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

Memorial Quilts

Oh I'm really getting the hang of this blog stuff now... did you notice the new background? Pretty fancy huh? It's the little things in life that amuse me!

While pulling together a few pictures tonight, I couldn't help but notice the number of memorial quilts I have done over the past few years. It started with a pile of my Dad's flannel pajamas that I didn't know what to do with. Like any true quilter, the natural thought was to cut up the material and sew it back together! I did so, therefore creating one of my first quilts.

What you can't see in this picture are the buttons that I pulled off the pajama top and sewed in between the blocks. It's comforting to lay beneath this blanket, and to feel the buttons I know my father touched every night. This is one of Olivia's favorite blankets to cuddle under. I also made a second and third similar blanket for my sister, Linda, and her son, Tommy, shown below. This is such an easy pattern, and I use a fusible grid to make the sewing go by quickly.

In another memorial quilt, I created the one below for my Aunt & Uncle's wedding anniversary. It's made out of my Mom's blouse (who was my Aunt's sister); you can see the yellow blouse material in the squares. I incorporated peach fabric with angels, and my sister Sally, who also quilts, hand quilted a few hearts here and there. Needless to say it was a show-stopper, and it brought my Aunt to tears.

I can't tell you the pleasure it brings me to make quilts that bring such comfort to those who I give them to. In the quilt below, a friend asked me to make this quilt for her husband out of his father's clothes. She gave me a shirt, a beige raincoat (of all things!), and another lightweight blue jacket, that came together to create the following quilt. It's the same pattern as the one above, which again, works well for the purpose. You will see that I included buttons from the shirt on this quilt as well.

I made another quilt for this person out of her mother's blue velvet dress, but I can't seem to find the pictures! Once I locate them, I'll be sure to post. Coincidentally, she had a baby boy the following year and I still had scraps of the blue dress which I incorporated into a baby quilt. I thought it would be nice for the baby to have something of his Grandmothers :o)

Finally, the next memorial quilt is made from pictures rather than clothing. It is for a dear family friend who turned 80, and the pictures were those collected by family throughout the years. It was the first time I incorporated pictures into a quilt, and it was certainly a lot of fun!!

What was really nice is that after she opened the gift (and finished drying her eyes), she walked it around to each table, where friends and family looked at the pictures and reminisced. When you see things like this happen, it makes all of the time and effort worth while.

Well, enough for tonight. The whole time I've been blogging my husband has been sitting on the floor next to me wrapping gifts. Time to go help! Merry Christmas all,

Christine

Mission Accomplished!!

Wow, did I get a lot done today! Being home sick, I should have been resting, but I'm determined to clean up some of my projects to show progress on this blog. Today I finished up a few items:

1. The first is the gift for my daughter's teacher. I made this candle mat which is so simple and takes less than 2 hours. It came out so nice and I loved the fabric so much, I made a second one for myself!!




I personalize the gift by adding my daughter's picture to the back and have her sign it in permanent ink.



2. The second project I finished was a kit I regretted buying (don't we all have those?) It was a small project but I found out after I bought it that all handwork was required. Anyone who knows me knows that I despise hand sewing. This weakness of mine only heightens my respect for those of you who hand quilt... patience just isn't a virtue I possess. After I bought the kit and realized what I got into, I jumped in feet first. My daughter, Olivia, and I spent quality time cutting out each of the bird's bodies, beaks, wings, and holly leaves. Then I spent the majority of the 5-hour drive from Vermont to Connecticut hand sewing, only to finish the small holly leaves! At that point I realized my sewing machine was going to come into play.

This afternoon I finished the piece, YEARS ahead of when it would have been completed had I stuck it out with hand sewing (it probably would have been a wedding gift to my child who is now 6-years old). I adore cardinals, so needless to say I'm loving this candle mat! I even embellished the bottom with a decorative stitch, and Olivia had fun poking through old buttons looking for the two that were used as the holly berries. I will admit, I did hand sew the buttons on, but briefly considered doing it by machine!!



During the time I was doing all of this, Olivia was right there with me cutting up fabric to use as part of her "scrap quilt." Below is a picture of her proudly displaying her work:



Finally, I thought I'd share a table runner I recently made during the "Christmas Tea" sponsored by my favorite Connecticut quilt shop, The Yankee Quilter (theyankeequilter.com). Every year they host a tea featuring Janet's famous homemade scones and lemon curd, and we sit around, snack, sip and sew. It's always a nice time, and this year we were even treated to a coating of snow.



Well, after my 4-day hiatus from work, it's back to reality tomorrow. Thanks to all who have dropped me a note for your motivation and inspiration; I hope to have more finished projects to showcase in the coming weeks.

Warmly ~ Christine

SNOW DAY! (um... kind of....)

After this weekend's snow we woke up this morning expecting school to be in session. Apart from the otherwise 90-minute delay, we were ready to brave the 14 degree (F), frigid weather and winds, only to find out school was cancelled due to a lack of heat. Since I've been nursing a cold, it seemed like the perfect day to stay in our pj's and relax.

The first thing I wanted to do was log onto this blog... I think I'm hooked already! Thank you to all who have dropped me a note... and to Lisa for spreading the word! It was such a pleasant surprise to find your comments, and I'll look forward to corresponding with each of you in the future.

Last night I went though a few of my books to find a quilt pattern that I can use for my "weight loss quilt". I think I found one! It's called "Charming Baskets" out of the "Simply Charming Two" quiltbook by Moose on the Porch Quilts (http://www.moosequilts.com/) (picture attached). I think this will work out perfectly, as it's a 12-block quilt (one for each month), and each block can be modified to include a different color triangle for the number of pounds lost that month. Again, this is still an "idea in progress", but I feel I'm on the right path. Next week we are scheduled to head to our Vermont cottage, and I'm hoping to visit my favorite quilt store --Knits & Bolts in New Haven, VT -- to check out their fabric. Knits & Bolts always seems to have a great selection, so I'm sure I'll find something that will work! This is the same quilt shop where I picked up the pattern book, as they were offering a class for "Charming Old Maid." All the quilts in this book are made with Charm packs, so it should be fairly hassle free.

As promised, I'm including the All American Beef Stew recipe I made last night. I served it with crescent rolls and it sure was delicious! We enjoyed it in front of a coy fire, which seemed perfect for the first day of winter. Enjoy!!

3 lbs. well-rimmed beef round, cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes

1/2c flour seasoned with salt & pepper (I add onion powder and dried parsley to the flour also)

1/2c vegetable oil

2 large onions, cut into wedges or thick rounds

4 medium-size carrots, cut into 1-inch lengths or diagonal slices

1-1/4 lbs. small red-skinned potatoes, quartered

3 ribs celery, cut into 1-inch lengths or slices

About 4 cups beef broth (I have also used vegetable broth)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Coat meat with seasoned flour and brown in hot oil. Reduce heat to medium low, drain off all but 1 tablespoon pan drippings. Add onions, carriots, potatoes and celery to pot. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring once or twice, until lightly browned. Add broth, tomato paste and mustard, stirring to scrape up browned bits. Bring to a boil. Return browned meat to pot. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring once. Taste; add additional broth and salt or pepper if necessary. Cover and simmer 1 hour longer, stirring once or twice, until meat is tender and sauce slightly thickened. Makes 8 servings.

Per serving: 279 calories, 36g protein, 17g carbs, 7g fat.