Dear handmade quilts... I'm sorry, but I have been cheating on you!

Who could resist this darling pink and black polka dot quilt? Twin size. On clearance at Target for $10!! I couldn't. It's not pieced, the design was stamped on. I do like the long "hand quilting" (obviously everything on this quilt was machine made). I thought about cutting off the binding, seam ripping the big quilting stitches and using the fabric for a different project (even as a back of another quilt?). I haven't decided but I like it. I've been snuggling with this one a bit... I feel like I'm cheating on my good quilts. 

DQS11 Sent/Received!

I've been waiting forever to post this!! Here's the full story about the quilt I made for the eleventh round of the Doll Quilt Swap on flickr. I posted a while ago about the lovely quilt I received form Carol/Mamacjt, but now it's time to do a full reveal of the quilt that I made!

This post has been a long time coming, you see I mailed my quilt about a month ago - then promptly lost the tracking code slip. I freaked out about it for a little while until one of the swap mamas sent me a note to let me know that my partner had moved during the swap so her neighbor (at her old place) would be collecting the mail and forwarding it to her.

I still checked nearly every day to see if she had received it.

In the meantime I was also continuing to stalk my partner's blog. The worst thing happened, she has fallen ill and man it's just such a rough world you know? So I really wanted to cheer her up - and kept wishing more and more that she'd get the quilt and it'd at least be a little lift to her spirits. I commented on her blog post and we've emailed back and forth a couple times... all the while hoping she wouldn't put two and two together.... lol.

So she received it today!!!! The sweet little quilt that kinda stole my heart to send away - was sent to.... Maria / Mollyjolly!!! I'm so glad that she liked.it! I had looked at her mosaic for the swap and decided to try (for the first time) the new york beauty block... but I shrunk it down about 75%. I couldn't leave well enough alone right? It turns out I pretty much love that block! They are a heck of a lot of work for one 4" little block so it ended up being a label block for the back. I really fell for it.

For the front I was completely inspired by this quilt. I love the offcenteredness of a chunk of blocks. I wanted to go with subdued, gentle, pretty colors. So I weeded through my stash and scraps and was really impressed at how I actually was able to achieve that palate (though I almost never work with it!). I paper pieced the string blocks I think they ended up 2" finished? Maybe 2.5".

I added some hand stitching throughout and quilted it densely with lines about 1/4" apart. I tried to bind it a bit differently - using slightly longer visible stitches instead of the invisible ones I usually use. Note to self: it's actually a lot more work/time consuming/irritating to try to go through three layers of fabric (but not the front). In the end those stitches were pretty darling and totally worth it.... but never will I do that on a big quilt!!

Sigh. :) This quilt made me smile a lot. I actually waited until the last day to send it -- so that I could enjoy it a bit too! :) I'm so glad that it's finally in the hands of it's new owner and that I feel like I've made another bloggy friend. Long live DQS!

Linked up at Fabric Tuesday!

Let the countdown begin!

My favorite four letter word...

As you may know from my previous posts, September is childhood cancer awareness month.

Did you know?

• Each year around 13,500 children are diagnosed with cancer in the US
• One in every 330 Americans develops cancer before the age of twenty.
• On the average, 36 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer everyday in the United States (around 46 per school day).
• On the average, one in every four elementary schools has a child with cancer. The average high school has two students who are current or former cancer patients.(Stats thanks to People Against Childhood Cancer)

Rosemarie's awesome!

One of those 13,500 children has a place very close in my heart. She's my niece. Rosemarie was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma at 13 months old. She's five now. She's never been in remission in those four years. There is no known cure for neuroblastoma.

These children are being robbed by this disease. Robbed not only by the hours, days, months, years spent in hospitals, withstanding procedures and terrible side effects - but they're also being robbed of a lifetime of amazing things: robbed of graduations, weddings, vacations, etc. It's really hard work just to keep from dwelling on it all. We're lucky though, we've got Rosemarie, and she's a bright spot in our days.

What can we do? Childhood cancer is so poorly funded. Of every dollar donated to the American Cancer Society less than one cent goes to childhood cancer research (stats here). That's pretty startling. So I'm going to suggest that we all make an effort to try - donate to St. Jude Children's Hospital. St. Jude (you can do so right now by following this link). Even a dollar helps. 

What else can we do? Pray! Please do! Join me in praying for a cure for childhood cancer. As Allie says, "Jesus please help Rosemarie feel better!" 

And lastly I hope you're still with me here. Please eat at Chili's Restaurant tomorrow (Monday sept 26th). The profits made by Chili's Restaurants nationwide on that day will be donated to St. Jude's! You know you've got to eat, so go on and treat yourself, and thank your server for supporting St Jude's too! In four years Chili's has raised over $30 million dollars for St Jude's!

(Rosemarie is the sweetie in the supergirl costume.)

A Quilter's Dream!

 Two things happened this weekend that would certainly fall under this title. 

First this happened: 

Three quilts in a row. Wally's quilt, my quilt, and Rosemarie's quilt
(Which she brought with her!)

My family was in town this weekend and There were air mattresses all around. On top of each one? A quilt!! All but one of them was made by me, and one of them was made by my Aunt Kathy (given to me when I was about 10). 

In the other room two more! My first ever quilt (t-shirt quilt), and one made by Aunt Kathy.
(Crumpled on the unmade bed? Allie's quilt)

Pretty amazing right? I love the thought that my quilts kept them warm all weekend! :) 

Second: 

This evening before dinner, Wally called me in to the kitchen to see what Allie was playing. To our surprise she was playing "fabric store" with the paper towels (strange enough to have them in the house!). She rolled out a few lengths of towel, then used her two fingers in s scissor motion to "cut" (rip) them apart. Too cute! She kept talking about cutting fabric.... adorable! 

Bee Blocks & Round Robins

I just finished my round for this month in the Round Robin hosted by the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. For those of you who don't yet know (as I didn't understand prior to joining this) a Round Robin is where each person makes a center block of a certain size following a certain technique (here we did applique) then each month the quilts are switched on a rotation so that several people get a chance to work on it. Each "round" has a different theme. The theme for this month was diamonds. 

This month I worked on Terri's quilt. I'd never pieced diamonds before, and I typically don't do intricate borders in such a way (like more traditional quilts would have an intricately pieced border around the whole quilt). I really enjoyed the challenge this time, and worked hard to use my signature tiny piecing (the main border added was just 1.5" wide!. Unfortunately, I ran out of the yellow and the green that I used to piece those triangles... so I sub'd in the yellow strips on either side. Overall I'm extremely happy with this, and I can't wait to see how mine is looking!!!

 Here's my {Sew} Beautiful bee block for September. AnneMarie had us do pinwheels - which surprisingly was my first try at pinwheels. I've done many HST's though so they're not too different. It was really satisfying how quickly this came together!

My Name Is...

I finished my name tag for the sewing summit. Ok ok, I do still have to pink the edges and add a pin to the back. But to me it's finished! The star there is my signature block - a tiny wonky star... it measures just about 1" from point to point! Then I free motion quilted my name, flickr name, and blog name too. My biggest worry while at summit is that I'll forget which name goes with which blog... lol. So at least with this others won't have to worry about remembering my names!

In just three weeks I'll be there!!! Sewing Summit here I come! :)