More Amish Quilt Blocks arrive and My First Give-away is Coming

 More sample Amish blocks are arriving at my house for our Nifty Fifty 30 Swap.  We are getting a great variety of patterns and colors.  This will be a very unique Amish quilt.

 As these blocks arrive I measure them to make sure they are 9 1/2 inches, take photos of them for the rest of our swappers to enjoy and then place them in a safe place.

I should start sewing our Nifty Fifty Breast Cancer Charity quilt as these blocks arrive but  I have been too busy trying to get some Christmas presents finished before the big day arrives.    I think I will start sewing them together in January.

 This year  I have decided to participate in the Quilter's Blog Hop Party and do my first giveaway on my blog.   I do a lot of knitting, quilting and crochet this time of year for Christmas presents.

This week I will be working on the item that I will be giving away on my blog.  So check back on December 10th to take part in my free give-away.  A hint.....it will be a handmade item.

Fall and Amish Quilt Blocks

Nothing like the beautiful Fall trees to motivate one to start quilting.  

 

I am hosting the Nifty Fifty 30 Quilt Swap.  Our group is swapping Amish Quilt Blocks. The Fall weather and the beautiful trees have motivated me to get started on my sample blocks. We are swapping 9 inch Amish Quilt Blocks.  I just finished my three sample blocks. I am representing Virginia, Massachusetts and Maine.   

Virginia Amish Quilt Block

Massachusetts Amish Quilt Block

Maine Amish Quilt Block

I chose a colorful one for my home state of Virginia. The more color the better especially to represent the beautiful Fall trees.  My dad is from Massachusetts and loves the snow. The block I chose reminds me of a twirling snowflake.  I chose the color blue to represent the cold. 




I love the state of Maine and all the beautiful evergreens.  My quilt block reminds of the evergreens. One of my favorite trips to Maine was viisting  Acadia National Park.











Judy from Michigan also sent in her sample blocks this week.  Judy is representing Florida, Michigan and Mississippi.  She chose Pink for her Florida block to represent the Pink Flamingos where she spends her Winters.  Judy has done her homestate in blue to represent the Water Wonderland of Michigan.

Florida Amish Quilt Block

Michigan Amish Quilt Block

Mississippi Amish Quilt Block

I am looking forward to receiving all the Amish Quilt blocks from our swappers this month.

Breast Cancer Awareness T-shirts

 I just came across the article about the Cheerleaders at Gilbert High School in Gilbert, Ariz., raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness and that they were banned from selling their t-shirts because they were inappropriate. 

All I can say is if one person can be saved by the message on their t-shirts that state “Feel for lumps, save your bumps,” then it is well worth it.  They are doing a great thing making these t-shirts and should not be denied raising money for this cause.  Anything that promotes Breast Cancer Awareness should be accepted! If just one person can be saved from this disease by checking for "lumps" than it is all worth it!!   What do you think??  You can leave comments at:
 http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/cheerleaders-chastised-inappropriate-breast-cancer-t-shirts-222837009.html

Healing by Quilting and the WTC Pentagon PA Memorial Quilts

I just posted a story on our Nifty Fifty Breast Cancer Survivor Page.  Many of us who quilt are the first ones to step forward and help anyone in need through sewing a quilt.  Whether it is just making one quilt block for a huge project like the WTC Pentagon PA Memorial Quilt

 or sewing together a quilt for an inidiviual who is hurting, sick or in need of support.   Or it could just be for a yearly local charity quilt. But it is a known fact that quilters make quilts to help others heal.  And in turn it helps the quilter deal with the other's losses. 

What happens though when the quilter is the one in need and is hurting through personal tragedy?  Many times that quilter actually stops sewing and quilting.   I don't really know why this happens but I have seen it many times.  I myself have had a few family tragedies the past four years and I just realized after reading the story I posted on our Breast Cancer Survivor Page that I have not been quilting like I used to.

  I think I got a little boost today to inspire my quilting.  I was one of the organizer of the WTC Pentagon PA Memorial Quilt.  This project received almost 20,000 quilt blocks to honor the 9/11 victims.
We used 7500 quilt blocks in the original quilt panels and we donated some to other WTC quilt projects.

I organized the volunteers to sew the remaining 7,000 quilt blocks into Honor Banners and Charity Quilts.  The Honor Banner Quilts were dontated to the Military, Firefighters, EMTs, Churches, Rescue Dogs, Port Authority, Pentagon, Airlines and Shanksville PA. 

The Honor Banner Quilt which was Donated to the Pentagon

All Honor Banner Quilts used this quilt block as it's center block.  It represented NY, PA, the Pentagon and the first responders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I received a phone call from one of volunteers this past week. Jeanne still had two of the charity quilts at her house from our project. She had held onto them for the past ten years.  She had made many quilts for the project and these were the last two.

She was not comfortable about mailing them to Arizona because our organizer of the  project Amy Sue Leasure had suddenly passed away.  She did not know who was going to take over the project so she kept them safe at her house.  She emailed me a few weeks ago wanting to know what she should do with the quilts.  I asked if she would bring them to me so I could find a home for them locally.

She arrived today with these beautiful quilts.  The quilt blocks are red, white and blue stars and are signed by their makers.  There are even two quilt blocks from France.  These two quilts will be at our local 9/11 ceremony at the Stafford Courthouse tomorrow.

Quilt Block from France

Another Quilt Block sent from France

I photographed the quilts and I will be making a label for them. These quilts have inspired me to get back to quilting. You can learn more about the WTC Pentagon PA Memorial Quilts on Facebook.  Here is a link to the video  https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1485273825124

Breast Cancer Awareness Quilt Finds a Permanent Home at Michigan State University Museum

I have very exciting news regarding our Nifty Fifty One Breast Cancer Awareness Quilts.

 I have been contacted by the Michigan State University Museum!! They have offered a permanent home for one of our Breast Cancer Quilts.  They have written about our Breast Cancer quilt on their Quilts and Health Blog.

I will be mailing the quilt to Michigan this week so it arrives in time for them to photograph it for their upcoming Quilters Newsletter Magazine.  The Museum plans on using our quilt to continue to bring awareness to breast cancer.

We are very excited about the Museum's request and look forward to seeing updates regarding our quilt at their Museum.  We will keep you posted on any new news regarding our Breast Cancer quilt on my blog or you can follow their blog at http://quiltsandhealth.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/nifty-fifty-quilters-of-america/ 

And those of you living near the Michigan State University Museum will able to visit our quilt in person!!!

We would like to thank the Museum for taking an interest in our quilt and to continue to use it as our groups have in the past to bring more awareness to Breast Cancer.

Quilting versus House Renovations

It has been quite some time since I have posted on my blog or even quilted.  We have been busy getting work done on our house.   Now that all of our children are on their way with either jobs or college we decided to take the plunge!!!  In the Spring after completing our Nifty Fifty 29 Butterfly Swap all my quilting was put aside and paint brushes and estimates took over my life.

We installed a new kitchen and Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring. It took a lot of time getting estimates, selling our furniture, shopping for new furniture and putting a fresh coat of paint on our walls.

It was very refreshing to find some hardworking and honest contractors through our endeavor.  I was so impressed with Larry who is the owner of The Home Team Flooring.  Larry installed our hardwood flooring and did an excellent job.  He even did our stairs for a reasonable price!!   He does not take advantage of the consumer and offered all our wood flooring at the wholesale price. He only charged us for labor.  I was so impressed that I helped him put up a website starting with a great Review Page so other consumers could find a top quality honest businessman.
Here a a couple of photos of our new Brazilian Cherry Floors.

The only problem with getting such beautiful flooring installed is now our fireplace looks drab and old.   Does anyone know a great way to spruce up brick?  I was thinking of maybe staining it but this is uncharted territory for me and I do not want to mess it up.  Any suggestions out there?

Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner Spray, 32-Ounce
BonaKemi WM710013358 4-Piece Hardwood Floor-Care System

Butterflies, Butterfflies Everywhere!!!

I finished sorting out the hundreds of beautiful and unique butterfly quilt blocks this week from our Nifty Fifty 29 Butterfly Swap.  They are now flying their way across the country…..Louisiana, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, California and Oregon to name a few.

Today it is raining and nasty out but it was a beautiful day when I started to sort the butterfly quilt blocks. I decided to take advantage of the sunny mild weather and went outside with the tote of quilt blocks and started the sorting process on my picnic table.  It did not last long before the wind whipped up and lifted the butterflies up and off the picnic table.  At one point I had a bunch of butterflies literally flying away from me.  After three attempts I gave up and took them inside.

Just started sorting the butterflies.  They take up one table.

Sorting the Twenty Plenty International Quilt Blocks.
Three long tables full

It was a lot of fun sorting them and seeing each design spread out across my table.  It sure was a lot easier sorting  6 inch quilt blocks from 16 participants (everyone did 3 states) than 2500  12 inch quilt blocks from 50 participants as we had done in our other swaps.

Halfway through!!

Finished sorting and the butterflies are ready to fly across the country. 

 I took the packages to the post office today at noon.  They said delivery should be by Monday but they are not guaranteeing it.  They may take a little longer to reach the  west coast.  But I am sure you will get them sometime next week. 

I am looking forward to everyone’s comments when they first open their packages. 

So on to the next swap…..Amish.  We are picking out the fabric this week.  I am so excited for this swap since I did not participate in the other Nifty Fifty Amish Swap.

My sample Amish Quilt Block

 I have had several quilters concerned about me retiring the Nifty Fifty Swaps….who knows if an idea or unique theme takes me by storm……. I might just reconsider.  Leave a comment if you have an idea.


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