"It takes a lot of Pieces"

I am so excited to tell you that we have new piecers and quilters who have jumped in to help us with our project of making quilts for the kids at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.  After reading the article in the paper, several sent emails saying they would like to help.  After thinking about it for maybe three seconds we emailed them back and said we would love to have their help.  Thanks to Shelly's organizational skills we met at her house recently and were able to put faces with names.  We had a great time and those who had finished their part of a quilt brought those for show and tell.  A couple of the ladies were not able to be there due to previous commitments so we are hoping to be able to meet again at some point to get to know them better as well.  I've already gotten tops pieced back from some of them and quilt tops quilted from others.  It is exciting to see the group growing.  I never thought when I started thinking about this project that it would come so far in such a short amount of time.  A huge thank you to all our new quilters.

I have some fun quilts to share with you today.  We are getting quilts done quicker now with all the new hands at work.  The quilt below is a great example of who we are and what we do.  It is made from scraps of fabric used in other quilts we have already made.  We put lots of different pieces together and came up with a gorgeous quilt. Some people say "It takes a village..."  I say "It takes a lot of pieces!"

Is this a fun quilt or what?  If you notice the quilting, it is in varigated thread and simply incredible.  The ladies who have stepped up to do the quilting for us are genuinely kind, caring and very giving people.  They don't want to be singled out for attention.  I can't say enough good things about them as a group.  They are awesome!

 

This quilt is much cuter than the picture showed.  I took the picture at night and the light is not as good as it could be.  The back of the quilt is great and just as cute as the front!

And finally, brown and pink are oh so chic and so is the girl with a quilt full of purses!  The squares in this quilt have all sorts of fun purses covering them.  Whoever gets this quilt will be right in style!  Be sure to check out the back--darling shaded pink with bubbles.  (And don't forget that quilting!)

The beginning of a monster snowstorm is starting outside.  I am off to the quilting room to sort through my pieces to see what I can come up with today. I hope all the pieces of your day come together to make it a great day for all.

We're Famous!!!

Have you seen us in the newspaper?  Last week the Lawrence Journal World published an article about Pieces.  Jennifer Hornbaker who is a freelance writer did a feature article on us!  If you don't live in the area or have not seen the paper, check us out at http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/dec/27/local-quilting-organization-pieces-donates-time-an/.  Jennifer did a wonderful job on the article and we've had a very positive response.  We have had at least 5 people volunteer their time to help us .We are so excited to have their help.  Not only can we make more quilts, but with that brings new friends who share our passion.  I am in the middle of tweaking my notes on 2010 and I will be giving you a summary of our efforts for last year.  I do know we had a wonderful year and 2011 is going to be even better.



I wish everyone could see the quilts we have done up close and in person.  I wish you could touch them and feel what we have put into them.  Not the fabric, not the thread, but the piece of our heart that we leave in each and every quilt.  It is such a small thing we do but I do hope that a child that is sick and scared finds some warmth, some comfort and some love in the quilt that covers them.

Our Loss, Their Gain

When I started this little quilt project, I met Denise Martinek the first day we delivered quilts to the hospital.  (She's the cute one in our pictures).  I had not met or spoken to her before that day.  I have worked with lots of people in the medical field but I wasn't sure what to expect.  She came out of her office with a big smile and a warm personality.  She took one look at the quilts we had and instantly and enthusiastically jumped on board with us.  She could not have been nicer or more welcoming.  Over the course of the last six months Denise and I have gotten to know each other, sharing stories of our children and our lives.  Are you wondering where I am going with this yet?  Well, unfortunately for us, Denise's last day at Lawrence Memorial Hospital was December 24th.  She has taken a new position at Shawnee Mission Medical Center.  It is a huge step up for her and will give her a chance to broaden her scope.  She is very passionate about certain mother/child aspects and she will be able to jump head first into those.  I am so thrilled for her.  That being said, I will miss her greatly as I am sure her patients and coworkers will also.  She was our link to the children and a spark in all our lives.  This is beginning to sound as if something terrible has happened to her!  All this being said, I think the world of Denise and I know she will be the spark in a lot of new people's lives.

We have other big news going on also but that news and some pictures of the latest quilts are just going to have to wait for another day.  Colder weather and possibly wind and snow are headed our way tomorrow.  I think I should get my sewing area in order so that I can just "hunker down" and sew!!

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone in a flurry.  Hopefully everyone got all their projects done, their cookies and pies baked and your packages wrapped in time.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I always intend to get far more done than I have time to do.  At some point I just have to stop and be happy with what I did get done and forget the parts that I didn't get to.  I love to decorate for Christmas but when it comes time to put it all away I start wondering what I was thinking!
I also have that same problem with the quilts for the kids in the hospital.  I have all these plans and ideas swarming in my head.  I go to sleep thinking of ideas and wake up thinking of ideas.  Getting them all done is another story!  At the end of each day I have to stop and be happy with what I did get done, just as I do about Christmas.

This is a great quilt that a good friend donated to our cause.  The snowman will make some little girl or boy very happy.

This awesome quilt is called Wandering Geese.  My sister put this one together and we both fell in love with it.

Just look at the wonderful quilting on this.  Talk about gorgeous!!  It is certainly the work of a master quilter.  Thank you to our quilting fairy for this one!

This blog update would not be complete without a four patch with animals.  These are darling cats in all sorts of colors.

And as always the back is a fun multi-print that goes great with all the colorful cats on the front.

Our quilt count continues to grow thanks to all the help we have sewing, quilting, and washing. It is hard to believe we have come so far in only six months.  We must be doing something right!!

Unique Quilts

Wherever you are when you read this, I hope you are having warm, sunny weather.  It is anything but that here in Kansas.  We've have cold temperatures, high winds and blowing snow during the last week.  Today is cold and freezing drizzle.  It's days like this that are perfect for sewing.  If I'm not sewing, curling up with a book and a quilt is perfect.  Pulling a quilt close around you makes everything better!  I've got some great quilts that we delivered to the hospital recently to show you.  I hope you enjoy looking.

The first quilt is just the sweetest thing.  It is a black floral print with pink and green accents.  Just the perfect quilt for the "girly-girl".

The back of the quilt is a very soft pink flower on a white background.  Our quilter used a dogwood design to quilt this one.  It turned out beautiful!

Blue, Yellow and Green. Does it get any better than that?  The blocks in this quilt twist and turn bringing lots of movement to the quilt.  The blue is actually a pin dot with pink, yellow, and white dots.  What fun!

The backing used for the quilt is the same blue pindot.  You can never get too much of a good thing!

This quilt I call "Marbles" because the border and focus fabric are marbles!  The picture just doesn't do this quilt justice.  It is bright and fun.  Some little boy is going to love picking this one.

The back of "Marbles" is a bright blue that matches the inner border on the front.

 The last quilt for today is a pattern you have seen before.  However, the fabrics are ones you haven''t seen.  The green print is actually fish with the blue and yellow complimenting it.  Once again, you can't beat green, blue, and yellow.

The back of the quilt is a very pretty blue and white strip. It's the perfect backing for this quilt.  Our quilters seem to always have the gift of choosing the right backing.

From the very beginning of this project we made the decision to make our quilts different.  It would have been easy to use the same pattern for all of them.  While that might have been the quickest way for us to do this, we want to make each child their own quilt, not a copy of the one we gave the last child. For that reason we use lots of different ideas and fabrics.  Each child is unique and so is the quilt they receive.

The Holidays

Thanksgiving has come and gone and most of us are knee-deep into Christmas plans and activities.  Actually, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  First of all, I was born on Thanksgiving day.  That makes it my favorite for sure!  But also, it seems like such a good time of the year.  We find ourselves thankful for what we have and who we have.  It seems like Christmas brings shopping, wrapping, decorating and yes, stressing.  While we all try to keep the meaning of Christmas in the forefront, we sometimes let the list of wishes consume us.  We run around trying to make everything perfect and get more done than is reasonable.  This year my focus is on giving quilts to the kids at the hospital.  I am hoping the hospital does not need many this holiday season, not because I am too busy to sew, but because there aren't many sick kids.

Isn't this an awesome quilt?  It started out as a pile of 2 1/2 inch strips.  My sister had them and we knew we could do something with them.  We passed them back and forth several times thinking the other one would come up with something.  Susan finally asked for them back and I knew she had an idea.  This is what she came up with and I think it is outstanding.  This is one I wouldn't mind having in my size!

The backing used by our quilter is a great green and blue combination.  I think it and the gorgeous quilting add to this quilt.  Thanks to the quilter (you know who you are!)

This is a colorful quilt called a disappearing 9 patch.  You sew a nine-patch block, cut it into 4 pieces, turn them and sew back together.  You can get all sorts of fun combinations.  This one is great with yellows, reds, blues and greens.  It certainly doesn't look like I started with nine patch blocks!  To make it even more fun, the border is pieced with two different fabrics.

This is a close up of the quilting on this quilt.  It is often said "a quilt isn't a quilt until it is quilted."  The quilting on this quilt is beautiful.  It was done by a different quilter than the first one was but our thanks to you too!  We couldn't do this without you.

The last quilt for today is a favorite.  It is one we call "Little Charmers".  Black and white and red prints strategically placed makes this quilt pop!  A boy or girl of any age will love it.  We didn't exactly have a pattern for this but Susan managed to create a real charmer!

And lastly, the backing.  While the backing may not seem that important, it can make or break the quilt.  Use a great one and it enhances the quilt.  Use one not quite as well suited and the quilt fades into the background.  Our quilter not only quilted this nicely, but she chose the perfect backing.

I hope you enjoyed today's quilts.  We keep trying to come up with new ideas, different fabrics and more quilts finished!

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with food, family, and fun.  We all have so much to be thankful for.  We sometimes get busy and forget that we live in the land of the free, we have much more than we all need, and we have so much to give. Please give some thought on this holiday as to what you can do.  We all have something to give--and to repeat myself--"it is in the giving that we receive".  I hope you all receive much more than you give.