Charlotte's Birthday Quilt

This is the quilt that I made for Charlotte's birthday.  Only, poor dear, when Charlotte unwrapped the quilt, it still had the clover clips attached and the binding only half done!  Oh, I'm terrible with deadlines...

(And nevermind the outdated pictures.  Spring is in full, glorious swing here in North Carolina. I meant to post these pictures right away when I took them in late February, but life gets in the way, you know?)

Anyhow, this quilt got started back in September when I spotted the Heather Ross "Itsy Bitsy Spider" fabric for the first time.  I'm such a fan of Heather Ross, but am also so new to quilting that some of these older fabric lines are "news to me." And Charlotte is a fan of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (she was singing it just this morning, in fact), so of course I just had to buy a fat quarter or two of this sweet fabric.

And then I threw in a bunch of coordinating fabrics.  See "Posy" below.  I cannot get enough of this sweetness!  (I'm making another Posy quilt now using Fielke's "Made in Cherry" pattern; it's divine, if I do say so myself.)

Back to the quilt at hand, though: more Heather Ross fabric in the form of Briar Rose strawberries.  A favorite of mine... sigh.

Anne gave me these trees as a little scrap probably two years ago now! I am proud to have made a place for it here.

Here's the backing: two different DS quilts fabrics from JoAnn's.

I love the backing.

I also love the quilting.  Logan did this for me yet again.  I love how it crinkles after it's been washed.

One thing I don't love is the gray (Kona Shale) that I used.  I should have gone with Kona Ash.  Oh well: that's one reason I love quilting - I'm always learning.

See the snowflakes on the quilt?  Oh, it was not lost on me that the morning I wake up to a six-inch snowfall, instead of wrapping my kids up in quilts to keep them warm, I toss the quilts out on top of the snow to take frivolous pictures!  The quilts came back inside wet and useless.  Ridiculous.

Here's my youngest.  At age 2, this is the most snow Marian has ever seen.  She loved it.

And I love this last picture.  Clearly, Marian has been studying and practicing her impressions of Marion Cotillard.  While my Marian might want to step up her fashion game, the glance and smile over her shoulder aren't bad, eh?

Quilt Auction Housekeeping

Gee, I wish I could say that I made this stunning, little beauty.  But it was a gift from my sweet friend, Anne.  Isn't it fantastic, and aren't I just the luckiest gal alive to be the recipient?  And if you can believe it, the husband even approved it to be hung on the wall.  A first!  Even he must love it.  Anyhow, just wanted to put that picture up as a teaser to more boring matters at hand...

Quilt Auction.  It's usually this time of year that I am receiving quilts from all over the country, photographing them, and writing up posts to advertise. Unfortunately, while I do love to raise funds toward pediatric brain cancer research, I am unable to do the auction this year.  My day-to-day life finds me super-busy with four little kiddos at home and the homeschooling that they require.  So I have decided to take this year off.

I have been given two quilts, however, that were unsolicited by me but donated by sweet ladies who want to help.  I plan to do a "mini-auction" for these two quilts this spring.  Please contact me ASAP if you have a quilt that you had been planning to donate but haven't yet let me know.  I would be happy to auction a few more quilts in addition to the two that I currently have, but I just cannot swing an auction of 20+ quilts this year.

I hope to be able to do a larger auction again in 2016.  (Oh, it really is so much fun, isn't it?!)  Thank you for your understanding and support of our cause.