quilting in circles: BQF

i'm participating in my first Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side, and we are asked to post a new entry on our blog about a quilt and the story behind it - so i'm going to apologize to my regular readers about the redundancy because it wasn't that long ago that i posted about this very quilt...

i've only been quilting for about year and in that time, i have completed three quilts - one that's completely hand quilted and two that are hand tied.  i'm not big on machine quilting - i just personally prefer the process and the finished look of hand quilting.  it's a slow process, for sure, but totally worth it to me.

being the simple design that it is, and being a crib sized quilt, it only took me about an hour or two to piece the top of this quilt together.  the quilting, on the other hand, took me nearly 6 months to complete.  i spent anywhere from 1-3 hours per night, off and on, hand stitching.  i followed the circular pattern on my backing fabric for two reasons:  1) it was a built in pattern - no drawing or designing required; and 2) i thought the circles were a nice counterpart to the hard angles on the front of the quilt.

i chose to make this quilt in a rainbow palette because i'm hoping that my youngest daughter (the recipient of this quilt) will pass it down to her children - and i figured a rainbow palette is fairly gender neutral, at least for babies.



immediately after i finished this quilt i was relieved to finally be done with it....for about a week...then i started looking for another quilting project.

don't forget to vote!

if for no other reason than to stop the maddening political message phone calls i get 246 times a day.

holiday gift market

hi all! 

did you know there are only 59 days until christmas?!?!?!   yikes!   get a jump start on your holiday shopping!!

if you or someone you know is going to be in tampa the weekend of november 5th, i have a handful of free tickets to the junior league of tampa's holiday gift market.

drop me an e-mail or leave a comment on this thread letting me know you'd like tickets, how many, and some contact info so i can get them to you.

if you'd like more info about the holiday gift market, check out the JLT's info page.

busybusybusy

the past two weekends have been filled with all kinds of fun things to do:  football games, homecoming festivities, halloween festivities...tonight my son's girlfriend is coming over for dinner and a movie (can you believe she's never seen The Sixth Sense?  crazy!) and tomorrow our family is spending the day at a local farm to enjoy all kinds of fall/halloween fun.

but amidst all the fun i've also managed to do a little giving back, too, thanks to the Junior League.

last weekend i got to paint kids' faces and mingle with Star Wars characters at an adoption fair put on by Kids Connect, a committee created by the Junior League of Tampa and Hillsborough Kids, Inc.  while it was tough to see some of the same kids returning to the fair (i've worked this event once before), it's really great to see kids making connections with prospective parents.

today i worked at an event through the league with an organization called Connected by 25 - they help kids and young adults who are aging out of (or who've already aged out of) the foster care system with various things like getting set up with housing, education, jobs, banking, etc.  there was a definite need for this organization and i'm so glad they're here. 

the event today was a sibling connection event.  kids who are in the system are oftentimes separated from their siblings and, given how erratic their living situations can be, it can be months and even years before they'll see each other again.  early in the day i was stationed at the entrance, directing people to the sign in table.  it was a great spot to be in because i was able to witness a few really emotional reunions - happy emotional, not sad emotional.  it was heart warming, to say the least. 

it's all too easy to find myself wrapped up in my own stuff - writing, quilting, socializing, etc.  getting to do these sorts of things every now and again helps to remind me to not take my family for granted. 

and that's a reminder we could all use now and again.

color me disappointed

got my blood test results today re: my thyroid and it seems to be working just fine, missing lobe and all.

which means either i have to get comfortable with my current size or hit the treadmill again.  three days a week at the gym just isn't doing it for me.

so come monday, i'll be restarting the C25K (couch to 5k) program again.  it's been at least two months, maybe even three, since i've run regularly so i figure it's best to start from scratch.

i loved Suz's C25K podcast, but i want to try to make one with my own music. 

i have no idea how to do this. 

help?