Lots of Information

We have lots of information to catch up on!  I kept meaning to blog the last week or so, but I seemed to always find something--always in my sewing room--to do instead.  So here goes.....

One of my errands today was to deliver quilts to the hospital.  I took 15 quilts to them and I also took my husband, Greg, to help me carry them in.  Tomorrow is our one year anniversary!!  We have now donated 95 quilts this year.  Add that to last year's 75 and that gives us a total of 170 quilts.  Isn't that awesome?  Congratulations to all those who have contributed.  You have made a difference.

If you are thinking what you did to help wasn't that big of a deal, just ask Heidi and Ben Nelson.  Their son, Finn, received a quilt.  Heidi said "Thank you so much for doing something so special for him during a frightening experience.  Thankfully Finn is all better now and the quilt is on his bed at home.  We are so appreciative of your kindness.  Please know that it will not be forgotten."

Anne and Mark Emert think it is a big deal.  Sam, their 3 month old, had a respiratory infection.    Anne said the quilt provided them so much comfort during such a difficult time.  They appreciated the support and care we provided.

I received a very touching note from Rebecca.  Her 6 year old daughter, Carlee, was hospitalized.  The nurses brought in a "beautiful quilt and Carlee ooohed and aaawed at the butterflies and designs she thought were snails".  Rebecca said, "Your beautiful handiwork will be taken care of with great care and tenderness as we will be taking it with Carlee to Children's Mercy later for she is to have heart surgery.  Thank you for a gift of unconditional love and bless you for your kindness."

I had never considered what we do in those terms, but Rebecca was right.  I guess what we are giving is not only a quilt, but also unconditional love.  I can't think of anything better we could give.

What's a day without a yellow quilt?

Look at the gorgeous quilting!

Dr. Suess on the loose!!

A great red stripe backing with red, black and white dots for the binding.

Turquoise print with race cars.  Perfect for a little guyl  Of course  I love the binding--it's yellow.

What makes this quilt great is that it is made with some leftover blocks from another quilt. Sandy added some "string pieced blocks" and came up with a winner.

When she finished pieced the top, she did a beautiful job quilting it.

Her backing has different colored trains with a track running around them.

Have you ever started a project and then at some point lost interest before it was finished? Haven't we all?  This is one project none of us have lost interest in. And we are far from finished.  Making a difference and giving unconditional love is something you don't lose interest in and you certainly never finish.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone.  Please remember all those who have sacrificed for us this Memorial Weekend.

Six New Quilts

I hope all of you reading this had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I got to spend it with my mom and my sister.  That is always a treat.  Remember when families lived close by?  I might be aging myself with that comment!  I remember as a child walking the two blocks to my aunt's house. My cousins and I would spend all day together and often times the night too.  Now we are spread across the country.  We keep in touch and see each other on occasion but it isn't the same as being right there.  If you have family close, count yourself lucky. 

And I am feeling lucky today.  Two of my friends who help with this mission I am on stopped by with quilts today.  The first brought tops she had pieced and the second brought quilts she had sewn the bindings on.  Does it get any better than that?

This star quilt is too cute!!  It is the first top one of our new piecers did for us.  The print is a little hard to see in the picture but it is animals dressed in doctor's and nurse's clothing.  The pattern is simply and so effective

The backing is a soft blue with little dogs chasing a ball.  Isn't it great?

This quilt is so great for a little boy.  ATV's are right up their alley!

The backing is a classic blue that sets off the front.  It seems we always need more boy quilts, so this one is a great one to add to our stack!

Isn't this a classic looking quilt?  Red, blue and white with a touch of yellow thrown in for good measure.

You can see in this picture the print is Noah's ark.

This print is called "Little Pet Shop".  I am sure if you have a young child it is familiar to you.  The purple, green, and pink work well together.

This view shows you the big eyes animals have plus the gorgeous green on the back.

This is another one of our disappearing 9 patch quilts.  They all end up looking so different so it makes it fun to see what you come up with.

Be sure you notice the heart in the quilting.  I may have mentioned before that one of our quilters always add a heart somewhere on the quilt. It is just a little touch that makes our quilts special.

This quilt is bright and a pattern we have not used before.  The sisters that pieced this did a wonderful job.  This is a favorite of mine ( no kidding)  not only because how it looks, but because of the monster fabric in it. 

The blue backing with the red dots is perfect for this quilt.

 My dear friend Missi--this one is for you.  A piece of you is in this quilt.  Thank you for the fabric and thank you for your friendship.  Sometimes life takes us places we would rather not go, but sometimes it takes us right where we need to be.

The six quilts for today are all special.  A big thank you to those who made them possible.  I hope everyone enjoyed looking!

It's a Small World

As most of you will remember, Denise, who was in charge at the hospital on the pediatric and birthing wings left us for a wonderful opportunity.  She was absolutely fabulous to work with.  Lawrence Memorial Hospital has now hired a replacement.  I got to meet her recently and her name is Tracy (I apologize if I have not spelled her name correctly). When we were introduced, I wasn't given her last name.  To make a long story shorter, she is married to a guy that grew up in my hometown.  Now that doesn't seem like that big of a deal until you know that I was raised in far Southwestern Kansas--about as far from Lawrence as you can get and still be in Kansas.  Add in that my hometown might have had 200 people in it and it gets a little more interesting.  Tracy's husband Lyndsay (not sure on that spelling either) is an MRI Technician.  He actually has performed an MRI on me for my multiple sclerosis. I know all--and I do mean all--of his family.  Needless to say, Tracy is an awesome person and we are going to love working with her.  She even quilts with her mother and sister although she admits they only let her do the pressing.  We are very glad Tracy is part of Lawrence Memorial Hospital and we are hoping she will be around for a long time.

Time for quilts and more quilts.

This is a fun flannel quilt that Shelly put together.  Shelly has ended up being in charge of our flannel by default.

Please be sure and notice the gorgeous quilting our quilter did.

This quilt is a pattern we hadn't used before and it is always nice to have a new look.

I love the color combinations in this quilt.  Aren't the duckies darling?

This is a great quilt for any horse lover.  Definitely a Southwestern flair.

For the little boy that likes bugs, this spider quilt is exactly the right thing.

The brights colors make it fun.

And of course, the striped backing is perfect.

This cowboy quilt is made of easy squares that go together quite nicely.

Although the quilt top is great, the quilting really adds to it.  Our quilter quilted cowboy themed words into the quilt.  You can see the word boots in the picture above.  A child and his parent will love looking for the different words in this quilt.

The striped backing is a good compliment to the cowboy fabric.

It is always a difficult choosing which quilts to feature in the blog.  I hope you enjoyed the ones I picked for today.  If not, check back.  I promise there will be different ones!

Making a Difference

Usually one of the first things I do when I get up in the morning is to check my email.  It is kind of like checking the snail mail in the afternoon.  I can't wait until it comes because there might be something good in it.  And no, there usually isn't anything good.  Yesterday morning I checked my email as usual, but unlike most days when I have mostly updates from websites I have subscribed to, I had an email from a name I didn't recognize.  I quickly opened it and found the most awesome message.  I want to share it with you.  I made sure that Jennifer was good with my sharing.

Hi Marla,

I wanted to send you a very special thanks for the beautiful blanket that you and your team made for my son. We were vacationing family in Lawrence and had an unexpected scare with my son Vincenzo and he was admitted to the hospital with bronchitis. Thank you so much for your time and effort, you are doing an amazing thing for children all over. He now sleeps with it every night and it will forever be with us. Can you please send along our thanks and pass on this picture to those who were involved in making the quilt. Vincenzo says THANKS!

Jennifer Christiano

Is that an awesome email or what!!!!  And what a beautiful child.

Talk about an email making an impact!  We always hope our quilts go to someone who will love them.  We do get thank yous in the mail from time to time and we certainly are thrilled to get them.  This email along with a picture of Vincenzo actually in the hospital with his quilt is priceless.  Of course, we wish he hadn't had to go to the hospital, but I'm very happy he got a quilt.

In the morning when we all get out of bed, I doubt that most of us think about who we might make an impact on that day.  I have to admit I don't.  I make quilts.  That is what I do.  It isn't a big deal but on this day it was a big deal to Jennifer and her son.  I am grateful that I and this group had the opportunity to make a difference. 

Jury Duty

I recveived a notice in the mail a few weeks ago that I am on call for jury duty.  Most people I know will do anything to get out of serving on a jury.  I am exactly opposite.  I like being called for jury duty.  Having previously served on a jury plus a several year stint working for a high profile law office gives me a different perspective I suppose.  I actually find it all interesting and think it is a good thing for everyone to do at least once.  I have had to call in every couple of days to see if I need to report.  Last week I was a bit torn.  I had a dental cleaning scheduled.  Jury duty or the dentist????  It ended up no jury duty and clean teeth.  I think it worked out for the best.  Last night I did the routine call thing expecting a recording saying I didn't need to report.  To my surprise I had to report this morning at 8:30.  Off I went thinking all the time this is going to cut into my sewing time.  After being there 30 minutes the clerk comes in to tell us the state does not have their witnesses ready to go so the trial would not start today after all.  My session ends Friday so I do not have to call anymore.  I am done!  My sewing time is intact!

Let's check out some of the latest quilts we've done.

Fun and bright daisies--a girl would have to love these!

Isn't the backing great?  Our quilter even quilted daisies on the quilt!

The crayons on this one paired with the striped border would work for either a boy or a girl. 

The blue backing is perfect.  It has subtle color variations to make it pop.

This is a red and white disappearing 9-patch.  The simplicity of the two colors is great.

The backing with houses and baskets of apples is the perfect finishing touch.

I love the soothing colors of this quilt.  The squares have dragonflies on them for fun.

This backing is just the punch this quilt needed.  Blues and greens with daisies give a burst of color.  The quilter added some dragonflies to her quilting!

This quilt is different from anything I have done before.  I had a piece of fabric that was so cute that I didn't want to cut it into small pieces.  I cut it into four pieces and added the checkerboard.  Easy-peasy. 

Can't you just see a little boy running his car along the streets of this fabric?

The blue backing gives your eyes a place to rest with all the busy pieces on the front of the quilt.

Some of my readers have been asking for more quilts, more pictures.  Hopefully, you enjoyed seeing a few more quilts today than the usual.  It is cold, damp, and dreary here. Wherever you are, I hope these pictures have brought a smile to your face and a bit of sunshine in your life.



New Numbers

I want to update everyone on our numbers.  Last year (May 28, 2010 to December 31, 2010) we delivered 75 quilts to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.  This year (January 1, 2011 to March 24, 2011) we have given LMH 62 quilts.  If my math is correct and I can't guarantee that--I absolutely hate math--we have given the pediatric unit 137 quilts.  Is that amazing or what?  I am so excited by the numbers.  The numbers show we certainly had a surge of sick children from January thru March.  We are hoping that is on the downhill slide now.  Our goal though is not to stop.  Hopefully we can stockpile some finished quilts and next year we won't have the frequent panic attacks!!!  Everyone around me would be happier without my panic attacks!
Let's look at some quilts.

I love these pink and black cats.  Simple and fast to put together, these cats are plain fun.  The backing helps to make this quilt pop!

We have shown you a quilt similar to this.  Similar is the key word.  We still have not made two quilts alike.  This is a great pattern and fabrics to use for a quilt for a guy.  Be sure to look at the fun quilting.

Yes, I know.  This penguin quilt is sideways.  Yes, I can turn it on my computer, but when I post it here, it turns right back. I am sure someone could do it right, but that would not be me.  So, humor me.  Turn your head to look at it.  It is too cute not to show you.  And the backing is so fun with all the occupations kids can choose. Just for the record, there are professional photographers that specialized in taking photos of nothing but quilts.  I think you can tell, I am not one of them.  Thanks as always for caring enough to take a look.