#Giving Tuesday

Today is Giving Tuesday, a national day of giving and highlighting worthy causes.

fun idea

Regular readers of my blog know that the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is near and dear to my heart.   Their final auction is online now until December 10th.  You can see all the quilts and bid here.

Memory Walk 2 by Susan "Smitty" Price

The AAQI will cease fundraising at the end of the year, but in their 8 wonderful years raised over $1,000,000 for Alzheimer's research.  That. Is. Amazing!!!

##8827 Christmas Star

There are still quilts up for sale.  Please help make every quilt count and consider purchasing one of these quilts; they make wonderful gifts for the holidays.

Papi and Leo

Sadly, my father-in-law was very recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  His mother was the first person I knew with Alzheimer's, and she was in the final stages of this horrible disease when my husband and I started dating.  It's bittersweet that my father-in-law will participate in a new clinical trial - quite possibly funded due to generous quilt makers and buyers.

A friend just told me about the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study which provides quilts to patients enrolled in Alzheimer's studies.  As they state on their website, "The warmth of a quilt and its patterns frequently suggest a simpler time that resonates with Alzheimer's patients."  Sounds like a cause I can get behind….

Thanks for stopping by,

What's Up Wednesday: Mini projects

I began quilting my sister's quilt and am using Aurifil thread for the first time.  So far I am loving the results.  I have to say however that I am a little disappointed that the Aurifil hasn't magically transformed me into a free motion quilting genius.  I guess only practice can do that.

FMQing

I played around with stamping on fabric and dusted off my scrapbooking supplies to make this mini quilt top.

Life is Sweet!

The cupcake block was made in my QuiltCon paper pieced class with Penny.  I stamped the words Life is sweet! on cream fabric and attached to the quilt top with flower eyelets.  My iron had issues with spitting which accounts for that damp spot you see.

never ending project

I made progress on my Cowboy/Cowgirl quilt that I WILL finish by this summer.

paper piecing

More paper piecing blocks by Penny.  I started this asterisk block and became discouraged when I sewed my fabric backwards.  I found this Carol Doak YouTube video with a solution to this oops  AFTER I had ripped apart my block.

scrappy chevron block

 Our guild's block of the month for May is a scrappy chevron block.  The tutorial for this block can be found here at In Color Order.

AAQI

Last Wednesday members of the OrlandoMQG made mini quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  What a talented and generous group we have!

Hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday!  Thanks for stopping by,

Mini Monday: Spring Cleaning

The fabric organization is ongoing here.   I have now made a THIRD trip to the local comic book store for more boards.  They even gave me a frequent shopper punch card!  I am determined to tame organize my fabric stash before I do any sewing, but I'm beginning to think I will NEVER reach the bottom of my fabric pile.

Topsy Turvy Triangles

  Since I have no sewing project to share today, I want to show you the mini quilt my friend Michele made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  I just love the movement of the teeny triangles.  This was my February Quilt a Month purchase, and it looks so pretty in front of my neatly folded fabric stacks.

Getting there

Here's a glimpse of my folding-fabric-around-comic-book-boards progress.  I haven't had a chance to organize by colors yet; I am just placing the fabric on the shelves as I go along to get them off the floor. The rearranging by colors/theme/designer will be the fun part!

Hope someone is getting some stitching time in.  Thanks for stopping by,

What's Up Wednesday: Challenges

Today is our OrlandoMQG meeting day which means showing off our ugly fabric challenge, Blocks of the Month and any other quilt projects for Show and Tell.

Photo taken on the road

My baby has spent the last three days (including today) of school home with a fever so I am not at the meeting.  I did my homework though and am showing it virtually ;-)

First one made

 The block of the month you've seen before.  Yep, a great granny square block.  Think I might be in the doghouse with some for picking this block; it's not complicated but does take more time than our typical block.

Challenge block one

Our ugly fabric challenge is to make a 12.5" modern block using the fabric we received in the ugly swap.  All the blocks will then be assembled into a charity quilt.

Both challenge hocks

The ugly fabric I blindly picked was not ugly at all, so I chose a block that would feature the fabric.  Both blocks are from the Modern Blocks book - page 162 and page 14.

Straight line quilting

In between taking my daughter's temperature, I am quilting the Baby Chevron quilt.  Sure would be nice to finish this today.

How does my garden grow? by Mary Sorensen

Even though voting for the U.S. elections is now over, there are still opportunities to cast your vote going on right now in other situations.   OrlandoMQG member Mary Sorensen has a quilt in AAQI's online Celebrity Invitational Quilt Auction.  You can "cast your vote" for her quilt by bidding generously; all funds raise money for Alzheimer's research.  November's auction ends on the 10th.

Rainbow Quilt finalist

Monday I learned (thanks Michelle) my Liberated Quilt made the Blogger's Quilt Festival finals in the Favorite Rainbow Quilt category!!!!  I am thrilled that so many of you like my quilt and took the time to complete the nomination form.  Thank you!    There are so many gorgeous quilts nominated in the different categories.  Go here to vote for your favorite in each category.  Your chance to vote ends tomorrow (November 8th).

My good friend Cindy's quilt nominated too!

I am so happy to see many of my favorite quilts make the finals, and rather sad to realize others did not. However, you can vote for ANY of the 628 quilts for Viewer's Choice!
Good luck to all!

So, what's up with you this Wednesday?  Have a good one.
Thanks for visiting,

Mini Monday: More Color

I guess I should name this the AAQI Tree as I seem to photograph all my Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts here.

Hanging out

Another Monday, another mini quilt made.  The background fabric came from Pink Chalk Studio as part of their  Charming Solids club.  It's Mod Century Tweed Texture Red by Jenn Ski.

Variegated thread

 The squares and rectangles on the top are scraps of linen, solids, and shot cottons.  I randomly layered and placed them on the Tweed Texture, made a quilt sandwich and quilted straight lines using King Tut variegated thread at the same time securing the scraps to the top.

Floral backing print

The backing fabric is from my stash.  According to the selvage, it's "Fernhill's Hollyhock Dolls and" something ;-)  All that's left is to attach the binding and then it can be registered.

I haven't been doing as much sewing as I have been planning and thinking about sewing...you know what I mean?!

Happy Monday!   Thanks for stopping by,

Mini Monday: Two Projects

I quilted the AAQI mini made a few Mondays ago.  

Echo quilting

Using orange Sulky thread I quilted organic lines around the three color bars using my walking foot.  

Before the binding has been hand stitched to the back

I didn't use the facing method this time as I had this leftover Kaffe binding strip which has the perfect colors to match the solids and is just the right length.  Correction:  the binding strip is  Pretty Bird by Pillow and Maxfield

The back

 Half of a fat quarter is the perfect backing size for these Alzheimer's Art Quilts.  For this quilt I used Groove by Caleb Gray Studio for Robert Kaufman.  

NYC fabric

I made another journal cover using Stitched in Color's tutorial, this time for a friend's birthday.  The fabric was picked up at our NYC girls'  trip from City Quilter.  

 The first one seemed a bit tight, and this one seems a little loose.   Maybe the next journal cover I make will be just right!

Thanks for stopping by,

Mini Monday: Color Bars

This colorful mini quilt top is another creation using leftover QuiltCon fabric scraps.  Apparently I ordered way more fabric than I needed for that challenge.  No worries as I love the colors.

Future Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt

This will be sent to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative once it is quilted and registered.  This will make two already for October!

Color Bars

I love making quilts for the AAQI, and it also gives me a fun excuse to play with my scraps.  The center sections of these bars are tiny pieces of scraps that some may consider too small to save, but I have a sickness that will not allow me to throw any fabric away not me ;-)

Using linen

I also made a {practice} pencil case.  The first one turned out not so gift-giving worthy so I am keeping it for myself and will make another one for giving.  The pattern is from the book Zakka Style and is another great scrap busting project.  It additionally provided a reason to use the linen I recently received from Pink Chalk.  

These two mini projects provided a fun distraction from the great granny square blocks I am currently making.  There are several other small projects I have my eye on.....

Happy Monday!

Mini Monday: Round About

Happy October!  Where did September go?  I'd like to ramp up my production of Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts and other small projects on the to-do list, so I'm introducing Mini Mondays to keep me on track.

Spiral quilting

Today I have October's mini for the AAQI Quilt a Month Club to show you.  Round About is made with more leftover scraps from the Quilt Con block challenge.  This little quilt features a small four patch block in the center framed by strips of various solids.  

Mini quilt top

 The spiral quilting was done with my walking foot using Gutermann gray thread.  The backing fabric is a Remix stripe from my stash.

The back

I followed Victoria's method of facing a quilt.  This is my new favorite way to finish a small quilt.  

Round About

I still need to register this quilt and update my page while I am at it. 

By the way, AAQI's October online auction starts today.  There are some gorgeous quilts up for bid!

Happy Monday!  Thanks for stopping by!

What's Up Wednesday: Back to Business

So.....where did we leave off?  Oh yeah, last time I posted was back in August some time, and that was from my iPad.  Since then I have spent 21 glorious days holding and getting to know my little grandson better.  Of course, it took me flying out to Washington and bringing him back to Florida with me, but I don't think he minded!  I did make two exceptions to my promise of 24/7 Leo time:  registering for QuiltCon and attending September's Orlando MQG meeting.  

Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts made by OMQG members

Now that Leo and his parents have returned to their home Far, Far Away, I am getting back to business.  It's a good thing that I have so much business to get back to because I think I will need that distraction.  

All these made by Michele at Nostalgic Cafe

I collected 11 Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts from OMQG members that need to be registered.  I am, after all, a goddess - a Temporary Goddess of Registration that is.

Leo had plenty of quilts for lounging

I shared Leo occasionally, for example, when family and friends visited or when registration for QuiltCon opened!  Who else is attending next February?  For what workshops and lectures did you register?  I am excited to attend with our OrlandoMQG officers and to meet MQG members from guilds all over!  My QuiltCon agenda is so jam packed with workshops and lectures that I can't remember them all.  I do know that I signed up for classes with Penny and Jacquie, and I can.not.wait.to.finally.meet.them!!!!!

OMQG members are generous with their talents

Since I only shared Leo occasionally, I did not get anything done in the way of sewing, reading, blogging, cleaning, cooking (except for our goodbye meal), writing or exercising (which I didn't mind skipping).  All these things can be done now that I don't get to have my time with Leo {sigh}...

Love these Christmas themed quilts for AAQI

As I mentioned, it's a good thing I have plenty of things to keep me busy and distracted.  Because I may not have enough projects already started, I pulled out my Cosmo threads and a scrap of denim to begin a new mini quilt.  

Start of a new project

Can you tell what will design will become of these french knots?  If so, you have brilliant insight!

I only took 500 pictures of Leo?!!!

So what's up with you this Wednesday?

See you tomorrow for Really Random Thurday!