I Won?!

So....I got home from work today and browsed Facebook as my usual daily down-time routine. In my newsfeed, Kim over at Persimon Dreams had posted with a link inviting everyone to read her new blog post, which just so happens to be the revealing of the grand prize winner for PQ6. I clicked on the link and thought please pick me, please be my name as I quickly scrolled down until I saw a picture of one of her daughters with a piece of paper in her hand. My heart fluttered as I realized that it was, in fact, my name!! I couldn't believe it- I even did a little dance and probably hollered out loud! I hadn't even made it inside at this point, so I must have been a sight to my neighbors.. I then promptly went through and read the entire post. She linked to me, so if you are from her blog, welcome! If not, please click on the above link to go straight to the post so you can see all of the wonderful sponsors and the master mind from this year's PQ6. If you have never participated, I definitely recommend it for next year. Whether you win or not, it is really all about the community and the wonderful challenge of completing a quilt every week. I love the feeling of accomplishment I have felt these past two years I have participated in Project Quilting! Thank you, Kim, and thank you to all the sponsors for the amazing prizes I have won! Thank you, thank you!

Pig in a Polk

Edit: this animal themed quilt has been entered into Lily Pad's Animals on Quilts Contest in August, 2015. Thank you for visiting!

I enjoy making simple all flannel baby blankets since they're so cozy to wrap up in. This one is super bright. I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but now I have a strange fondness for it. I call it "Pig in a Polk" - a twist on the food since there are piggies on the backing fabric and the front has Polk a Dots!

I brought the farm fabric from behind to make the binding. It's pretty small - 36" by 27" - but is flexible to tuck around a baby. Can be used as a receiving blanket to swaddle! Horrah for another one getting done!

Disappearing Four Patch Hot Pad

Sooooo I originally made this thinking I could use it for PQ6. But then I read all he requirements again. Whoops. Guess I'll be making something with more charms!

My name got pulled for a prize last week! Yay!! Looking forward to receiving it in the mail. Until then, tomorrow is the deadline for the last challenge of the year, and it's a bit sad. Fortunately, I've been able to participate in all six challenges this year! This week's theme was to use 5" charms. This week was super busy for me, so I decided to go with something small. I took four charms and created a disappearing four patch hot pad. The quilting part was fun since it slid easily on the machine. 

Thank you , Kim, for PQ!

Pillow Cases for Homeless Children

The quilt guild I'm a part of was helping a Girl Scout meet her goal of 50 pillow cases for children in homeless shelters. Why pillow cases? She explained that the children can't take much of their personal belongings, but they are given their own pillow cases with hygiene necessities. Therefore, it's a special personal property that needs to be more comforting for those children. Took my machine thinking I'd be sewing them with other women. Instead I got to teach two scout girls: a Jr. and a Brownie how to make them. We completed two with each taking turns at the wheel, but with me steering both in the right direction. It meets the criteria of three or more layers. Here's the second one I call "Froggie's my Friend" on top a pile from the others who were there, too!

Isn't the fabric adorable? I really like the froggies and can think of a ton of other projects to sew them into. Three fabric lines donated boxes of fabric for this project, and it was fun to play with the different fabrics. I let the girls choose the coordinating fabrics as these would ultimately go to children their own ages. It's sad to think that children that age could be homeless, but it happens. Makes me thankful for organizations like the Girl Scouts who teach girls skills that will be applicable later in life and also challenge them to complete projects that help others less fortunate, such as this project this particular Girl Scout decided to do. She had to decide on a project, write a speech, address about a hundred of us during a quilt guild meeting, and organize companies and quilters who have the materials plus younger scouts to assist. I couldn't take any more pictures, due to privacy, but there were about fifteen adults helping over thirty girls with ages ranging from I'm guessing six to twelve plus their parents. The two girls working with me were sisters, and their mom took plenty of photos of us in action. You will just have to imagine it. Just know that many children in homeless shelters will at least have fun and cuddly pillow cases to call their own!

Favorite Fabric- PQ Challenge #5

This week's PQ Challenge is to use our favorite fabric. Well, if you are at all involved with fabric then you know that this is a really hard thing to decide especially if you only buy fabric if you just can't leave the store without it. I love Moda's Winter Wonderland fabric, but I have that reserved for a red work project and I just about already finished a flannel quilt in which I used a birdie fabric I absolutely loved, so of course that's out. There are also those fabrics that you may have favored for reasons besides being pretty or lovely. I have this fabric that is my favorite in the way of being whimsical and I bought it just for that reason without having any idea what I could use it for. I may possibly figure that out this week as I think I will try to come up with a design using it in this week's challenge. 

Like I said- whimsical, huh? Any ideas?