This Is Why I Quilt...

This picture sums up why I quilt... Olivia loved her new blanket! This quilt went together very easily, and in total, took me less than a week to complete. As you will recall, she picked out her own fabric, and it was a project I had sitting in the quilt closet for some time. It's nice to have the project done, and I'm ready to move onto other things that are waiting to be finished!

Here are a few close up pictures of my latest accomplishment, Quilt #20:

I'd love to hear how you track your quilts. For example, I label and number each quilt, then keep a corresponding journal with the quilt number, date and who it was made for. At one point I was VERY ambitious and started a scrapbook as well. The scrapbook was ordered by quilt number, had pictures of the quilt being assembled, and included the final picture of who the quilt was given to. On a few pages, I even included scraps of the fabric. At some point I'll update the scrapbook, but for now I'm simply enjoying making the quilts!

One of the next projects I have waiting in the wings is a charity quilt I'm making for Olivia's school's Silent Auction. It will be small in size, and I'm going to use the Crazy Eights quilt pattern. Below are the fabrics I've chosen, and I'm hoping this project goes together just as quickly.

Aren't these fabrics gorgeous?? I'm so afraid that once the quilt is finished, I'll want to keep it!

Last year I fell in love with the fabric as well. Here are a few pictures of the quilt I made for the 2008 Silent Auction, and this quilt sold for about $200. It's nice knowing that my efforts are raising money for the school!!

And this is an example of the label I added to the back. As you can see, I didn't get many quilts finished since last year, so I'm thankful this blog has motivated me to be productive again. It's not that I didn't quilt at all, it was mostly smaller projects that I focused on, and I don't label and number those.

Finally, this weekend was the first at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC. I'm on my way to becoming a Certified Health Coach, and class was really exciting. There are nearly 2000 people in attendance at the Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. People come in from all over the world -- Australia, Japan, Sweden, Korea, the Bahamas, Spain, as well as from all over the US. The training will last for 6 months, during which I will begin to develop my client focus and begin working with people. Part of my challenge will be creating a business name, and I'm really struggling here. So if you have ideas, send them to me, and if I use the name, I'll send a charm pack your way! The program focuses around holistic wellness, and I'd love to hear from you with questions or comments.

Until next time, happy quilting!

Warm regards,

~ Christine

The Days Are Flying By!!

It's hard to believe it's been a week since my last post.... the days are just flying by! This weekend I had high hopes to quilt A LOT since the weather forecast called for snow. But the storm was a bust (only 3") as was my quilting progress. Earlier this week I managed to squeeze in a few hours after Olivia went to bed, and I made quite a few border blocks for her pinwheel quilt. To date I've finished 7 out of 20, and I'm closer than ever to getting the quilt finished. A picture of the border block is above, and the partially finished quilt and pinwheel block closeup is below.

I've also made progress on my calendar quilt, and I think it's coming out pretty good. I will probably vary the pattern a little as I move forward, as some of the other quilters have done with theirs. If you have a minute, check out the Calendar Quilt Blog (link can be found on the sidebar of this blog) -- there are so many talented people highlighting their work!

The other news I wanted to share was about a new fitness program I began yesterday. It's one I've followed in the past and had good luck with -- Body For Life. It's based on eating healthy foods and exercising 6 days a week (no surprises there!!). The Body For Life website is chock full of info, http://bodyforlife.com/, and includes all of the program details -- exercises, journals, food suggestions, success stories. I started yesterday and noted it on my calendar quilt strip as "BFL Day 1"; there are 84 days total to the program. So far so good... I did upper body yesterday and today I was certainly sore, but it felt really good knowing I made progress. Today was lower body, and I combined that with 30 minutes on the treadmill. My downfall is always my diet, I really enjoy chocolate & ice cream, so those are my challenge foods. Anyway, if you're interested in a really good program, I would recommend Body For Life. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

As I mentioned in my very first blog, my intent is to combine my love of quilting and my interest in nutrition into this blog. Next weekend I begin the Holistic Health Counselor program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City (http://www.integrativenutrition.com/), so I'm sure I'll have plenty to share once that gets going. In the meantime, I've added two new features to this site -- the Healthy Tip of the Day feature, and my daily diet (this is to keep me honest!). I hope you enjoy both.

Warm regards ~ Christine

Calendar Quilt Challenge

Last night as I was reading a few other blogs, I came across Rachel's blog and the Calendar Quilt Challenge (see the button on the right). It sounded like so much fun, that I decided to go for it and become part of the team. I'm looking forward to fun year ahead of adding a new strip each day to the calendar, ultimately ending up with a warm, scrappy quilt in January, 2010. I started my journey today, and these are the 4 scraps I've pulled together so far. I also used the embroidery feature on my machine to include the month & year:



The Challenge is a great opportunity to meet other quilters and learn their techniques and styles for their individual calendars. It's also going to be a fun way of using some of the scraps I have from my previous projects!

Happy Quilting Everyone,

~ Christine

Welcome to a New Year of Quilting!!

Happy 2009 everyone! I hope all of you had as restful a holiday as I did, recharging my batteries before I'm thrown back into the reality of life on Monday, January 5th. In line with my childhood homework of "what I did on my winter vacation," I thought I'd share a few pictures of my accomplishments this past week. I'd also like to thank you for the encouragement, as it was this blog that has re-ignited my desire to finish some of the projects I've had hanging around the quilt closet for far too long!

We spent a week at the cottage in Vermont, and I brought along two projects. The first is a quilt I started for my daughter more than two years ago. I would have finished the piecing this trip, but realized I left a piece of fabric home that was part of the inner border. I'm really pleased at how far it's come so far...

Thankfully I brought a "back up" project which hadn't even been cut yet. It's a pattern I bought at Knits & Bolts in New Haven, Vermont a few years ago, and since it incorporates quotes about daughters in the center of each star, it was only natural that Olivia select the fabric. Here are a few pictures of the quilt process, complete with a finished quilt top!!

What a sense of accomplishment to have these two quilts nearly complete!! I have many other "projects" to tackle (don't we all?), but the next one I will begin is my weight loss quilt. While in Vermont, I shopped for fabric but came up empty handed, so I'll have to visit The Yankee Quilter in Oxford, CT to check out their charm packs.

I'm signing off early tonight but had to log in to share my holiday accomplishments with you. I'll leave you with a few pictures of Lake Dunmore in Vermont: the first is the beautiful view I see each time I quilt, and the second is a family who were brave enough to venture out onto the frozen lake with their sled!

Warm wishes for a fabulous 2009,

Christine