Charity Quilts A2MQG

Being one of the chairs of the A2MQG, I get to photograph and deliver the quilts to

 Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor.  

I have decided that I should photograph them and credit their makers.  

So grab a cuppa (or in my case a Diet Coke) and settle in for a little quilt show!

First up, are these adorable Elizabeth Hartman animal quilts. 

 I love this little fox made by Jackie MacGregor.  

She said it went together quickly and would recommend making these for donation quilts.

Jackie also made this amazing Hazel the Hedgehog quilt.  

Some little is going to be thrilled with these!

The next two were made by Kim Ulrich and Susan Ulrich from kits that I cut from my stash.

Never underestimate how great a simple patchwork quilt can look!

Thanks ladies!  

Notice the cat model? 

Next up is a super sweet quilt made by one of the other Pam's in the guild, Pam Eckler.  

You will not meet a sweeter person than this Pam.  

(Maybe it's the name?)

This next beauty was made by Debbie Grifka.  She is making one charity quilt a month.  

So happy we got this month's work!

I was able to finish quilting my charity quilt too.  

So will link up to Crazymom Quilts Finish it up Friday.

I am also linking up to 100 Quilts For Kids.

I did some straight line quilting on this one.  I also put the binding on by machine. 

 It goes so fast to do it this way!  

I have yards and yards of this flannel, so you may be seeing it again in the future.

A BIG thank you to my assistant photographer, Mosen, 

who just chased his sister under that tree, which you can see her if you look hard enough.

Lots of things to do this weekend and all of them involve me sewing.  

What a happy prospect to look forward to!

Have a happy weekend!

~XOP~

Charity Quilt From YOU, My Friends

I figured that I needed to work with the extra blocks you all sent to me and 

make that charity quilt that I said I would make.  

I pulled out the blocks and lo and behold, there were not that many extras.  

In fact, not even enough to make a small charity quilt.  

What's a girl to do?  

I diligently begun to make more to put with these. 

 Autumn thought I was crazy! 

 She's a cat, so what does she know?

I made what I thought was enough and it was not.  

Looked like I needed to make one more row.

  Or did I? 

 Maybe I could put sashing between the rows and call it good enough?  

YES, I certainly could do that and so that's exactly what I ended up doing.

I had this amazingly adorable sea life flannel just hanging around so I used that for the back.  

It is all pinned and ready to quilt. 

 Straight line quilting is what is on board for this little quilt.

When it is finished I will link up to the 100 Quilts for Kids.  

Linking up to the WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced too.

Are you considering making a quilt for the 100 Quilts for Kids?  

If you are not, you should consider it.

~XOP~

My Charity Quilts and A Giveaway

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

I have a few quilts to share with you that I am giving to Mott's Children's Hospital for the NICU. 

 I will link up with both 100 Quilts for Kids and also Finish it up Friday.

First up is one I made a long time ago but just putting it with the donation quilts.  

It is a chenille blanket.  

I love how the chenille came out on this one!

The back on this one is adorable too!  

I used the dot from one if the DS Quilts fabrics.  I love that print for bindings!

The other one is something I made awhile ago too to use up some of the fabric squares I had cut for another quilt.  

It is very sweet.

I got to use this great Finding Nemo fabric for the back too!  

Some "little" will love this!

The last one is a quilt I made using left over squares cut for a different donation quilt.  

I was actually able to get 2 quilts from all the left over squares by adding white squares in between.  That also allowed me to not have to do so much matching!  

My creative process at work!  

This quilt was small enough that I decided to try quilting it myself.  

I had heard of other people using some of their decorative stitches on their machines by enlarging them to use for the quilting.  

That's what I wanted to do.  

So I chose the number 4 stitch on my machine.  

It made a great wavy stitch.  

Those white squares were just begging for something. 

 Not just white wavy lines.  

Does this give you a clue?

I decided to do straight lines making a rainbow across the quilt like this

Autumn thought it was a GREAT idea!

Look at all that crazy texture!

I used a vintage sheet for the back.  It almost makes it look 3D!

I found some left over pink to use for the binding and it worked perfectly!  

I am very happy to have 3 quilts to donate! 

 I have a second one of these quilts to finish piecing and then will use the same backing and quilting to do another one in the future.  

I think I need to pack up my scraps though and 

send a stuffed FRB off to someone that would love to have them!  

If you pay the postage, they could be yours!!  

Tell me what you would do with a big box of scraps in the comments and 

I will draw a winner from the comments next week Friday.  

I have some pretty great scraps but I need to empty the THREE bins I have so I can get to refilling them again.

So that's it, leave me a comment telling me what you will do with them 

(even it you just want to pet them) 

and make sure there is a valid email address for me to contact you at or I will have to redraw.  

I plan to get that box stuffed tonight so maybe I will post some pictures this week too!!!

~XOP~

100 Quilts For Kids

I think I just made it under the wire. 

 Luckily for me my friend Liz is amazingly fast and got both of my quilts back to me 

so I could machine bind them tonight.  

WHEW!! 

 I am planning on donating to Margaret's Hope Chest. 

 They are local near my dad and I can drop them off when this craziness with my dad subsides a little bit.

I made one Michigan

The back

And one Michigan State

The back, which is really a light green with the black.
I had to take photos in the darkish as I was feverishly working on the binding!

I had Liz quilt a football pattern into them and am pretty happy how they came out.

Margaret's Hope Chest gets two more quilts,
AND
I am happy I was able to link up to 100 Quilts for Kids too!

~XOP~

Gifties and Secrets

That seems to be what my sewing consists of lately!  

Things completed that I can't share until I gift. 

 New projects begun for gifts. 

 So what to do?  

Why begin a few new charity quilts of course!  

When I was out of town recently I saw a simple pattern on a little 3 x5 card and thought, 

this would be a perfect Margaret's Hope Chest donation quilt.  

Also I could count it as one for the 100 quilts for kids, 

although I am not sure it will be finished in time for that one, but I am going to try.  

I donate all year to MHC though.  

Here is the top I was working on all laid out

It was a super easy one to make and went together quickly.  

I am planning on making a Michigan and Michigan State one.  

I figure they get a lot of girlie quilts so thought the sports teams would be a good idea.  

Last year Carin from MHC told me they were the first 2 chosen!

  Makes me feel so good!!

The top is finished but my quilter is out of town for the week. 

 Not sure she can get it done in the time frame to make it for the 100 quilts, but I am going to try.  Maybe I will get the MSU top finished this week?

  I have it all cut out.  

Planning on laying it out tomorrow night at quilting where I have a BIG space. 

 I also cut out a NCSU top with this pattern to use for my daughter who is attending school there. 

 I thought I might be a nice couch quilt.  

I sat down to rest and Fatty McFatty jumped right up and 

put her arms around my arm and would not let me get back up for a time. 

 Silly kitty!  

(Maybe she needs to go and visit her Auntie Dianne???)

 I decided it was time to try a new recipe this last week too.  

It was called Meatball Sandwich Casserole and it was amazing!!!

Even my hubby loved it.  

Super yummy and super easy, my kind of dinner!!

LOTS going on with my dad, long story short we are moving him into a retirement community.

The estimated move will be the first week of October.

WAYYYYY too much work to do to get his house ready to sell too.

Can you say Hoarders???

Have a wonderful week!

~XOP~

Quilts for a Friend

I had an extremely busy weekend.  

(Notice no gym time this weekend though)

As you know, Friday was going to Grand Rapids to see my dad.  

I forgot to mention that I ended up taking my sister to Sam's Club to get a few "snacks".  

A few??  

Really??  

This is what my trunk looked like.

DH and I stopped at Aunt Betty's in Pinckney for breakfast on the way to GR.  

He is such a trooper!

Secretly, I think he only comes along for the breakfast.  

Their corned beef is amazing!!

So you know that I dropped off the MSU and U of M quilts at Margaret's Hope Chest. 

 Saturday consisted of a HUGE learning experience for me. 

 I have 2 quilt tops that I sewed to test a pattern for Jacquie. 

 I thought I would use Liz's long arm to quilt them.  

We got the first one on the big machine and 

we both realized we would only be able to do 2 of the 4 quadrants. 

 I was doing some straight line quilting, the quadrants were triangular and

 I was doing a spiral at half inch intervals. 

 UGH, NEVER again!!! 

 Each line had to be laid in point to point and only 3 lines stitched at a time.  

The 2 quadrants took me over 5 hours to complete!! 

 Then I had the bigger one and thought there was no way I could do that

 so we basted it and it is going to Jacquie to quilt.  

I took the other one home and have to do the other 2 quadrants on my domestic machine.  

I did one last night (3 hours). 

 Total learning experience and not one I really care to repeat!! 

 I love the look but what a gigantic PITA! 

 I can't show them yet but soon, I hope.

OK now on to better things.  

I had 2 tumbler quilts from Yolanda to make for her nephews.  

My friend Pauline finished the binding on the second one and 

now both are ready to go in the mail back to Yolanda.

Yolanda was diagnosed with cancer and is looking for volunteers to help her finish up her WIP's. 

 If you think you might have time to help please email me 

and I will put you in touch with the person coordinating that.

Here is the one for Chase

And for Daniel

The quilting on Daniels was geometric, and the quilting on Chase's was surfers.

Pretty happy to have those going out this week!!

All in all a fairly productive weekend, I think.  

Did you see that Kate is doing a QAL for 100 Quilts for Kids?  

Use the button at the top of my blog to take you there.  

Looks like fun and I am going to try to participate, if not on their schedule, on mine! 

 I have just a few more commitments to finish up.  

How was your weekend??

~XOP~

100 Quilts For Kids

DH and I are getting ready to go to Grand Rapids to see my dad and do some more cleaning.  YIPPEE!! 

 I think this trip will be a lot of running around, but whatever they need me to do, 

that's why I go there. 

 There is a charity that I like to donate to called Margaret's Hope Chest. 

 I made a Michigan and Michigan State quilt for my donation quilts.

I did manage to drop them both off today. 

 I also dropped off some quilts for Pauline too.

I got to spend time with my dad and sister today. 

 Took her to Sam's club, did some more cleaning, went out to dinner, 

spent time with my Aunt and Uncle and then made my way home.  

All in all a good day!  

Tomorrow I will go to Liz's house to begin to quilt the 2 quilts I pattern tested for Jacquie. 

 Wish me luck!!

~XOP~