Quilt Contest!!

Recently we held a contest which benefited Quilts for Kids- an organization which distributes quilts, made by generous volunteers, to hospitalized and seriously ill children. They also distribute quilts to comfort children who are confronting tragedy, such recent Hurricane Sandy, the earthquake in Haiti, Tsunami in Japan, and the children of 9/11. Because I think this is such a wonderful organization, I designed a fabric line called Happy Town to benefit Quilts for Kids.

The great thing about the contest is that it helped children in 2 ways- my royalties from all of my Happy Town fabric sold went to Quilts for Kids, plus all of the quilts entered in the contest will be donated to children in need. Henry Glass Fabrics, who manufactured the fabric, sponsored the contest and also made a donation to Quilts for Kids.

I met up recently with Linda Arye, Founding President of Quilts for Kids, and Harriet Clemens, Design Director for Henry Glass Fabrics, at the Quilts for Kids headquarters in Fairless Hills, PA. We took a tour of the offices, and got a look at all of the beautiful quilts entered in the contest!

Would you like to take a tour with me?? OK, here we go:

A "Happy Town" display with contest and fabric line information greets visitors at the entrance.

Linda (on the right) shows Harriet some of the many news articles and acknowledgements that the organization has received. On the left, you can see rows of tables which are used for monthly workshops. Volunteers can come and learn new techniques and make quilts to donate.

 Nancy Lacey, Director of Operations, fields phone calls in her office.

Volunteers spend countless hours making quilts from the kits Cindi cuts at Headquarters.

 Linda and Harriet look at some of the fabric that is donated by corporate sponsors and individuals. Quilts for Kids also uses monetary donations to purchase fabric for quilts.

 Every day, Quilts for Kids receives quilts from generous quilters all around the world.

 Stacks of quilts waiting to go to their "kids"!!!

Linda hangs some of the quilt contest entries.

Would you like to see some of the beautiful quilts entered in the contest? Prepare to be inspired...

So now you want to see the winners, right?

First Place (winner of $500 cash) goes to :

Dana Followwell of Texas

Second Place (winner of $250 cash):

Sally Cottrell of North Carolina 

(that's Harriet, Linda, and me in the photo)

Honorable Mention (winner of a box of Henry Glass fabrics):

Pauline Francis of Michigan

A Really Huge HUG and THANKS to all who entered!!! Some very grateful children will be snuggling up in your beautiful creations soon :)

For more information about how you can get involved with Quilts for Kids, click here.

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 7 Blog Hop!

It's the very first day of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 7 Blog Hop! Yippee! Read to the end of this post to see how to win a copy of your own....

Please check out Quilty Pleasures blog, by the wonderful folks at Quiltmaker Magazine, to see other features regarding this issue and blog hop.

This is the block that I designed for this issue, called Candy Stripe:

For the sample block for the magazine, I used my Fruitful Hands fabric line (shown above). But I also tried making a block using my Oh Holy Night fabric line:

I got the name for the block because it kind of reminded me of a wrapped candy for some reason

and also because, it is obviously striped.

You could arrange these blocks in a couple of different ways:

 All blocks going in same direction.

 Rotating alternating blocks 90 degrees creates a cool pattern.

Adding sashing really looks neat.

Blocks set on point.

Blocks set on point with the addition of sashing.

All of the above designs were done with the Christmas fabric. Here is one done with Fruitful Hands, which is more Spring-y/ Summer-y:

Speaking of Spring-y/ Summer-y things... what did everyone think of our latest e-magazine which went out last week? I hope you tried the cookie recipe- they were so good :)
 Haven't seen it yet?? Click here.

(What? You don't have your free subscription yet? Click here to sign up.)

OK... so I know this is the moment you've been waiting for....

Quiltmaker is giving away a copy of their magazine! You can enter up to 3 times.

• Comment on this post and answer this question-

When do you normally start working on your Christmas/holiday projects:

A) I'm an over-achiever. I start working on them on December 26 and have them finished by June.
B) Slow and steady wins the race. I work on them all year round and pretty much have them done by Christmas week.
C) I start on December 15 and fuel myself with espresso, Red Bull and dark chocolate, baby!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!

• For an extra chance to win, "like" my Facebook page and leave an extra comment here that you are a Facebook fan. 

• For one more extra chance to win, post a direct link to this post on your blog and leave the link to your post in the comments here.

You must comment by 11:59 pm EDT on Sunday, May 5. Winner will be drawn at random.
I MUST BE ABLE TO CONTACT YOU THROUGH AN EMAIL ADDRESS OR GOOGLE ACCOUNT. If I draw your name and you are a "no-reply blogger" and there is no email address in your comment, I will choose another winner.

Good luck!

New Studio Space!!

(Please come take the "full" studio tour here!!!!)

Do you want to see the studio space I have recently "acquired"??? I love it! And the funny thing is, I didn't know how much I "needed" it until I got it all done....

Our oldest daughter got married back in June. Sad as we were to see her go... youngest daughter couldn't wait to get her hands on her older sister's old (bigger) room! We moved youngest daughter into that room.... what to do with the extra room which used to be youngest daughter's room? Expand the studio space, of course! (No brainer, right??)

Now, I will tell you a secret- for years now, I have kept most of the quilts I have made in big plastic containers in the basement, because there really wasn't another place to put them. I couldn't wait to have a room dedicated to storing and displaying all of my quilts! And also, I wanted more space for storing my bolts of fabric and for cutting fabric.

We decorated the room when my daughter was about 8 years old. It had yellow bead board and lilac wall paper. My daughter tried to talk me into painting, but I just didn't have the energy for that! I decided that the colors worked fine with my stuff- it's cheerful. Here is a photo of what it looked like when I was organizing all of my quilts.

In addition to the yellow bead board and lilac wall paper, the room also already had shelving all around (for displaying dolls). This, I discovered, was PRIME real estate for storing and displaying fat quarter bundles which are waiting to be purchased & go to their new homes, as well as many of my project samples:

I already had many of the furniture pieces in the room. The dresser is a vintage piece from my grandmother- great for storing all kinds of stuff. I had the rug, and the cedar chest. The cedar chest used to belong to oldest daughter, but it's not her style and she left it behind when she moved out. It is perfect for storing all of my wool and protecting it from moths:

 The cabinet was youngest daughter's and stayed in the room when she moved across the hall to a room with a much bigger closet (making her little armoire unnecessary.) Now I have some place to store all of those quilts that used to hide in the basement:

I did buy a couple of pieces of furniture for the room from Ikea. My favorite is this gate-leg table. You can have one side of the table up, or both, or neither, so it's really convenient. There are drawers on both sides for more storage. Plus, I think it's just really cute. It works out really well when I have lots of fabric to cut (like when I'm assembling bundle after bundle of fat quarters...)

I also got some shelves from Ikea so I have a convenient place to store my bolts of fabric, and other cute stuff:

A bonus of this room, which I didn't even realize until we got it all done, is that with 3 east and south facing windows, the light is great! So it makes a perfect little photography studio. And since I have managed to keep it pretty neat and clean so far, it also means that I don't find myself spending half an hour to find a clear surface so I can set up a photo.

Did I mention that I love my new space? I spend as much time in there as I can, because it is so bright and cheerful and uncluttered (my "main" studio space tends to get pretty messy....) Also, since my main studio is downstairs and the "annex" is upstairs, it has really increased the amount of exercise I get each day :)

To go on a "tour" of my downstairs studio, click here.

When it comes to a sewing room, studio, or other "hobby" area, what is the most important feature to you? Lighting? Storage space? Your surroundings- colorful & energizing or peaceful & inspirational? Being as close to (or as far away...) from the family as possible??

Thanks for "visiting" my new studio!