H2H GRAND FINALE !!!!!

I'm running behind, nothing unusual for me, we celebrated my father's
80th birthday today after church. (which I must add had NO AC today, it was only 96 outside and the church windows do not open, Can I hear an AMEN)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!
He is my best buddy, he still helps me do manual labor stuff at his age.

Now to the real business....

So many quilter put forth an extra effort to make quilts to donate to Judi and Clint at http://greenfairyquilt.blogspot.com/  for their Romania trip.  Sarah at http://confessionsofafabricaddict/

did an amazing job putting everything together and matching us with swap partners.  I must admit it was a little hard letting go of the quilts I made.  They turned out very pretty.

My first quilt was made from the fabric my swap partner, Pam Nagle at Auntie Pammi's Quilting Adventure, sent me. I added the background fabric from my stash. Such a beautiful layer cake she sent. I loved working with the fabric.

The second quilt I made was entirely out of my stash (I have a very small stash since we moved). I think it also finished very pretty.
I hope that whoever receives it will love it too.



Many thanks to Sarah for keeping this going since April, when she had the idea, and keeping up with all of us. Thanks to all the sponsors for the most wonderful prizes. A prize was not why I participated but it's like icing on the "layer" cake. I had fun coming up with ideas and meeting some wonderful blog sisters.

See what everyone else did over at http://confessionsofafabricaddict such beautiful work!!!

Got to run school starts tomorrow and I need to get my little one ready, even though he says he's not going.
Tomorrow morning should be fun, if you feel the earth rumble tomorrow morning in Tennessee,
don't worry it's just me and Stevie getting ready for WWIII school.

Doesn't feel like a lot

I don't feel like I did a whole lot this week, I'm going to blame it on the weather.  My bonus sewing room is HOT.  It really has been a sweat shop this week.  I know a lot of people across the country are feeling the HEAT! 

Let's see what I did this week.....

Delivered my two H2H quilts to Sarah, http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/
who collected several from locals, to ship to Judi at
http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/ . 
Promise you won't see this again, except for Sunday's link party.

The only other thing I have worked on is the quilt for my friend.
The quilt is on the framed and I am trying to finish it this weekend.
Tried some new quilting designs (for me) on it and I think after it is washed it will be ok.

This is the largest quilt I have had on the frame so far. It measures 86X86. I have used 6 bobbins and still have plenty left to quilt. Some meandering, some not so straight lines, some loopy loops,some, what I call figure 8's and some swirls.





That's my week, how about you?

Help make a dream come true?

Have you seen the annual charity drive for

100 Quilts for Kids

 going on now?

Before you hop over to see what it is about, I have a story and a request.

On August 31, 2002 I gave birth to my second son.

He was an answer to many years of prayer.

Shortly after he was born we were told he had a blocked

intestine and suspected he had Down Syndrome.

The Angel Team from Vanderbilt Monroe Carroll Childrens Hospital

came and transported him to Vanderbilt (30 miles away from me).

I got to see my son 2 days later (my parents and sister was with him), he had tubes and monitors every where.  We could only look, we couldn't hold him. (I would hold his little hand in mine and gentle rub my thumb across the top of his hand and to this day this is still how he goes to sleep at night, me talking to him and rubbing the top of his hand with my thumb)  

I need to make a very long story short (I don't want to loose you)

Stevie, my son, had surgery when he was 3 days old for his blocked intestine.

He stayed in the Neonatal unit for 32 days (a short stay)
We discovered he also had a heart defect which would require surgery.

At six months old, he had open heart surgery.
His little body is scarred from all of his surgeries but his spirit is not.

I have never read a book on Down Syndrome, I have opened a few and read the first page

and then put them away.  They all start out the same....I was so devastated when I found out my child had DS, or why did this happen to me, this is the worst thing that could have happened to me, etc.  I never felt that way, I know a lot of people do, 

I knew Stevie was a gift from God and He would take care of us. 

I have always had family and friends support.  There are many that do not have that support.

I have a friend whose husband left because he could not handle a child with a disability.

Are you still with me??

It's not possible to share everything with you at this time but to make it short and (hopefully) sweet

I have had a dream for many years, to make and donate baby quilts to the Middle Tennessee Down Syndrome Assoc. to give to newborn babies. 

 For some families that would be all that they would bring home.

Some parents are devastated, confused, their families don't want to have anything to do with the newborn,

couples split up, they have a real hard time accepting a child with DS.

I know of mothers who walk off and leave the child at the hospital.

Some facts you might not know:

Stevie is on the right

1. 85% of babies born with Down Syndrome are born to mothers under the age of 35
2. 40% are born with heart defects requiring surgery or death.
3. 40% are born with hearing and or sight problems.
4. They have a higher incidence of infection and respiratory problems, Alzheimer's disease, childhood leukemia and thyroid condition.(Stevie was in the hospital at least twice a year for the first 6 years of his life for infections and respiratory problem.  A cold to most people was a hospital stay for Stevie) 
5. 1 out of every 691 babies have DS.
6. There are more that 400,000 people with DS living in the US.

People with Down Syndrome are just like me and you, most can do everything we can, only at a slower pace.  Stevie loves to be accepted and included in every day life.

Will you help make a dream come true for me and Stevie?

 I have talked to the Director of the Down Syndrome Assoc of Middle Tennessee (DSAMT), Shelia, and she told me there are about 15-20 DS babies born in this area each year.  If you decide to join in on the

100 Quilts for Kids charity drive

and are looking for a charity to donate to, please consider sending one to me
and I will take them to the DSAMT.  I have about three started already. 

Remember this little quilt? 

And this one.                                                                                   

That's what I was trying to do, to make enough quilts to donate to the

Association at the Down Syndrome Buddy Walk fundraiser. 

No one in my family sews or quilts,  I could not find much interest at church or work (both very small).

If you have a quilt you would like to donate e-mail me or leave a comment and I will send you my snail mail address.

I received a quilt when Stevie had heart surgery and I cherish it to this day.

Check it out

Well I don't know how I did this, guess you could check it out twice..

My little blog world is small, please feel free to pass this along.

Let's have a Whoop Whoop Friday

Sarah at http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com is host to Whoop Whoop Friday to show what has been worked on during the week. My computer has been down for a week or two so today I am playing catch up.

I finished my first H2H quilt. Ready to take to Sarah to be shipped to Judi at Green Fairy Quilts

Pieced the back from the scraps left over.

(My quilt holder upper is still in bed, so I had to do the best I could)

This is my second H2H quilt. Ready to send. The back has a little piecing to it, but I failed to take a picture. You will see in awhile that even though my quilt holder was asleep I did have some help.

Trip Around the World is one of my quick go to patterns. Always turns out great.

Remember the T-shirts I showed several months ago? Well it has been waiting for signature blocks. The lady I am making it for can not get all of the signatures back, so we decided to proceed without them. I have the flimsy finished and will work on the back.

Then I have a friend, Dana, who is getting married in August. Dana has helped me for years with the Down Syndrome Buddy Walk. I made her and her future hubby a Trip Around the World. You can see my early morning helper, (SpongeBob pj's and all) he's just not tall enough to hold them up.

I used some of the same fabric as in the H2H quilt but This one has more gold in it. (It is a nice golden color, in the picture it looks yellow) Love the way this one turned out. I hope she likes it, plus I used up some of my stash, sooo you know what that means. SHOPPING!!

Here's my other assistant. I had way too much help during this photo shoot.

This is the quilt I made for my friend who lost his father (using his father's shirts). I always have a hard time coming up with names for my quilts, I think this one will simply be "My Daddy's Shirts". You can read about it more on yesterdays post. The center star represents his father, the log cabin center is for mother, home (they all live within a 1/4 mile of each other) and love. The four corner stars represents the four children with the father inside each. The eight pinwheels represents the grandchildren (spin offs of his children, a little humor there). Marita at The Quilter's Path helped with the layout. I can't wait to finish it and have it ready to give to him on Monday. There's just one thing....

Don't be stupid like me and have a Sharpie close to a quilt. I dropped the Sharpie and look what happened. Yeah, it marked the quilt. Now me and Mr. Rippy don't like each other very much, so I am trying to come up with a solution that doesn't get Mr. Rippy involved. Any suggestions? And the blue marks will disappear, I was playing around, trying to decide how to quilt it and do not like the results.

I also quilted a quilt for the church ladies to give to Sarah. I was in such a hurry to get finished I did not get a picture of it but if you hop over to Sarah's blog http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and see what everyone else has been working on she has a picture. I was so honored to have had a small part in making her quilt.

Well, besides all of this, I have been on vacation this week

and have been taking my little assistant to the

pool every day.  Today I have to clean house

and wash clothes so that I can go to a quilt show

tomorrow.  Not a bad deal if

you ask me.

I love comments and I read every one,

 but sometimes I can not

respond (still don't know why).

So if I don't respond, please know that I have read yours

and appreciate each one.

I'mmm Baaaack !!

Computer is finally up and running. Yea!!

I feel like it has been forever.

I have a lot to share.

See these...

These are men's shirts. 

I told my friend at work who recently lost his father that

I would make him a quilt if he would bring me some of his fathers shirts,

when the time was right for him.

Who knew his father wore mostly blue shirts...

and stripes, lots of stripes.

Ok, not what I was expecting.  I don't really know what I was expecting but...

 more colors and a few designs.

I wanted to make a quilt with a meaning, a story.

I got a little inspiration from a star quilt, http://babyboomerquiltingbee.blogspot.com/.

but because I didn't have a lot of different colors to work with it just didn't look right.

So.. I took a different approach.  Here is the story.

I wanted a star for each of the children (4) and one representing the father, hence the star quilt above.

It just wasn't working.

 I re-grouped, made 4 star blocks with the same color middle and one star with the same material as the star points.  My thinking was the four stars with the same middle represented the four children with the father inside all of them.  For the center of the fathers block I made a log cabin block with a red center to repesent his mother, love and home.  Good so far and then I was stuck.  Nothing looked right, it didn't feel right.  I took a little trip to my new LQS, Quilter's Path.  Come to find out it is owned by an old friend that I went to school with.  Marita worked with me quite a while and we finally came up with a plan.  I will take a picture early tomorrow before the 99 degree sunlight.

Quilted the blue quilt for Sarah

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com

Quilted Central Park quilt to donate to Sarah.

Quilted one of my H2H quilts to donate to Judi

http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/

Pieced another H2H quilt from my small stash.

I have more to share but another day.
Thanks for visiting and letting me share.

Dang Computer !!

My computer has been down for almost a week now. 

My IT man (aka oldest son) could not make it by (too much July 4th partying) to fix it. 

I missed out on the several giveaways. 

Missed posting my updates. 

Missed showing pictures of progress. 

Missed reading everyones blog. 

But, I did a lot of quilting. 

So this is Tuesday and I am back at work and I have a computer but I can't post pictures. 

Sooo... not much better.

Took my youngest son to the pool Saturday and Sunday.

Cleaned carpet and house on Monday.

But every morning, (Stevie doesn't understand we can sleep late on weekends) between 6:00 and 10:30ish

I sewed, I quilted, I had fun. 

1. I finished 1st H2H quilt, needs hand stitching the binding. (not my favorite )
2. Started and finished 2nd H2H quilt, needs hand stitching the binding. (see above)
3. Started making my friend's memory quilt from his fathers shirts. 

I will be driving to Toledo, along with my parents, next weekend.  Leave early Saturday morning, back home Sunday evening. Yeah, quick trip.

Maybe sew some binding Saturday night in hotel room. (Stevie goes to bed early, so I can sit, relax and watch TV)

Does anyone know of any quilt shops in the Toledo area??