Star Bright

Aloha!  This beautiful quilt comes to us all the way from the sunny island of Hawaii (by way of California for the quilting).

"Star Bright" was pieced by a friend of mine named Jenn.  We met in Bible study out in Arizona (though the Army currently has her family stationed in Hawaii - jealous much?).  Do you know what that means?  She has known Charlotte since she was only four days old.  That's because I just could not miss a meeting, those ladies are so dear to me.  This also means that Jenn has been following Charlotte's story since the day of diagnosis.  And as I was thinking of that, I had this strange flashback, remembering that she actually even came to the hospital, three hours away from home, on the day of Charlotte's first neurosurgery.  Wow!  What a friend!  But enough background info...

Pass the baby's burp cloth, would you?  Because this is drool worthy. Ready?....

"Star Bright" by Jenn Crabb Dodson and Laurie Dodson Manske

Ta-da!

Now unfortunately for me, I did not quilt when I lived in Arizona.  In fact, I had only just bought my first sewing machine and was stitching up just some crayon rolls.  I did not even like quilts at the time, let alone have any interest in making one.  Even so, I was impressed with Jenn's quilting.  That says a lot for her skills, don't you think?

You should believe I was thrilled when she told me she'd help me with this fundraising project!

This quilt is going to be great to snuggle under while reading a good book!

When I asked Jenn what this quilt's story is, she wrote,

"The fabric is from Riley Blake Designs in the 'Flutter' charm pack.  I picked these patterns because some of the fabric has butterflies on it which symbolize change and overcoming circumstances just like precious Charlotte has been doing her whole life.  Also, some of the fabric has the words 'hope' and 'dream' and 'imagine' in the background.  So 'Star Bright' shines with all my hopes and dreams for the change 'Angels Among Us' can bring to all the soaring butterflies like Charlotte through their important research."

Wow!  How thoughtful and sweet is she?

Here are some closer shots of the fabrics...

Can you see the butterfly in blue?

Here is the center point of the star, where eight beautiful fabrics meet.

I have to confess, my photography/blogging skills just do not do these fabrics justice.  Please check them out here.

Also, even the white fabric is gorgeous.  It looks like a solid white at first glance, but if you look very, very closely at the picture below, you might be able to see that the design looks exactly like the border on this blog!

Now, let's talk about the quilting that Jenn's sister-in-law, Laurie, did.  It's amazing...  

Here you can see the lovely quilting on the blue border.

Laurie did three different quilting designs.  There is one design on the outer, white border, then a loopy design on the blue border (above) and a third gorgeous design covering the center blocks.  I tried to capture all three designs here:

The quilting is accented so nicely because the back of the quilt is this whole-cloth red fabric.

Here's Charlotte: keeping warm while ready to pull her favorite novel off of the bookshelf and read a couple hundred pages or so.

Though I would love to have this quilt to share a cold night, a hot cup of tea, and a good book with, you might want to hang it on the wall.  It's so very lovely.

We're starting the bids at $175 because, Baby, it's worth it.  (And so is brain tumor research, remember?)


Quilt Stats:
Measures: 54.5 x 54.5 inches
Pieced by : Jenn Dodson
Quilted by: Laurie Manske
Fabric: "Flutter" by Riley Blake and others from her stash


Auction Details:
Please place a bid in the comment section at the end of this post.  If you are posting as "anonymous" please be sure to leave your name in the comment (e.g. Jane Doe bids $175.)
-Starting bid: $175 (increasing by $5 minimum)
(100% of proceeds go toward brain cancer research!)
 -Auction ends Friday, March 22 at 8 pm EST.

Trust me: you want this on your doorstep!

P.S. You probably thought I was joking about "pulling her favorite novel" off the bookshelf, right?  Funny thing is... just before I took these pictures, Charlotte actually managed to pull a book off of the shelf (with her feet!) for the first time.  Any guesses what the girl with a dozen surgical incision scars, two stainless steel stents just above the heart, a central line in the heart, a gastrostomy tube in the stomach, and a graft in the spinal column chose?

Oh, just Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 

I might find it just an odd coincidence... were it not for that sly look on her face.