Quilts and Books

Are you an author? Do you know any authors? Would they like to have a quilt designed and made by ME featuring up to four of their book covers? Kinda' like this one here. I made it for Brenda , just to see if I could :-)  Well, and to thank her for the awesome job she does every year to raise money to find a cure for diabetes, a disease both our sons have.  Here are a couple of close ups: So, if you know someone who wants one of these tell them to go BID! Bid early, bid often! RIGHT HERE.  Or feel free to link to and/or tweet this post. I thank you for your support!

It's that time of year again and I need to get a quilt made for the Brenda Novak Auction to benefit diabetes research. Both Brenda & I have sons the same age who have Type 1. I am thrilled to participate for the second straight year. This year I'm thinking "rainbow." And here's a sneak preview of my work in progress. I expect to have the top completed by the end of the weekend. You should go check out the auction site . There's already some cool stuff posted.

Since I had to spend Saturday attending an all-day meeting, some important household chores were left until Sunday. Which left less time for sewing. Not to mention, the games were close and worth keeping an eye on. That also meant less sewing. Congrats to the Saints and the Colts. Should be a fun Super Bowl and I'm looking forward to it. I'll be hand sewing during the Super Bowl so I can keep a closer eye on the action. But if I watch all the commercials, I won't make much progress. Meanwhile, during this last week I started working with those sets of strips for the Quilts of Valor project. The strips were in groups of two and I began joining those groups of two together. I sewed them into strata of 10 strips each and I wound up with a stack of close to a dozen of these strata. The strata are about 40 in. long and anywhere from 20-30 in. wide. They'll get cut into 6.5 in. segments and sewn into one very, very long strip set that is to measure 10.5 YARDS. I've been ...

Yes, it's finally done. And here are the pictures to prove it: And check this out: here's the listing for this quilt at Brenda Novak's auction to benefit diabetes research. Bidding commences May 1.

This baby quilt with the cute monkey fabric was basted together last week and is all ready to quilt. I should get it started this weekend. My goal is to have it done by my next guild meeting in mid-April. It doesn't count as a UFO, though, as I started it after I created my UFO list. And set up in my basting frame is the 9-patch musical instrument quilt for my son. It matches the pillowcase he made himself last year. Since the basting frame is all set up, I will probably baste another large quilt from my UFO pile when I'm done with this one. I hate basting. But here are some pictures of "Springing Up Fun." I am getting so excited about how this has turned out. I had to quilt clouds in the sky. Here you see my first stitches on the first cloud. Then you see just the sky portion. If you click on the sky picture you can see the cloud stitching. And finally the whole thing is quilted. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that there are a total of 20-24 hours ...

Heh. Bet you thought I forgot. No, just been lazy. December was a good reading month. That's because I spent 2 weeks at my in-laws where I had quite a bit of time to read. Those long plane flights helped too... 5. Faking It by Jennifer Crusie . This description from JC's web site is a good one: She has a history of forgery she's trying to forget. He has a knack for scamming he's trying to resist. But one fateful night, their good intentions go bad, and what they get up to is downright immoral, illegal, and irresistible. This book has a huge cast of characters, but JC has a knack for helping you keep them straight and as usual this was fun and funny. I think it's only the 3rd JC book I've read and I eventually want to read her whole back list and then move on to her collaborations. 4. Divorced Desperate and Dating by Christie Craig . Another very funny book, this is also a romantic suspense as the heroine is a mystery author who is the subject of death threat...

Every 10 seconds a person dies from diabetes-related causes. Every 10 seconds two people develop diabetes. Over 250 million people live with diabetes worldwide. In 2025, this figure will reach 380 million. More than 200 children a day develop type 1 diabetes. In developing countries, close to 75,000 children live with diabetes in desperate circumstances. Type 1 diabetes is increasing fastest in pre-school children, at a rate of 5% each year.Type 2 diabetes has been reported in children as young as eight. Type 2 diabetes affects children in both developed and developing countries. I'd like to call special attention to those 200 children who develop type 1 diabetes every day. Today was picked as World Diabetes Day because it is the birthday of Frederick Banting, who along with Charles Best, is credited with discovering insulin in 1921. Before that discovery, those 200 children were condemned to death within about six weeks of diagnosis. Even today, in many parts of the world, insulin...

Last week Jace tagged my blog as one of her favorites. How flattering! I'm supposed to tag some other blogs, but since several of my favorites have already been tagged, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what's in my feeder so you can learn a little more about me. So apologies, Jace, for breaking the rules, but I hope the 3 or 4 of you who read this blog enjoy seeing where I hang out! Phillies.com . OK, technically this isn't a blog, but my guys are halfway to the Fall Classic and I am obsessed with baseball right now. I also follow Penn State (we're Number 3! we're Number 3!) and the Eagles . I love the fall when I can quilt while I listen to football or baseball at the same time. My favorite quilting blogs include: Valori Wells . Valori is a talented artist and designer. I enjoy learning about her design process coupled with glimpses of her beautiful family. SHNOODLE .A block a day. Seriously. I'm beyond impressed. Will Work for Fabric . And you think I...

As the mom of a juvenile diabetic I cannot begin to express how much this auction means to our family. Please stop over and check out all the wonderful things people have donated.

I was taking a look at the JDRF web site yesterday and in one of the newsletters there was a column about how parents of type 1 diabetics need to give themselves breaks. A mom was quoted as saying something along the lines of "I get tired of being my kid's pancreas." Lightbulb moment. I never thought of myself as S's pancreas, but in many ways, that's what I am. I told S about it and he didn't seem to find the thought offensive. That's good. But someday, S will have to be his own pancreas. All the things I have to think about from hour to hour he'll have to remember. And that, I guess, is the real burden of diabetes. Not the diet, not the insulin, but the need to constantly be alert, to constantly be thinking about it. Makes me want to go bury my head in a new book. I have Lydia Joyce's Voices in the Night up next. But first, some sewing.