Twilight Saga Charity Quilt

When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it’s not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end. –Bella Swan, Twilight, page 1

I know. My geek is showing. But we're all friends here, right? And it's no secret that I ♥ Twilight. Since January of 2009, I've been working on a Twilight-themed quilt {which I really want to finish this year} and also collaborating with an on-line group of friends to create more Twilight-themed quilts, which have been auctioned or "raffled" off and all the proceeds given to charity. We call ourselves the Twi-Quilters. And we all love Twilight. But more than that, we've become friends.

All told, we've made seven eight quilts together and we are proud to show our ninth quilt and to give you an opportunity to win it—all for charity, of course.

My part in this quilt was the center block; representations of the four book covers. The patterns were designed by Cat, and I'd done three of the four covers several times each. The Eclipse cover was the only one I hadn't done and I was excited to try it. I enlarged the patterns to 12" and used my favorite Fairy Frost fabrics to put them together.

Our group members have donated all the fabrics and supplies as well as our time, to create this beautiful quilt, which includes our favorite scenes from all four of the Twilight Saga books. Angie, our quilter extraordinaire, has expertly and artfully finished the quilt and we're going to give it away to one lucky fan! For every $5 donation from you, which will go directly to George Mark Children's House, you’ll get one chance to win the quilt. We hope you'll give generously to this worthy cause. Donations will be accepted through March 9, 2013 and the winner will be announced by March 15, 2013.

Visit the Twilight Saga Quilt Page for more information and links to posts about the individual blocks..

Make your donation

Travelogue: {Not So} Sunny California

My guests, you're welcome here,

Be at your ease.

Get up when you are ready,

Go to bed when you please.

I'm happy to share with you,

Such as I've got,

The leaks in the roof,

And the soup in the pot.

You don't have to thank me,

Or laugh at my jokes.

Sit deep and come often,

You're one of the folks.

–Unknown

Thursday, November 15
9:20 am
Mr. Bug just called and said that his work is offering tickets to a pre-screening of Breaking Dawn, part 2 at 5:00 pm or 6:15 pm. It would have been nice to have a little more notice. I'm flying out to California tomorrow morning to meet up with the Twi-Quilters who live there, it is a work night for Mr. Bug and I don't feel comfortable leaving the Little Bugs alone for that long. We decided the responsible thing to do is not to go.

Being responsible sucks.

3:31 pm
My office-mates were talking about headaches and I noted that it's been almost three weeks since I had a migraine.

I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

6:13 pm
I'm off work at last. T-minus 16 hours and 57 minutes. I have so much to do before I leave.

6:43 pm
Where did I put my phone? It's not in my purse. It's not in my coat. It's not in the car.

Of all the days to leave my phone at work . . . I don't have time for this.

9:47 pm
Ugh. Driving to work once a day is bad enough.

9:59 pm
Please let my phone be here. Please let my phone be here. I forgot how much I hate this stupid lock. Please let my phone be here. Please let me get this door unlocked.

10:01 pm
Good. My phone is here.

10:21 pm
Home again. I just want to go to bed. I have too much to do.

11:39 pm
I've been lying in bed for at least 20 minutes. Why am I still awake?

11:47 pm
So close to sleep . . . but I forgot to put my camera on the list of things to take. Oh, and the batteries need charged. And the memory card is still in the card reader on my computer. Maybe I should get up and take care of that?

No. I'll remember. I'll remember.

Friday, November 16
6:00 am
What is that noise?

Oh. That's right. I changed the ring tone on my alarm so I wouldn't sleep through it.

6:00 am and 10 seconds
There's Mr. Bug on the land line with my wake-up call.

Why can't I find a phone?

6:14 am
How am I going to fit everything in a carry-on? I guess I can make due with only one pair of shoes, but where's the fun in that? My hair dryer is bulky and I really do need to bring clean undies. Why didn't I book with an airline that allows a free checked bag?

I remember now. If they loose my luggage I'll have to wear the same undies for my entire trip.

6:21 am
There's no way I'm going to fit everything into a carry-on.

7:02 am
It is not worth the stress. I'm going to pay for a checked bag.

7:07
Why didn't I have Mr. Bug get the suitcases down from the attic last night?

Oh, yeah. Because I have some silly penchant for clean underwear.

7:15 am
It wasn't as hard as I thought to get the suitcases down from the attic.

I'm glad I didn't fall off the ladder.

7:56 am
I just dropped Grasshopper off at school. It's a miracle he wasn't late this morning. He gets up at 6:00 am on weekends, but when he has to go to school he won't get out of bed. Teenagers.

One down, one to go.

8:29 am
Phew. LadyBug is at school.

I need to be out the door in 31 minutes.

9:14 am
Late as usual, but I'm finally out the door.

9:18 am
Longest. Stoplight. Ever.

9:20 am
Oh, no. I left my boarding pass on the kitchen table. I really, really, really hope the electronic boarding pass I had them send to my phone works.

9:47 am
Uh oh. I hope that what I'm feeling on the left side of my head is not what I think it is. I mean, c'mon. Can one person have this many migraines? It's not a migraine. It's just the stress of getting everything ready to go this morning.

Yeah. That's it. It's just stress and once I get settled in, I'll be fine.

10:08 am
Car parked. Row and shuttle stop noted.

Shuttle successfully boarded.

10:23 am
Wait. Is this my shuttle stop? I didn't hear what the driver said. What terminal are we at? What airline am I flying? Is this my shuttle stop? OK. I see the sign. This is it.

I love the airport. So many beautiful people off to exotic destinations or going back home.

10:27 am
I'm cutting it close. They start boarding in 20 minutes.

My bag is checked and I'm headed to my gate.

10:28 am
Which gate did she say?

10:29 am
I'd better make a quick pit stop.

10:37 am
I got through security without too much hassle. I was able to find some Dramamine. And lucky for me, they still have those screens with flight numbers, times and gates.

10:49 am
I kind of don't like flying. Except it is better than a road trip.

Mr. Bug told me that when he was in the Navy there were a few sailors who would throw up as soon as the whistle blew to signal they were underway.

Just walking down the sky bridge to the plane makes me queasy. It must be the same psychosomatic reaction.

11:01 am
We're pulling away from the gate. Eeee! I'm so excited.

12:06 pm
We've moved one time zone backwards, so I've got an extra hour. And we arrived a little early.

So glad I didn't get airsick.

12:19 pm
What is taking the baggage so long? Is this even the right carousel? Did they loose my suitcase?

I knew it. I'm doomed to three days in the same undies.

12:21 pm
False alarm. There's my suitcase.

12:22 pm
There's Iris! I'm so excited to see her! What a cute jacket! And it is so nice of her to pick me up and show me around.

I'm meeting Colleen for the first time. It is really nice to finally meet her in person.

12:38 pm
The city of Oakland is really very pretty. I love the architecture. Those buildings with the green roofs are very pretty.

Oh, and look, there's the Oakland LDS Temple on the hill, there.

1:14 pm
Iris and Colleen picked a really yummy Italian place for lunch. I love it!

2:00 pm
Is there anything better to do than to shop for fabric with friends? Iris picked this particular shop because they have lots of batiks and she knows I'm stash building.

The ladies here are very . . . friendly.

3:00 pm
Those ladies sure were chatty. It took forever for them to get us cut. I got some good batiks, though. I'm excited about that.

Next stop, San Francisco.

3:12 pm
What a fun trip. I'm enjoying catching up with Iris and getting to know Colleen.

3:38
Iris warned me before I came that it was going to be rainy. She said it was sunny the whole week before and was forecast to be sunny next week, but that it would be rainy the entire weekend. It's a good thing I like rain.

Maybe we'll get to see some Cullens.

3:57 pm
We've been across the Bay Bridge, which was pretty awesome. I've never been on a suspension bridge, at least I don't think I have.

We're on our way to the Golden Gate Bridge now.

4:24 pm
It was a pretty amazing thing to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not something you do every day.

Unless you live in San Francisco.

{Colleen, Iris, Me}

4:35 pm
We're going to dinner in Napa. It will probably be too dark to see the vineyards as we drive through, but that's OK. I'm enjoying the conversation.

6:12 pm
It's not stress. It's a migraine. Or maybe it is stress that's causing the migraine. It seems like every time I go somewhere I get one. Good thing I came prepared.

Maybe I'm allergic to travel.

6:48 pm
My meal comes with a goat cheese souffle. I have no idea what to expect. I've never had goat cheese before.

Or a souffle, for that matter.

7:02 pm
The goat cheese souffle is fantastic! Wow!

9:17 pm
Iris is so kind to let me stay with her. I've seen pictures of her girls, but it great to meet them. They are such cute girls!

Saturday, November 17
12:02 am
Sleep-overs are even more fun when you're a grown-up. Iris made pumpkin pie—so good!—and she gave me a tour of her beautiful home. The best part was hanging out in her sewing/craft room. She showed me all of her fun projects.

My favorite was the Twilight quilt she is working on. She has it up on her design wall and she's done some really amazing work.

9:32 am
Today we're going to Sacramento to meet up with Jerri Lynn and Wanda. We're going to see the movie. You know. The one about sparkly, teenage vampires.

11:30 am
What a fun morning with Iris' family. It really was great to get to know them.

I need to remember to bug Iris for that recipe for French Toast Souffle. It was amazing.

1:38 pm
I think Wanda is the biggest Twi-Hard of us all. She dressed up the island in her kitchen with Breaking Dawn themed items, put together Twilight themed swag bags for us and she even invited Edward to the party.

{Iris, Me, Edward, Jerri Lynn, Wanda}

2:12 pm
It is so fun to meet Jerri Lynn in person. I've know her forever, but it is really good to put a face with my friend. She looks different in every photo I see, so now I have a fixed image in my mind. She brought here Twilight quilt. I've seen it in photos, and love it, but it is so much more amazing in person. Wow!

4:04 pm
Lunch was awesome. Again, lots of fun conversation and catching up. Our next destination is the movie. Finally.

It has been hard to contain my enthusiasm.

4:18 pm
Ugh. I just can't stay ahead of this stupid migraine. The medicine only dulls it, but I guess that's better than nothing. I won't enjoy the movie at all if I'm fighting to ignore the headache. Since I'm headed to the concessions stand for a soda, I'll get souvenir cups for everyone. The ones with Edward on them.

I love that I can show my geek with these ladies.

4:30 pm
Squee! It's starting!

6:48 pm
I loved it! I mean, I really loved it. And I loved what Stephanie had to say about it.

11:48 pm
Yep. Sleep-overs are better when you're a grown-up. I'm staying at Wanda's tonight. I have really felt like "one of the folks" this weekend.

Our little group really is made up of amazing women.

Sunday, November 18
3:58 pm
It really has been an extraordinary weekend. Aside from the migraine nonsense. Wanda and I went to brunch this morning, with her adorably awesome husband. Then we went to church. It's kind of an odd combination of things to do. But there it is. My plane is about to take off now.

I'm anxious to get home and see my family. I've missed them.

7:38 pm
Oh, no, no, no, no, no! I put my suitcase in the back of the Trooper, locked the back door, and as it was closing I realized that I am not holding my keys. It's too dark to see in the windows. They're not in my purse. They're not in my pants pocket. They're not in my jacket pocket. What am I going to do? Can I call airport security from the shuttle stop? Do they even help with that sort of thing?

I need a plan.

7:39 pm
This can't be happening. I just want to go home.

I'd better check my pockets one more time.

7:40 pm
I'm a dork. I big one. I freaked myself out for nothing. They were in my jacket pocket after all, just not on the side I usually put my keys.

I'm on my way home, and there's no place like it.

The Twilight Saga Charity Quilt

“Twilight again,” he murmured. “Another ending. No matter how perfect the day is, it always has to end.” –Edward Cullen, Twilight, page 495

I belong to this really awesome on-line quilting group. We met through the TwilightMOMS forums and live scattered across the US. We even have a member {and pattern designer extraordinaire} in Australia. We're a little nutty in our obsession with a series of books about sparkly teenage vampires, and the crazy is translated with fabric and thread into quilts. We call ourselves the Twi-Quilters.


Over the last four years, we've created four Twilight themed quilts. We gave our first one to Stephenie Meyer, the author of our favorite books, and we auctioned off the other three and donated the proceeds to two different charities.

The final movie in the Twilight franchise, Breaking Dawn, part 2 is set to be released in just under a month. In conjunction with this culminating event, we are pleased to announce the Twilight Saga Charity Quilt. Here's just a teaser ...

The quilt will also include one embroidered quote and five blocks from each of the books, depicting our favorite moments in the Twilight series. Watch for more about this quilt coming soon.

As always, our goal is to raise money for a worthy cause. We're donating our time and materials and for every $5 donation you make to our charity, you'll get one chance to win the quilt. We've chosen George Mark Children's Hospital to receive your contributions. Details on donations will be announced soon.


In the meantime, here's a little something to tide you over. I mean, is there such a thing as too much Twilight?

{More} Black & Red Hexie Notebooks

Success begets success. –Unknown

It has been a really slow year for finishes for me. Before this week, March was the last time I finished anything. I got my Phoenix quilt done on Monday and yesterday I finished four Hexie notebooks, showing here:

I love that apple batik. Very Twilight-y. Two of them are already in the mail to their recipients, although that's not really a huge accomplishment since one of them is for a birthday that was in May and the other is for a birthday that was two weeks ago. On the upside, the other two will arrive on time for the birthdays they are meant for in August and September, provided I remember to put them in the mail .

These little notebooks are so fun to make. I think I've done about 20 of them now. I used a 5" x 5" Chipboard Art Journal {Stampin' Up!® item #108495} for the notebook. I discarded the front cover, substituted Pellon Peltex 72F II and a rough approximation of this fabric postcard tutorial for the front cover and fused fabric to the chipboard back cover with Heat 'n Bond Lite. To put the Hexies together I cut the fabric, a layer of Mistyfuse and bit of batting using the largest {5”} Go! Hexagon. I trimmed the batting Hexagon down by ⅜” all the way around and used Mistyfuse to hold it in place on the back of the fabric while I quilted it {I placed the Hexie batting side down and put parchment paper on the ironing board to keep the allowance of Mistyfuse around the outer edge of the batting from fusing where I didn't want it}. After I'd finished quilting, I pressed the edges over and sewed it onto the notebook cover.

LadyBug, smart girl that she is, asked me recently why I don't just stick with one project until it is finished. I didn't really have an answer for her. Obsessive Creative Disorder, I suppose. Sometimes I stick with a project from start to finish, but cranking out a quilt in two weeks is a rare occurrence for me. Even the Phoenix quilt took more time than that and the disappearing nine-patch blocks were already finished. All I had to do was sash and quilt it.

I stuck with the Sesame Street quilt. Sort of. It was fun and challenging enough to hold my interest and I worked on block after block. But when I saw I wasn't going to make the quilt show deadlines, I put it on hold and pulled out the Pinwheel Sampler hoping I might finish it in time. I spent too much time ripping out quilting and trying again and I didn't get that done either.

Finishing the Phoenix quilt and these four little notebooks {which were great FMQ practice} just feels good. I sometimes get in my own way . Starting the Sesame Street quilt in mid-April, while fun, took up a lot of time and kept me from finishing anything else on my quilting to-do list for this year. I plan on finishing the Sesame Street quilt within a year of starting it; I think for me the year mark is when a project becomes a Project Half-Done. And I have plenty of those I need to finish up in the next little while {as well as a few new projects; if only I could quilt full-time}.

I think I'm past the half-way mark on the quilting on the Pinwheel Sampler so I'm going to take LadyBug's advice and stick with it until it is done. You can hold me to it . If I even hint at working on something else before it's done, refer me to this post.

Various & Sundry Monday: Vol. 27

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land:

So the little minutes,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of eternity.

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Help to make earth happy

Like the heaven above.

–Julia Carney

More from the Home Machine Quilting Show
I've been picking up the HMQS catalogs every spring for probably the last 4 or 5 years, always admiring the quilts they show off and browsing the class lists. As I flipped through those pages I thought I'd never, ever, in a million years be quilting my own quilts. But last year when I was looking at the catalog, I was particularly interested in the quilt show because I'd started quilting my own quilts. I'd missed the entry deadline, which was OK because I didn't really have anything good enough to go in a show anyway. But I decided then that I would enter this year. I entered my Snowball Quilt. I knew it would be a daisy among the roses and didn't expect to win. I thought it would be fun to enter, though, because at the time I'd finished it {which was about 11 months after I started doing FMQ}, it was the best quilt I'd done. The show was last weekend in Salt Lake and here's my quilt hanging in the show.

Quilt shows are subjective and each person gets a unique experience when they attend, which is why, I think, it is hard to share them properly in a blog post. I mostly took close-up photos of quilting techniques that I liked and want to have as a reference. But there were a couple of quilts that I really liked and want to share them with you. I started yesterday with one of my favorites and I'll share another today. Maybe I'll show a couple of others in the next few days, or maybe not. I haven't decided yet. The lighting wasn't the best for taking photos. I alternated between using the flash and not using it. I used the flash on this quilt and should have gone with my gut and taken some without the flash. I did the best I could in editing.

These little embroidered dresses are so amazing! I love the bead details the quilter added. It is hard to pick a favorite!

Can You Tell Me How to Get {Back} to Sesame Street?
I've had to put my Sesame Street Quilt on the back burner for a little bit, because I had some prior sewing commitments that are a little time consuming, but not very interesting to post. Mostly, I'm participating in a half-square triangle swap that I signed up for in February, but that isn't due until the end of this month. I figured there was plenty of time, right? Right. Anyway, there's no set number of HST's you have to make. You just make however many you want, keep a few of each of your color combinations for yourself and send the rest to the coordinator. You get back the same number of HST's you sent in and then you can make something fabulous with them when they come back. I decided that I didn't want to be on top of the deadline for this one, so I've put the Sesame Street quilt on hold and have been working on getting them together. The HST's are 2" finished and I'll need 888 of them to make a nice lap-sized quilt. Picking and prepping the fabrics was fun, but sewing them together, even using a speed-piecing method, is killing me. Can you say snooze-fest?

My point is, 888 half-square triangles in the prep and sewing stages does not make for interesting blog fodder. I'm still looking for the balance between work, home, kids and me, so when I have a few free minutes and the choice is between sewing or blogging, sewing has been winning, even though it's not interesting enough to post about. When I get my swap triangles back and start sewing them together, then that will be interesting. And as soon as I get them wrapped up and in the mail, I'll be back to the Sesame Street quilt, racing for the deadline. The first quilt show is June 8^th and 9^th. If I miss that one, I have a few days before the entry period for the next quilt show. If I miss the second show, then I have three more weeks until the show here in town at the Art Museum, which is the show I really want to make it to. Hopefully, I'll be done with these HST's in the next few days and back to Sesame Street before mid-week {yeah, yeah. I know. Wishful thinking.}.

I was really inspired by Michelle's patterns and that's where this quilt started. As I've worked on blocks, I've also been working out all the details of the quilt, including how to quilt it. I wanted to do something other than my favorite swirls in the sashing and feathers in the border. Those didn't seem to really fit this quilt. I was inspired by a couple of things Lane is doing on his red silk quilt. I loved the pumpkin seed border and figured it would fit really nicely in the sashing of the Sesame Street quilt. Not so much.

The outer corners don't match up, and the intersections are kind of weird. So I asked Lane what he thought. He made some really great suggestions for making a motif work in your space. I revised. Lane {and everybody else}, what do you think? Do the little spacers work, or do I need to go back to the drawing board?

Monday Music Spot: A Thousand Years
The Piano Guys' latest release is an amazing! I don't think there is one thing they've done that I haven't like. But this one is extra cool because it also has a really great Twilight connection. They've put together an arrangement of Christina Perri's A Thousand Years from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack and it is beautiful.


Available for purchase from The Piano Guys or on iTunes

Story behind the song:
Our kids give us great inspiration for our music. When Jon's 17 year-old daughter said how much she loved this song, Jon decided to try it. He experienced a flood of inspiration. "Never has a piano part come together this fast" Jon says. Steve experienced similar inspiration while composing the cello parts. Since the lyrics suggest a bride walking towards the groom in a ceremony we thought we would include a quote from the Bridal Chorus by Wagner in the climax of the song (it is carefully disguised).

As it seems to always go, Paul and Tel didn't find the spot until they spent 9 hours driving around southern Utah the day before the shoot looking. After getting a little discouraged by not finding anything that great, they just happened to check out a little hidden spot right near Baker Dam and thought it was perfect for the song. The next morning we all loaded up the piano and headed out there to film, but after getting the Truck and Trailer stuck and waiting for the sun to move, we didn't get started filming until that evening having about 3 hours of light. It was so fun to film and play in the middle of the trees!

Credits
A Thousand Years written by CHRISTINA PERRI, DAVID HODGES
Published by SUMMIT BASE CAMP FILM MUSIC, EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC, CHRISTINA PERRI D/B/A MISS PERRI LANE PUBLISHING
Arrangement produced by Jon Schmidt
Arrangement written by Al van der Beek, Jon Schmidt, & Steven Sharp Nelson
Performed by
Jon Schmidt: piano
Steven Sharp Nelson: acoustic cello, & cello-percussion
Music recorded, mixed & mastered by Al van der Beek at TPG Studio
Video produced by Paul Anderson & Tel Stewart

Sew: A Needle Pulling Thread

“Doing your own thing” is a generous act. Being gifted creates obligations, which means you owe the world your best effort at the work you love. You too are a natural resource. –Barbara Sher

I've you're visiting from a linky party, welcome! This is sort of a hodgepodge of things I've been up to this week. Please scroll down to the hot pads, which are my finish for this week.

20 Stitches Per Inch
I usually sit with LadyBug when she does her homework. On the days when she just wants me there for moral support and doesn't need a ton of help, I work on an embroidery project of some sort. This year, she's had to do a book report each month. The genre is assigned, but she can choose her own book within that genre. Recently, she had to read a historical fiction book and we chose the first book in the American Girl series, Meet Felicity. Felicity is a bit of a tomboy and hates to sit indoors and practice her writing or sewing. Her mother scolds her about some sewing she was doing because she had to take it out. Felicity had not done 20 stitches per inch.

A few days ago at homework time as I was pulling out some embroidery floss and a needle, LadyBug asked me if I could do 20 stitches in an inch. I replied that I didn't know, but would give it a try. The bottom row is my first attempt. Not to be beaten by a needle and thread, I tried again. And again. And again. I was stuck on 15 stitches per inch for a while, until I realized that it wasn't so much stitching as it was weaving. Getting stitches that small is a matter of catching a few threads of the fabric in your needle. I finally made it to 20 stitches, but perfection it is not . As I worked to get just a few threads of the fabric in each stitch, I realized that I was only working with one layer of fabric. I couldn't imagine taking such small stitches through two layers of fabric to make a seam. Still, it was a fun experiment and made me glad that I only sew by hand for fun.

Police Chief Swan: Revisited
One of the things I worked on this week was adding a few finishing touches to a block for my Twilight quilt. The block itself has been pieced for quite a while {read about it here}, but I wasn't quite sure about what to include in the embroidered details. Eventually, I decided on a composite of the two official badges from Forks.

I marked the blocks quite a while ago, chose a pretty gold floss and started to embroider. About 4 stitches in, I realized that my thread did not stand out enough. I put it away. I got it back out this week, determined to get the embroidery done. I pulled out the stitches and tried a different color combination, which also did not work. I pulled out the stitches again and tried five more color combinations, all of the unsuccessful. 452 colors of DMC floss {all of which I have} and none of them worked . While the thread colors I was choosing were bright, they were the same tone as the silver Fairy Frost and once I started stitching, they blended in.

After trying so many color combinations {one of them twice} and then picking the stitches back out, LadyBug finally asked why I didn't just go with a different color. I explained that I wanted it to be gold, but realized that if I hadn't already found the perfect color, I wasn't going to. Resigned to using a blue that would match the fabric in the word “Police”, I put it back away and moved on to winding the last few skeins of floss onto bobbins. And there it was. A deep gold thread, which I thought might work. I added two strands of gold blending filament to give it a bit of shimmer, and voilá. I think the embroidery is just the right finish to this block.

Poultry in Motion: Hot Pads
For Christmas last year, I made a table runner with roosters for a family gift exchange. It was one of those exchanges where you steal gifts from each other in an effort to go home with the best gift. There was a bit of a kerfuffle over the rooster table runner, which is the point of these kinds of gift exchanges. There were four rooster panels and I only used three in the runner, so I decided to make a hot pad for the person who did not get the runner. She has chickens and roosters in her kitchen and I thought it might be fun.

The hot pad turned out rather larger than I expected, so I made a panel to go across the back so that you could slide your hand in and use it more like an oven mitt. At first I was going to just do two layers of fabric for the back pocket, with a small panel from a different print in the fabric line, but then I decided to quilt it. I had the whole thing assembled and the binding part-way on when I came to the conclusion that the pocket the back was not working; it was simply too big to work as an oven mitt. I pulled it apart and designated the large rooster hot pad to be a table topper or trivet of sorts. I used the already quilted pocket piece to make another hot pad. It was awkwardly shaped and didn't really work to trim to a square, so a rectangle it was. I used Insul-Brite, which is a little bit thicker and a little bit stiffer than Warm 'n Natural. I really like how much dimension it gives the quilting.

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Giveaway Goodies
Last month, I hosted the Leap Day Giveaway Blog Hop. It was a huge success and so much fun. I was amazing to see what everyone was giving away. I offered a retro inspired apron and Nancy was the winner. She was very sweet to send me a photo of her in her apron! Thank you, Nancy!

I won a little something, too, from Richard and his wife Tanya. Their son, Jared, did me a solid and pulled my name out of the hat. I was able to pick from eight different prizes they were offering. Richard made the hot pads and the granny squares {which I will probably turn into hot pads}. I was also happy to take a gently used rotary cutter off his hands. My rotary cutter is 20 years old and I still love it, but I thought it would be fun to have an extra on-hand. Thank you, Richard and Tanya!

This week I got a really fun package in the mail. Clear back in October, Lori Holt announced a giveaway of her fabric line, Daisy Cottage, as well as some of her new patterns. I was one of the winners and she gave me my choice of any three of the new patterns designed for Daisy Cottage. I picked Home Sweet Home, Ring Around the Rosy and Daisychain. Lori told me that she'd send the patterns as soon as the covers came back from the printer, in about 10 days. The package never arrived and I got busy with holiday sewing. I would think of it off and on and finally while cleaning out my inbox a few weeks ago, I timidly e-mailed Lori to ask if she'd ever sent the patterns. She had, but they were lost in the mail , so she sent me a new set of patterns and some fat quarters of Daisy Cottage . I am so thrilled. And now I'm kind of wishing I'd have picked the diamond ruler that Richard and Tanya offered as one of their giveaway choices so I could start working on the Daisychain quilt .

Black & Red Hexie Notebooks

If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. –Lawrence J. Peter

I planned to start 2012 with a bang. It was more like a whimper. I wanted to finish three quilts in January. I finished nothing. We're already two weeks into February, and no quilts finished. But I did finally get these little Hexie notebooks done. I've only been working on them since September-ish. Looking at it another way, six weeks into 2012 ÷ six notebooks = one finish a week. OK, so maybe 2012 is going better than I thought, especially if I don't tell you that four of these six notebooks are for birthday gifts in October and November of 2011. These are for the girls in Twi-Quilters {red & black, apple theme, Twilight font monograms}. We do a little something for each other's birthdays, only I'm way behind. This bunch gets me through February, and then there isn't another birthday until May .

I did a little McTavishing on the red backgrounds, and outlined the apples and monograms on the Hexies. The lighting isn't the best, so you can't see the quilting on the Hexies, but here is one from the back.

To put the Hexies together I cut the fabric, a layer of Mistyfuse and bit of batting using the largest {5”} Go! Hexagon. I trimmed the batting Hexagon down by ⅜” all the way around and used the Mistyfuse {I put a little parchment paper between the Hexie and the iron to keep the allowance of Mistyfuse around the outer edge of the batting from fusing where I didn't want it} to hold it in place on the back of the fabric while I quilted it. After I'd finished quilting, I pressed the edges over and sewed it onto the notebook cover, which I did using Pellon Peltex 72F II and a rough approximation of this fabric postcard tutorial.

Today's post brought to you by:

Breaking Dawn Charity Quilt

You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone you hated. All my reactions were geared toward those kinds of killers—the monsters, the enemies.

When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it?
–Bella Cullen, Breaking Dawn, page 1-2

I belong to a little on-line group called Twi-Quilters. We've been working on a quilt themed around the book Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer. Our quilt is finished and we are proud to bring you the Breaking Dawn Give-to-Win Charity Quilt fundraiser.

Last year, our Eclipse charity quilt raised $1,729.00 for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. With your help, we hope to raise even more than last year.

This year, we have decided to pledge donations to two charities: Alex's Lemonade Stand and Childhelp. Our group members have donated all the fabrics and supplies, as well as our time, to create this quilt, which includes scenes from Breaking Dawn, as well as autographs from eight cast members, including Peter Facinelli, who plays Carlisle Cullen and is a spokesperson for ALSF, and BooBoo Stewart, who plays Seth Clearwater and is an ambassador for Childhelp.

For every $5 donation from you, which will be split evenly between the two charities, you’ll get one chance to win the quilt. So please give generously. Donations will be accepted through December 4, 2011 and the winner will be announced on December 7, 2011.

Read more about the individual blocks:

Alice: Vampire Bat in the Belfry by Colleen
Alice's Note by Nicole
The Amazon Coven by Nicole
Aro's Gift by Angie
Bella & Edward's Cottage by Beth
Bella & Edward's Wedding by Mel
Bella's First Hunt by Beth
Bella's Shield by Iris
Bella's Transformation by Jerri Lynn
Cast Member Autographs
Cravings by Angie
The Denali Coven by Joyce
Eggs by Kate
The Egyptian Coven by Nicole
Feathers by Cat
The Hybrids by Joyce
The Irish Coven by Jerri Lynn
Isle Esme by Cat
Jacob & Renesmee by Elizabeth
Jacob & Rosalie's Rivalry by Kate
Jason Scott, Attorney at Law by Wanda
Midnight Swim by Kate
The Nomads by Joyce
Renesmee by Joyce
The Romanian Coven by Joyce
The Wolf Packs by Elizabeth

For more information about the charities, click on the buttons below.

Various and Sundry Monday: Vol 18

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs. –Joan Didion

Meet Stanley
I'm not sure if this spider, with its head-of-French-knots and button-bottom is whimsical or creepy. I mean, look at those legs and the bead-y orange eyes. This is the last piece of the hat portion of Zelda's Fancy Hat. I still have three brim pieces to do, but after I finished Stanley the Spider, it was time to put this project away for a bit.

Kimono Garden
The Christmas crafting has officially begun. I've got this table runner just about ready to baste and quilt. I'm going to make several different runners for various parties, and based on how quickly this one went together and barring any flare-ups of my chronic case of procrastination, I hope to be done with all handmade gifts with time to spare. Wish me luck.

100 Years and Still the Heartbeat of America
On November 3, Chevrolet celebrated its 100^th birthday! Here's a look back at the last century.


Thank You for Your Votes

Last weekend, I entered the weekly themed quilt contest over at Quilting Bloggers. The theme was Remembering Veterans and I submitted the t-shirt quilt I made for Mr. Bug, using his old t-shirts, sweatshirts and work shirts from the Navy. My mom informs me that my dad voted from every single IP address he could, and called all my siblings and told them to vote from their computers and smart phones. I know many of you voted, and left me really nice comments of encouragement. I finished in 4^th place, with 113 votes which is so amazing considering that the vote was split between 27 quilts. Thank you SO much to everyone who voted for me. I really appreciate it! It really made my weekend!

I Can't Help Myself
Part 1 of Breaking Dawn premiers at midnight on the 18^th. I, somehow, lucked out and have tickets for a pre-screening at 5:15 pm on the 17^th. I'm just a little excited. Here are a couple clips with scenes from the movie to help with the pre-wedding jitters.