Baby quilt delivered, Another one pinned

J's Raggedy Ann/ Andy quilt completed Sept. 22/ 2010

Another baby quilt completed! Had the top done a while back but what with gardening demands and summer vacation to Europe, there hasn't been much time for quilting. Now once I get the fall clean up done on the garden (or if it rains!) I will have a lot more time to dedicate to my quilting.

I finished my little red and yellow Raggedy Ann/ Andy quilt (as I call it) as quickly as I could since J's baby boy arrived on time, but the quilt wasn't ready!  (I was busy finishing my friend JS's MS auction quilt for her fundraiser.) The baby quilt finally arrived at its destination 2 weeks after the birth of the baby which I guess is not too terrible. It was hand delivered this time though, instead of relying on Canada Post to do the deed, thanks to my step-daughter who was travelling to Saskatchewan to visit her grandmother. J sent me a message on Facebook and she indicated that she liked it. (Good! I had had some reservations because it is so brightly colored. )
The finished quilt is approx. 44 1/2" by 46"in size. I made the edging out of 2 1/4" strips of the leftover Raggedy Ann/Andy fabric.  The back is a white fabric with navy blue, red and yellow Teddy bears, beach balls, sailboats, cabanas and beach umbrellas on it.

Machine quilting the quilt roll...

Remember the little blue and green panda quilt that I made in June for our other niece? I loved that quilt so much that I made another similar quilt top. Today I finished sewing the back fabric, washed the kitchen floor and pinned the quilt together.  The finished quilt will be 44" by 45" in size.
No rush to finish quilting this one, thankfully, as I plan on keeping this one for myself. (You know the saying: "Build it and they will came"? Well, I'm going to test out that theory, LOL!)

Sandwiched panda quilt #2  (Sept. 26/2010)

 The block sizes are  9" x 3" (Lion rectangle blocks), 6'x6" (panda/ bamboo blocks) and 9" x9" (large panda & green blocks). The bubble blocks are 9"x6" except for the 4 corner blocks (3"x6").

Quilt details  

Last week I went to a fabulous quilt shop in Red Deer called "Sew You Like to Quilt" in Port O' Call mall where I bought some fabric for a quilt for Christmas. All the blocks are black on white or white on black with a dark brown square in the centre of each block.  ( It is from the MC Call's Quilting Magazine May/June 2010. It's called Paradigm Shift. This pattern calls for lime green squares in the centre of the blocks, but I don't really care for that color, so....!)


I washed and ironed all the fabric and am itching to get started on it.

MS Fund Raiser Quilt

All done, including edging...

The fund raiser in Regina for my friend JS is a huge success. Her family is trying to raise enough money to pay for the trip to send JS and her sister (who will look after her) to Bulgaria for the angioplasty surgery on the neck veins leading to the brain which is called Liberation Treatment.  Research shows that it has helped a large number of Ms sufferers.

We drove to Regina on the weekend to attend her steak night/ silent auction and to deliver the quilt I made for her auction. It was fun and I enjoyed meeting her family again and some of her close friends, some of whom also have MS. Saskatchewan has the highest incidence of MS per capita of any province in Canada and Canada itself has one of the highest levels of MS in the world. My friend JS is hoping that the liberation treatment will improve, if not eliminate her symptoms.

They are having a fund raiser golf tournament tomorrow, but we are not attending that. (Eight hours is too long of a drive to do again so soon.)
We are holding JS in our thoughts and prayers and wish her all the best when she leaves for Bulgaria this Friday.

Pinning on the edging to finish the quilt

JS's quilt top is finished, minus the edge. This is a sawtooth pattern called 'Pink Lemonade" in The American Patchwork and Quilting magazine April 2009 

Back of same quilt

Quilting for babes = A huge Success July 2010

I am pleased to report that  I delivered the 2 little "Quilting for Babes" quilts that my daughter and I had made for Kathy Murray's wonderful project while visiting in Winnipeg in early July. My good friend J drove me over to Kathy's to make the delivery and Kathy invited us in for a chat and to meet her adorable baby boy.

She was so pleased by our small gesture and we were so impressed by all of her hard work with this fabulous non-profit  project which she has spent mega time and energy on for so long.  Kathy was planning on making the first delivery of the quilts to the hospital that very Friday!

But J and I were shocked to find out from her that the journalist who had initially interviewed her for the article in the Free Press was NOT interested in doing a follow up! What?!?!? How could the Free Press deny the public the news of the culmination of this fine project! Wasn't this the classic human interest story?!?

After we left Kathy's place, J and I talked about that and decided that something had to be done!  Unfortunately, I was flying home the next day, but J took that particular project on and phoned the editor of the Free Press and convinced him to send a reporter to the hospital that Friday for the big quilt hand over event!

And Kathy was so happy about our intervention on her behalf with the newspaper, that in the photo which the Free Press photographer took for the newspaper article, she is holding up my quilt for thousands of readers to see!  Here it is:

Kathy Murray holding her son and Carola's quilt!

I was absolutely thrilled!!! Wow!  Thanks, kathy! You made my day big time!

MS Support Quilt

saw tooth star- top only, without 4 inch outer border

I have been working on a throw sized quilt this summer to use at a fund raiser for a close friend of mine who has MS. She is traveling to Bulgaria for the 'Liberation treatment' to open the veins in her neck leading from the brain in the hopes that that will help reduce ( or even eliminate) her symptoms. This is such a brave thing for her to do and I would like to help in whatever way possible. So making her a quilt for her auction next weekend is a small thing.

Machine quilting the blocks 'in the ditch'

This is a colorful quilt made with blocks of saw tooth stars in batik fabric. (Looks much like the 'tie dye' from the 60's.)  The finished quilt will be 54' by 61' in size.
I have most of the machine quilting done now, but still have approximately 8 hours of work left.  I'm finished the 'in the ditch' stitching around and in the blocks, and the next step is to 'free motion' quilt the 4 inch outer border in a lazy butterfly motif.

After that I need to cut long strips of fabric for the edging or I may just flip the back material over on the front edge and do a mock border. (Less work and because I'm under a time crunch...)

Raggedy Ann/ red animals- top only

I have also completed the top and 'sandwiched' together a baby quilt for my husband's niece who is due next week. I won't get around to finishing this little number until after the 13th so I hope that baby doesn't arrive too soon! (Sorry, Jessie!)  It is the red animal/ Raggedy Ann print quilt I mentioned in a previous blog. I love how it looks and it is relatively easy to sew. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Pinned together ready to be quilted

Our new 'Time Consumer/ Computer Helper/ Quilt Sitter'