Mug Rugs, etc...

Can you believe it? I finally received my DQS9 quilt from my swap partner! No it didn't actually take a long time to get to me, I've just been stalking my post man ever since I sent mine (which was on the early side of the send dates). Here it is:

It came from Karen (flickr: Enola05) and it's spectacular! I really love it!!!!! It's hanging on my living room wall right now (until I get some hooks in my sewing room wall!) Did I mention that I love it? That Yellow binding really makes the whole thing pop!

***

Mug Rugs: I can't seem to get enough! This time I've tried the quilt as you go method. I really enjoyed it. I'm not willing to do a whole quilt this way right now, but I loved the fun of it!

My two swaps this month (Pincushion Swap  and Mug Rug Swap) are wrapping up... nearing the "mail by date"... So I'm about to go off to personalise these up with some embroidery etc. More pictures will come. I also have made a couple more pincushions playing around for the Pincushion Swap that will be pictured later.

Speaking of swaps... on a whim last night I decided to see if I'd be accepted into the {Urban} HOME Goods Swap. To even join this group on flickr you have to be "approved". Kinda nerve wracking if you ask me, but I did get the approval today so that's cool... maybe I'll be invited to swap the next round?! I've totally been drooling over every single thing that has been sent in that swap!

Pincushion - finished

Pincushion - finished
Originally uploaded by emedoodle

A while back I joined the Scrappy Pincushion Swap on flickr. I've got a great partner and we like similar colors/fabrics. She isn't too picky and said she'd like pretty much anything. Here's what I've come up with so far!

I decided to go with a tiny little wonky star. I like it and everything, but the star didn't pop very well. So I figured maybe I'd outline it with some stitches on the machine. This is the first time I used the "tripple stitch" on my machine - of course using that light blue (I completely ran myself out of pink and purple thread with a recent baby quilt). It turned out well, but I'm not completely won over with that blue stitching. Whatever. I decided I'll make another one and send them both! I labeled the back and everything (which is actually my favorite detail on this, the little "X" stitches on the back, holding the label).

Partner, hope you like it!!

Recovering and a little sewing.

So those of you who don't know me in real life, don't know that I have terrible sinuses. I do. Friday I had sinus surgury which was much worse than I'd hoped it would be... (my second surgury in four years). Anyway, I'm very lucky and blessed to have my mom and my mother in law around to help (my mom's in town for the week to help out), especially since DH had to be away for work. I'm feeling a lot better, but definately still much more tired than I think I aught to be. I'm sure that will go with time.

So, I've been away from my sewing machine for a few days. I feel like I loose my sanity a little bit. I definately don't have the energy to get to piecing the back of that quilt that I'd like to get done, or to start on the matching quilt for my neice... but I did manage to get to my machine for about half an hour last night to whip up this little mug rug. I'm still torn about what my partner would like best. I think I am going to just go with my gut and make another one in the colors I love and send her a couple of them. I think my work shows best when I use colors I like. So here it is... I was maybe a little loopy and maybe should have just gone to bed, but whatever. lol.

If I were to...

...design fabric. I would make some that was pretty little sketchy line drawings on unbleached cotton. So that you could color them in. Or even embroider them in. Cool? I don't really draw things. And I don't really aspire to ever design fabric. But there you go.

Discontinued Fabric

What is it about knowing that a line of fabric is discontinued that really makes one want more of it?

I'm not a fabric hoarder to any extreme, and actually I spend very little on fabric. I'm cheep. But I do love designer fabric. Ok well I love lots of designers, but I LOVE Anna Maria Horner's fabrics. The colors are just so me.

Her "Good Folks" line has been discontinued. I never even got the chance to really buy much of it. The first high quality fabric I ever bought was a half yard each of two coordinating prints in the "Chocolate Lollipop" line. I fell for the quality and the saturatedness of color. Well even when I bought that first bit - it was already discontinued. Then I fell hard for the Little Folks Voile - which wasn't even out yet. I swooned and somehow managed to have the best family ever who bought me a bunch for Christmas. Only then did I realise Good Folks. I broke down and bought a yard of this:

Good Folks, festival in dusk

to bind the quilt made with that beautiful Little Folks fabric.

 It looked perfect and felt just as wonderful as the voile. Great quality. And so then I was sold. Ok well it's all obviously my color scheme. Seriously bright bold saturated, not much white, lots of movement... oh and GREY! lol. Ok so it really makes me happy that the fabric has grey in it too. The only thing that could make it better... would be if there was a colorway of ANY of her fabrics that included purple (I recant, there will be... Crush has some purple).

As I was getting to... I feel like I need to go crazy trying to locate this fabric to buy it before it's all gone. Not that it's easy to find it all in one place ever anyway (even before being discontinued). Which is why I don't have any of any colorway in "Cathedral." Should I cut my losses and just move on and ask for her Crush line for Christmas, or save my pennies now and try to scoop up more? I feel like that Festival in the pink and blue will always make me swoon....

Anyone know of a fabric shop in the Chicagoland area that sells Good Folks?

Fabric Tuesday!!

It's Tuesday again, and over at Quiltstory they're having Fabric Tuesday! Go ahead and check it out.

Here's my fabric Tuesday! This week I received my swap partners for the Mug Rug Swap, and the Scrappy Pincushion Swap. So I've gotten to work a bit on both. I'm really addicted to making these tiny quilt mug rugs if you didn't notice. For the most part, mine finish at about 5" x 7" - 7" x  9". Yes that's large enough for a big mug and a cookie or two (and so you can still enjoy all that quilting! Also a great size for framing if one should want to.

Here's my first pic...

Some of the hand stitching added... not done yet...

Another one, totally out of my normal realm... off-white and tiny flowers. Cute. That AMH Little folks was just begging to be added.

Two little tiny chicks for the pincushion swap.

The chickies are made with a pattern from AMH's book "Handmade Beginnings" (Henny Penny & Chicks pattern), but I added a gusset to the chicks so they'd stand flat. Since the wings are made from the soft side of Velcro I decided just for the pic, to sew together two scraps of the other side of Velcro to stick them together... instant PEEPS! lol. How cool? They measure just under 2" tall. Probably not too useful as pincushions, but cute!

wistfully...

I want to make beautiful things...

...and I want to make a baby.

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It's my blog; I guess I can put it out there.

The modern quilt guild challenge!

Did you all see this?

I'm torn as to wether or not I should give it a try. The entries have to be 45" x 45" or larger. I'm not sure the quilt in my mind wants to be that size. lol. I'm going to think about it. I definately think it's worth trying, but who knows.

Do you have any inspiration for this project?

Zip bags...

Ok so I only sewed one of these, but I intend to make more. This was pretty quick and fun! The zipper didn't turn out quite perfect, but I like it. Perfect size for my makeup (since I finally found some - expensive as it is - that I'm not allergic to!). I see these in  my future, maybe for a nice little gift?

I Wear GOLD For...

...my superhero Rosemarie!

Today starts childhood cancer awareness month. Gold is the new pink. Lets raise some awareness and kick cancer's butt. I don't go into it too often on this blog, but my neice Rosemarie, age 4, has been fighting Neuroblastoma for three years. She's currently in a stage one (very new) study. For the first time ever they have seen a slight change for the better on her scans. Lets hope and pray this does it! For more on Rosemarie's story check out her Caringbridge page.

Now is the time to raise some awareness. For one, you can mark it on your callendars right now, eat at Chili's September 27th. All their procedes on that day will go to St. Jude's Research Hospital. Next, consider making a donation to St. Judes? Or just passing on the info. Hey maybe you could get together with your crafty friends for some drinks at Chili's on the 27th? It all helps.

Now go ahead and watch this video. Be sure to notice my superhero Rosemarie. (yep, she's wearing her super girl cape!). Say a prayer for them, and be thankful for our kids who aren't affected by this terrible disease.

Some lovely mug rugs...

I just want to make more... but I shouldn't right now, I should go to bed. Enjoy some pretty pics of what everyone else is making! :) Give it a try, they're lots of fun!

1. Doll Quilt Swap - Received!, 2. ... a new mug rug ..., 3. Mug Rug and Mug, 4. MugRugSwapJREBlue, 5. MugRugSwapJRE, 6. Urban Home Swap, 7. IMG_0018, 8. dreamy mug rug, 9. star mug rug, 10. 85.365, 11. mug rug, 12. A little mug rug ..., 13. huge mug rug is now 2!, 14. My Mug Rug, 15. My experiment ... , 16. Mug Rug Blog Button