Raffle Quilt - {Finished!}

I was so very honored to be asked to make a raffle quilt. Really?, I thought, however, honored to be asked; I don't think my quilting skills are good enough for a raffle quilt (my insecurities were kicking in). The friend that ask, has a nephew, that has cancer. The family brainstormed ideas to help raise money for expenses incurred due to the treatments. The family had a garage sale to raise money and my friend suggested a raffle quilt. I thought about it, and prayed about it. It was for a good cause. I agreed to make the quilt, because it's not about me, but about being able to help someone!

The blogging community takes such beautiful pictures of beautiful quilts, I was trying to do the same, (not sure I succeeded) so I took the quilt outside for natural lighting.. and here it is...

 

My friend was very happy to receive it and I was happy to give it to her, though I had to hug it one last time before I gave it up.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a wonderful day!

Gina 



W.I.P Wednesday - September 28, 2011

Today is WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. Lee has been off-line (but she's back now) to focus on finishing her fabric design at Connecting Threads. I'm looking forward to seeing her designs!

This is my first time participating in WIP so here it goes..

My priority WIP is the raffle quilt. There hasn't been any progress since FNSI (sponsored by handmade by Heidi). I won't post another picture of it, but you can see it here.

My other WIPs in no particular order are as follows:

I make Prayer Quilts for the Prayer Quilt Ministry at my church and I have two in progress. They are for no one in particular at this time. The committee is trying to make a few extras to have on hand. We have had people donate fabric and I go through the remnant bins at Hobby Lobby and Michaels every chance I get to add to our stash.

This is going to be a rag quilt. I have all the squares cut out; the next task is cutting the batting. I'm going to alternate the red, white and blue fabric with denim. This is going to be a smaller sized quilt, as there wasn't much of the red, white and blue fabric. I've not ever made a rag quilt and am excited to see how it will turn out!

The way a prayer quilt works is first, I pray as I'm sewing. (I don't know if my helpers do that, but that's what I do.) There are threads/ties stitched in the quilt and left untied. When someone is in need, the congregation will tie a knot in the threads and say a silent prayer for the recipient. The knots represent the prayers and therefore the recipient is covered in prayers. I just love that! To learn more about prayer quilts you can check out this website.

This is another prayer quilt. I like it and then again, I'm not sure. There's  not as much contrast between the polka dots and striped fabric as I would have liked. I hope I will like it better when it's finished. Most
importantly I hope the recipient will like it and feel peace and comforted by the prayers said for them over the quilt and stitched into it.


The next WIP is for ME! Yes! I'm keeping this one! (that's why it's at the bottom of my pile of things to do) I started it in 2005 when I took a quilting class from my LQS. It wasn't a class that focused on the quilting part of it, which is why it's still in progress. It was about learning the different techniques of the blocks.

I hope; since I've posted it here and showed it to you, it will motivate me to finish it. It needs to be re-pinned... it's so close to being done!

What WIPs do you have going on? BTW, I like the acronym 'WIP' much better than 'UFO', I agree that it's more positive to say 'In Progress' than 'Unfinished'!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a great day! There are more WIPs on my list but these are the ones that, in theory, wouldn't take long to being complete.

Be sure to head back over to Freshly Pieced to see what everyone else is working on!

Gina

Friday Night Sew-In Report

I'm so glad I got to participate in this months FNSI!  Of course I started the day pumped about it and by the time I got home from work (worked late) and got organized, I was tired.  However, I still had some energy left to sew.  I'm working on a raffle quilt for a friend and I sewed the 2 borders on last night! 

I know that it would have been better to miter my borders, the outside beige and green fabric is actually one piece (striped fabric), it looks like 3 borders. I've not ever mitered borders and I didn't want to learn on the raffle quilt, and decided to not try it just yet.

Thanks for stopping by!
Gina

Friday Night Sew-In

I signed up for my first Friday Night Sew-In (FNSI)! It's scheduled for tomorrow night September 16th.  It's been a long stressful week and I'm looking forward to some sewing therapy!  Click on the button to check out Heidi's blog and sign up for the Sew-In!



Thanks,
Gina

Quilter in The Gap Giveway!

Giveaways are so much fun! It would be more fun if I won one though! :-)  Rhonda at Quilter in The Gap is having a giveaway!  She's giving away to two winners a Spice Blossom Flannel Stack (28 - 10 inch squares)courtesy of Connecting Threads. So go over to Rhonda's blog and check it out!

Thanks,
Gina

Raffle Quilt

A friend ask me to make a raffle quilt!  Her nephew has cancer and is having financial difficulties.  The family brainstormed fundraising ideas to help offset some of the treatment cost.  They had a garage sale that was successful and the idea of the raffle quilt.  I'm very honored that she ask me, though I don't know if my quilting rates for a raffle quilt.  However, she and my friends that know my skills have encouraged me and have confidence in me.  So the pressure is on, the pressure that I put on myself!  Below is a picture of what I've done so far.

The fabric is Grace by 3 Sisters.  It's Christmas fabric, but it doesn't scream Christmas.  The design is Garden Trellis from the book Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott. I love all the quilts in that book!  My sister DeAnna gave me the book for my birthday.  See what she's up to by visiting her blog Georgia-Girl Quilter.

Because there's Sew Much and More to do, I had to put the quilt on hold for a few weeks, while my husband and I move his parents and aunt who all lived together.  Even though we were able to borrow a large trailer from a friend plus organizing and having a moving sale, it has taken us 3 weeks to move them!  We have only a few more items to move and we will be done!  I'm looking forward to start sewing on the quilt again and finishing it!  I should be able to start back on it next week! I'll post another picture when it's finished.

Thanks for stopping by!
Gina

 

Prayer Quilts



Prayer Quilt 4

Have you heard of Prayer Quilts? It's a tangible way to cover someone in prayers. The quilts are tied, or it could be a hand or machine quilted quilt that has ties stitched in the blocks. As a silent prayer is said for the recipient, the threads are tied into knots to represent the prayer. God has been working on me for awhile with this idea. I finally Googled it and found Prayers and Squares Quilt Ministry. It was great, the idea was right there, someone else had already figured out the details! I still resisted though, how could I lead this church ministry, I can't fund it, I can't make all the quilts, there's Sew Much and More to do, how could I possibly find the time? However, God kept putting the thoughts and ideas in my head and I finally made a simple quilt and presented the idea to the church leadership. Everyone was moved by the idea. Things have fallen into place since then, the idea was presented to the congregation, there are 2 ladies that volunteer to sew with me and we receive just enough donations to keep us supplied for the next quilt that needs to be made! God is awesome! Since March, we have covered 5 people in prayers and have a 6th coming up soon. Please contact me if you are someone you know is in need of a prayer quilt. 

Welcome and Thanks for Visiting!

Hello! After following a lot of blogs I decided to start one of my own. I'm still developing the blog and figuring things out, so please be patient with me. 

My passion for sewing has returned after about 12 years.  I sewed before kids, and after my 2 sons were born there was no time. However, I did get heavy into scrapbooking.  Now they are 12 and 11, I burned myself out on scrapbooking, and my love for sewing/quilting has returned. I was just getting into quilting when I stopped sewing. Fast forward 12 years, the cutting and piecing techniques sure have changed a lot and I love it!  I love all the precuts and I visit the Moda website often for ideas!

The idea of the blog name hopefully is self-explanatory.  I will be posting about my sewing/quilting projects and more!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you will come back!
Gina