Cauliflower and Assorted Items

Remember how you used to hate cauliflower and then all of a sudden you loved it dipped in blue cheese dressing?  No?  But you have had an experience of liking something you used to hate, right?  Well, I love  raw cauliflower in the blue cheese dressing. But what about yo-yos? No, not the toy with the string.  You know, the little circles that you gather up and it makes the cutest little decoration to sew to something.  Nope.  Don't like them.  Can't stand them.  You guessed it.  Something happened and all of a sudden I decided to make some.  One became two and then a whole bunch more.  More colors, more sizes.  Suddenly I was hooked on them.  I am not sure exactly what I am going to do with them, but keep your eye out for them.  They'll show up sometime, maybe when you least expect it.  Maybe we should just move on to some quilts.

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We've used this setting alot.  It is very basic and versatile.  You can use up a lot of scraps that way and still have a fun quilt.

This bright striped backing has a summery "Caribbean " feel to it.  Add the awesome quilting and this quilt is a winner for sure.

Shelly--our flannel expert--took very limited scraps that she had and came up with this beauty.  Bright and graphic fun for a little girl.

The light purple flannel dot finishes this off nicely.

Here is an example of Shelly using some of the same flannel but coming up with a totally different look.

The same backing was used for this quilt.  The lesson is "Don't mess with a good thing!"

This is a panel that Judith took and added to it to make it a great size.

Here's a close up so you have an idea what the alphabet blocks look like.

We used this wild fabric that I had for a backing.  With all the color in this quilt, some little one will have a great time picking out objects that they recognize.

Feel free to leave me a message.  I love hearing your comments.  Your enthusiasm is what keeps us going!  Check back--we'll have more great ones to see!

Things Are Swirling

You are plodding along day to day. Things may seem a little hectic, but all in all, life seems pretty good.  Then all of a sudden the wind changes and things begin to swirl.  No, I'm not talking about the weather.  Boom!  Your life starts to get crazy.  You know, you've been there.  May was good, a few days were hectic, but life was good.  Then it happened.  School was out.  That means my husband is home for the summer.  A good thing, but a difference in my schedule.  We had planned a trip with our twin sons and their wives.  We left a few days after school was out and flew to Cancun.  We spent our time on the beach and at the pool sampling the tropical beverages, enjoying the water and the great company.  The food was nonstop and so was our fun.  A few days after we returned home, Greg's father passed away. We were all back together much sooner than we had planned.  Two days after the funeral Greg and I flew to Orlando, Florida.  I was being updated on some changes in training for the speaking I will be doing for the new medication I have been taking for my mulitple sclerosis.  We spent a couple of days in a wonderful hotel and I was able to reconnect with the others who will be speaking as well.  We arrived home late yesterday and were simply exhausted.  But life is still good.

This is a picture of the beach in Cancun from our hotel room.  Nice, huh! I will spare you the photos of me in my swimsuit.  The quilts are much more fun to look at!  Even though I've had lots to keep me busy, the work on the quilts hasn't even paused.  Everyone has continued doing their part to keep us going.  Here's some of our latest.

This is one of my favorite quilts.  A couple of friends gave me their leftovers from a quilt they made.  The pieces were originally 16 patch blocks.  I passed them to my sister and she put them all together.  We added a couple of borders and came up with a really cool quilt.  It shows what a few scraps can do.  It doesn't have to be fancy to make a great quilt.

The quilting really shows up well on this golden yellow backing.  Although this quilt has some brightness to it, it also has some softness too.  Looking at it makes me happy.



There is certainly nothing soft about this one!  This was a panel that Deb took, cut up and added some sashing.  She added a blue outer border and off it went to a quilter.

The hot pink backing is perfect for the bright flowers.  The quilter used several different colors of thread to match the front colors.  I can see a girl of any age liking this one.

This quilt may look familiar to you.  You just sew together 4 1/2" squares and add a couple of borders.  Although it may look familiar, it is still unique because we used different fabric for the border.  And it is great to use those scraps of fabric!

The backing for this quilt is a field of daisies.  Although you can't see it well in the picture, the quilting is wonderful.  Our quilters are full of talent!

Cats, cats, cats.  All these squares are full of cats.  The border is little blue mice everywhere giving the quilt a little sense of humor.

You can see the mice a little better in this close-up.

And what is better on the back of cats?  More cats!

Remember I mentioned my husband is home for the summer?  His new job is holding the quilts while I take the pictures.  Thank you to him.  I think he may be counting the days until school starts sooner than he thought he would!

More quilts to come!

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!