An End and a Beginning

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who voted for my quilt on the Quilter's Dream Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge.  As I write this on Thursday evening, it looks like I will finish in 6th place.   No prizes, but I am so happy to have one of my quilts in the finals, anyway.   I could look at this as 6th out of the 12 finalists, or (my preference) 6th out of 913 (total number of quilts donated in the year).  Congratulations to the three winners! Someone won a beautiful new sewing machine!

But that is old news now.  I am finishing up my quilts to donate to the 2015-2016 Hopes and Dreams Challenge for ALS.  The Virginia Beach Modern Quilt Guild has had a very festive meeting for several years now where we present our quilt donations for all the members to see. We have been fortunate to have representatives of Quilter's Dream attend these meetings.  Not only do we show our quilts,  but there are prizes, too.  Last year, the chairperson in charge of charity rounded up a staggering wealth of gifts donated by some of the biggest names in quilting.  It was like Quilting Christmas.  Fabric, patterns, books, batting, thread, tools and more.  So exciting!

I thought I would show you two of the quilts that I will be donating this year.

A few years age, I participated in a fabric swap and sew in for bright fabrics to use in making these tulip blocks.  They were lonely in their little storage box, so I liberated them, added some fabric from my stash and here is the result.  

I took a second photo to get a close-up so you could see how happy these fabrics are.

This next one was made from some leftover blocks from another Hopes and Dreams quilt from last year.

Close-up of the details.  Again, all made from stash.  Maybe that sounds like some kind of feat to you, but the truth is that I could probably make fifty more and have supplies left over.   Sad thing is that my children have all the quilts they want. There are no babies on the way.  Every bed in my house is covered with at least two nice quilts.  I can't stop making them!  I am thrilled to have a charity that will happily take as many as I can supply.

There are more, and I will share them as I finish the binding. 

Again, thanks so much for voting!  It was two very exciting weeks watching the votes roll in!

I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

We're Halfway There!

Quilter's Dream Batting is still running their Hopes and Dreams ALS Quilt Challenge.  Out of the 913 quilts donated for use by ALS patients, twelve were chosen to be voted on by the public in their Sew Popular category.  I showed you my quilt that was chosen for this competition last week.  There is still another week for voting, and I am hoping (and dreaming?) that I will place in the top three.  That won't happen without your help.

Vote here

I'm sorry about the tiny photo, but I was in such a hurry to get my quilts ready to send, that I failed to get good pictures of them before bundling them off for their new owners. 

But that is old news.  Today, I want to show the other quilts that I made and donated to this great cause.

This first one was going to be for my niece's first baby, but she changed her color preferences for the nursery and I made a pink monkey quilt for her instead. I had made way too many blocks for a baby quilt anyway, so this was probably meant to be.

When Moda came out with this Funky Monkey fabric, I was just crazy to have it. Didn't know what to do with it, but I had to have it. The pattern is Crazy Eights. I hope this fun fabric puts a smile on someone's face. 

Next up is a birdhouse quilt that I made using stash and a Moda Bakeshop pattern, modified slightly, 'cause that's how I do things.

Omigoodness, another Funky Monkey quilt! And there is lots more crazy fabric where that came from!

I had a matching set of charm squares and mini charm squares, so I whipped up this lap quilt. Bright, fun and fast.  Another smile maker, no?

A friend made this quilt top from a jelly roll quilt she made and didn't like it. I LOVED it! She gave it to me with the understanding that I would finish it and donate it to a good cause. No problem! Here it is all finished and bound, ready for a new home.

Still with me?  Good! I made another quilt, but I can't remember what it was and apparently forgot to take a picture of it. No matter! It, too, is going to a new owner.

I wish you could see the quilting in these quilts. There are so many wonderful patterns for quilting, and I have bought most of them!  I love being able to do my own quilting.  I feel that the quilts are totally my creation when I do the quilting myself.  I will try to remember to take beauty shots of my quilts from now on.  

Below is the quilt that is in the contest.  You can vote for it here.  Please?  I would love to win some of those great prizes, so I can make more quilts for next year's Challenge.  Either way, I'm a winner.  Even twelfth place means I beat out 901 other quilts! 

If you would like to donate a quilt to the Hopes and Dreams Challenge for 2015-2016, click here for more information. It's the least we can do to help and to spread awareness for a terrible and deadly disease.


The broken record continues.... Please VOTE.

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

A Little Excitement

I have been making quilts for various charities for over 10 years, always looking for a cause where my labor will be enjoyed and perhaps even appreciated. Two years ago, the Virginia Beach Modern Quilt Guild decided to support the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge sponsored by Quilters Dream Batting.

I made and donated one quilt the first year. Actually, I was pretty proud of it. It's the multi-colored one in the middle.

I'm not too good at remembering to take pictures of my quilts, so this picture came from Facebook.

The next year, I was really on a roll and donated 8 quilts. I knew that there would be a prize for the guild that donated the most quilts, so I put some muscle into it. Tuesday, I received a call to say that one of my quilts was in the twelve quilts selected for a popular vote. The three quilts that receive the most votes would win very nice prizes for their donors.  I nearly passed out from joy! Just to have my quilt selected was such an honor!

More stolen pictures here.

Why am I telling you this? I would love to win one of the prizes!  Imagine a shiny new sewing machine, patterns, books, notions or a pile of fabric!

Here's where you come in: If you were to go to this site and vote for this quilt, I might just have a chance of winning.

While you are there, look around for information on how you can help patients with ALS, too.

Don't forget to vote!

I have ten more quilts in the queue for donation in October.  Lots of binding to finish up. I hope my quilts are blessings to their new owners. They have been blessings to me.


Linking up to TGIFF,  Crazy Mom Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation