Last Day of Chemo

It was almost a month ago now that Charlotte had her "last" chemo. She has been receiving weekly chemotherapy for her brainstem and spinal cord tumor for two years now.  The tumor has been stable for one year, so we decided that it was time to take Charlotte off of treatment.  For her last chemo, our friends, Kellie and Grace, came along, and Kellie took all these lovely pictures for us.

 So here is a day in the life:

When the nurse assistant showed us to our room, we found the door decorated with streamers and with the poster: complete with "Frozen" and "Barney" figures!  These folks know my Charlotte so well.  I cried.

The first thing to do is to don our masks in order to access Charlotte's port.  She is so brave.  She doesn't cry, but only sings us songs as they poke her with a big needle each week (the numbing cream helps).

All done!  See that little pink pig?  She received it the previous week from the girls in the radiology department after being a rockstar during a CT scan.  I admit: I was not too thrilled to have a gold-hoofed pig join the ever-increasing stuffed animal farm we seem to run.  But Charlotte loves the darn thing so much that she even sleeps with it!  It fits so perfectly right under her little arm that it really grew on me so quickly.  In case you were wondering, we named her "Goldie."

Then it was time for a wardrobe change.

That does not usually happen during a chemo day.

Here's the story: a few months ago, the kids and I passed by a yard sale going on just down the street from our old home.  And hanging from the tree, wouldn't you know it, a little Indian dress just in Charlotte's size!  Well, Charlotte's oncologist is of Indian origin, and he loves Charlotte, so I thought he might find it fun if she showed up for chemo in this little dress.  Surprise!

Needless to say, he loved it.  But the dress (called a "pavadai") didn't quite fit her (too small) and he said that there is also all this jewelry that goes with it and he is visiting family in India this summer so why doesn't he get her one to fit and with all the accessories to boot?  Now, how could I turn that down?  I couldn't.

So Dr. and Mrs. G did a little shopping for Charlotte, half-way across the world in India!  And now doesn't she look beautiful, all dolled up?!

I admit: I think she's so funny!

Look at her pretty necklace!

Charlotte must have cracked a joke here, too.

Next, while waiting for Charlotte's labwork to process and for her chemo to be drawn up, we headed out for an ultrasound and to deliver cookies to thank all our friends.  Above is our Child Life Specialist, Katie.  She's just the best.  And below is one of the pharmacists.  (One time, they invited us in to the pharmacy for a tour.  I got all gowned up and they took me back to where they make the chemo.  You just would not believe all that goes into that!  They follow about a hundred different safety precautions.  It's amazing.  We are so grateful that they are so careful.)

The lady in the above picture works in the lab and is a fellow quilter!  I always peek in to see if she's there; we swap quilt pictures and stories when we run into each other.  Fun!

Marian starts to look a little rough when it's well past her naptime.  But this is the yard sale pavadai that she's wearing!  See!  Isn't it just gorgeous?!  I tell ya: that $4 purchase has yielded the best return I've ever seen.  

Then it's time for the actual chemo infusion.  It only took a minute to push the drug into her port.  

And more party!  Here the nurses came in singing, "Happy Last Chemo to you" to the tune of "Happy Birthday."  It was so sweet.  And they gave Charlotte this doll (which Marian claimed as her own once home, but Charlotte has been too preoccupied with Goldie to mind).

Here we are with (most but not all of) our favorite nurses. It is so hard to put into words how much we love her nurses and doctor.  Do I like that Charlotte has cancer?  Not at all.  But am I so grateful that we have the privilege of knowing these wonderful people?  Absolutely.  This might be what Ann Voskamp calls "the ugly beautiful" of life.  We must try to see beauty in all things.  Even in cancer.

And Elyse and Henry were invited to choose a toy, too, because it's as they say: cancer affects the whole family.

We think she looks like such a princess here.

Charlotte loves Dr. G so much.

Raising funds for research is so important to me because while we called this "Charlotte's last chemo" it is most likely her "last" just for now.  She still has her tumor, and this type of tumor will typically progress.  So we will keep scanning her periodically and will put her back on therapy if/when her tumor progresses.  And that's why I want to help raise funds and support research initiatives that are pediatric specific.  The chemotherapy that Charlotte was most recently on might not work the next time her tumor grows.  There will most likely always be a need for more money because there will most likely always be a need for more therapies because of the nature of these tumors; namely: they keep changing.

So thank you for all of your support: in prayers, words of encouragement, quilt donations, and cold hard cash for those quilts.  :)  Charlotte is nearly four-years old and a delight to us.  We are constantly in awe of the grace of her growth and of her life and are thankful to God for these good gifts.

Raffle quilt for Allergy Research

*Note: Quilt Raffle has ended.  Julia Jech is the winner. Thank you for all the entries and support!*

It might be hard to believe, but this lovely quilt could be yours by the end of this week!  Ain't nothin' in life free, though, friends, so I'd better give you the details...

Tracy used Allison Harris's "Suburbs" pattern.

One of Charlotte's best friends in all the world is this sweet kid:

Elijah is the son of my friend, Tracy. (And yes, he is every bit as sweet in person as he looks in this photo... and then some!)

Lots of lovely fabric by Bonnie & Camille

Tracy has made quilt after quilt after quilt for my brain tumor auction, and now she's made another one to help raise money for allergy research because her sweet Elijah is living with life-threatening food allergies.

And even some Wee Wander goodness!

Here is what she wrote on her fundraising page:

"Our sweet Elijah's life is affected by food allergies every day.  He is so sweet, strong, and resilient - he constantly amazes us.  Even though he has risen to the challenges before him each day, having to be kept separate from so many things to keep him safe is very, very hard for him.  We pray each day for his allergies to become less sensitive or go away.  We pray for researchers to find ways to help or to find the cause.  We pray that we can keep him safe so the unthinkable never happens.  We educate the people around us to help Elijah have the most normal childhood possible.  FARE supports both research and education.  We ask you to support our team and join us in prayer for a cure.

*Note: Quilt Raffle has ended.  Julia Jech is the winner. Thank you for all the entries and support!*

Look: a little gray house made out of wooden planks!

"We are having a raffle for a large, throw-sized Christmas Quilt to thank our donors.  For every $5 you donate, we will put one ticket in the bucket.  When you donate $20, we will give you a bonus ticket.  Winner will be chosen on the eve of the allergy walk."  (That would be this Friday night!)

You are still welcome to support food allergy research, but...

*Note: Quilt Raffle has ended.  Julia Jech is the winner. Thank you for all the entries and support!*

This kid's gonna be a heartbreaker... so handsome!

Even $5 will get you a ticket into this raffle!  And really, that's nothing when we're talking about keeping our little people safe.  Elijah is one of the nicest boys I know.  Really: he is always looking out for others.  When he comes to play at my home, he sticks close to Charlotte in order to make sure she is doing okay and having fun.  Or, last time he was here, we couldn't find him.  But he was off "babysitting"  my youngest, Marian.  (Which I guess means that we couldn't find her, either - oops!)  Anyhow, we love Elijah so much, so please, be nice like Elijah: donate a few bucks.  And you just might win this very pretty quilt...

*Note: Quilt Raffle has ended.  Julia Jech is the winner. Thank you for all the entries and support!*

The quilt is no longer available, but you are still welcome to...

Click here to donate now and help us say FAREwell to food allergies.

Stacked Coins Quilt

Happy Labor Day! I hope that you are having a wonderful, long weekend.

This is a sweet little baby quilt that I originally intended for our brain tumor quilt auction back in April.  But, it was not finished in time, which was actually perfect!  "How can that be?" you might ask.

     1. I had PLENTY of quilts to photograph and to blog and to link to eBay, etc.  It was very time-consuming (though all for a great cause, of course)!

     2. I found an even more perfect charity for this little, rainbow quilt!

One day when Charlotte and I were at her chemo appointment at Duke, we started chatting with our friend, Miss Mary Margaret.  Mary Margaret runs art programs for the children in the hospital through an organization called Arts for Life.

Mary Margaret knows that I quilt, so she mentioned that her aunt was making a quilt for her to auction off during an upcoming fundraising event.  The event is called "Local Color."  Well, I had just finished making this little quilt, but it was homeless!  (This is a rarity... only the second of its kind in my home.)

Anyhow, when she told me about "Local Color" and I thought of all these colorful coins stacked one on top of the other, well... this just had to go to Mary Margaret's cause!

Of course, I can't be talking about all this sweet charity without giving some other gals some credit.  The "Tones" by Michael Miller charm pack was sent to me by the talented and generous Amy Smart (visit her blog here - especially if you need some great tutorials and patterns).  And the backing and quilting were donated by my sweet friend, Anne, of DS Pickle Dish fame, of course.

Are you local to North Carolina and available this Friday night?  Local Color will be such a fun night!  Grab a date, then book your tickets here.  In addition to your dancing shoes, don't forget to bring some cash or your checkbook for the great items at the auction.

Have a great week!

A Vintage Briar Rose Baby Quilt

This is one of  my most favorite quilts... ever.  

After making Elyse's "Briar Rose" quilt, I had the lavender colorway of the line remaining.  I thought it would be enough to stitch up a nice, baby-sized quilt using this tutorial.

So I stitched up all I had.  And wouldn't you know it?  Not big enough!  But, my local quilt shop was (and still is!) having a great sale on many of the same fabrics.  So off I went and bought a few more quarter yard cuts.  (Can you believe I left the quilt shop having spent only $8?!  That's some serious restraint, people.)

I also dug into the stack of the few FQ Kona solids that I own.  And I found that some of those hues go just swimmingly with this line.  Hence the reason that I love this quilt so much.  I think that the use of solids increases the vintage look of this line.

I still cannot get over some of these sweet scenes!  The picnic scene above, and then below, the mama bee is knitting with baby bee tucked into a basket (under a quilt!) right next to her.  Don't miss that, folks!

I did not set out to make this quilt for anyone in particular.  The fabric had just sat there long enough and started calling to me again.  (Strange, I know.)

But as I was stitching it up, and it developed this increasingly vintage look with the addition of the solids, it became clear to me that this would be for our friend, Dr. Katie.

Dr. Katie is one of the first doctors that we met at Duke.  She was on rotation as a resident for the inpatient hem/onc hall while Charlotte had a miserable, three-week stay there in late 2011.  I could tell you quite a bit about why I adore her and how we hit it off.  But I'm going to keep it short and sweet by saying that as a doctor, she is both competent and compassionate.  She also has that wonderful trait where I knew from the first time we met that as she was considering treatment plans for my child, she was thinking of her own.  I always knew that she was treating Charlotte as though she were her own child, always giving her the best care.

Dr. Katie just recently had her first baby girl.  I did not know that I was going to make her a quilt; I had not really planned on it.  But as this quilt came together, it just had to be for her.  Dr. Katie strikes me as the kind of lady who loves vintage things and would appreciate a not-bubble-gum-pink or girly-girl sort of gift.  I hope she likes that this is definitely a little girl quilt, but not in the pretty, pretty, pink princess sort of way.

When I touched base with Dr. Katie last week to ask after her and the baby, she told me that they are doing well.  The baby's name is "Nova Rose."  Really?  A vintage Briar Rose quilt for Miss Nova Rose?  I'm not sure it could be more perfect if I'd planned it!  I am about to ship it out to her, so here's crossing my fingers she finds it to be as perfect as I do.

P.S.  I did the backing in the lavender strawberries.  I love it.  Wish I had bought more...


(Linking up to Fabric Tuesday, NTT, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Crazy Mom Quilts.)

A Posy Sixteen-Patch

First off: Sorry, but these pictures stink.  I guess that's what we get when I try to spend more time with the fam these days.  ;)

In any case, here's a sweet little baby quilt that I made for my dear friend, Sarah.  Well, I guess I really made it for her new baby, Anne Margaret.  "New" is a relative term, of course; I think that the quilt squeaked in just under the wire for Baby's six-month birthday.  

Anyhow, no more quilt guilt, right?!

I just love these fabrics.  It is the "Posy" line by Aneela Hoey, and oh my - it took me over a year to cut into them, I do believe.

When these fabrics are all sitting in a stack, they just don't seem to go together.  Something about the coral color with a light pink and bright pink and the lavender then a mint green?  But somehow, when it's all stitched up, well... it works!



I think it's all so sweet and innocent and vintage-looking.

I particularly love the girls reading books.  Sarah was an English major in college, so I was hoping she'd dig this.

The backing is a whole cloth of those little girls reading.

This girl is reading a book titled, "The Big Book of Adventures for Girls."  I love that!

And what could this one be doing?  Journaling?  Doodling?  Writing her first novel???

And we have some bunnies and hens, too.  Love them.  And Elyse's half-polished finger.  Hey, she's a good sport to always help with my quilt photography.  :)

This was short and sweet because I'm in the middle of stitching up another baby quilt top!  Hopefully, you'll see pictures of that one soon, too!

(Linking up with Quilt Story, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Crazy Mom Quilts.)

This and That

Just a short post today in the form and tradition of a public service announcement.

First:  Since this blog was started as a way to use quilting to raise money for a worthy cause, I like to spread the love and every now and then help promote other quilty fundraising.  So, you just might want to consider helping fund this sweet couple's adoption.  Doing it out of the goodness of your heart would be great, but there are beautiful quilts being offered as extra incentive!

Quilts for Sarah's giveaway.  (Her pictures.)

The short version: Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict is hosting a Christmas in July Giveaway.  Her daughter is adopting a special needs child, and they are trying to raise the funds to complete the adoption and bring him home.  This is such a sweet story, and you can read more about the adoption, and the quilt giveaway here. (The giveaway ends tonight at 5 p.m. CST, so hurry!) A mere $5 will earn you an entry!


Second:  Have you heard about the Palette Builder over at Play Crafts?  I might be just a tad late to jump on the train, but this is so neat!  Of course, I've seen palette builders that can be used to find paint colors, but Kona Cottons?  You just upload your pretty picture, then it matches Kona Cottons for you to be able to quilt your gorgeous palette in real life.  Don't like a color?  Delete it from the mix, and they'll add another!

What I really like about this is the potential to find Kona Cottons from a print that you have not yet purchased.  Or, to pick up some solids after a purchase.  Because you know, I'm always forgetting the solids!

Click on over and have fun! And go ahead and thank me for your latest internet distraction.  

(Linking up with Jennie at Porch Swing Quilts.)  

Quilt Guilt

-quilt guilt.

 noun; that feeling one has when one should be working on this quilt or that quilt, but instead, one buys more fabric, starts three new projects (some not due for another four months) and generally procrastinates.*

Anyone hear me on this?  Half of my family (the husband and two older kiddos) went out of town for the Fourth of July holiday, and what did I work on?  Only five different projects!

1.  First up, I finally got around to cutting my Posy stash into 2.5 inch strips for a 16-patch baby quilt.  Now, this is what I'm really supposed to be working on.  For heaven's sake, this is for a baby who is at least 4 months old now!

2.  But after I cut that, I read this sad post and wanted to help make a quilt for Aneela, the talented lady who designed the fabric above.  So I grabbed some of that Posy to make two blocks from me, and then went to the charm packs of Sherbert Pips that Anne recently gave to me (sweet friend!) and made two blocks from her.  (She just moved.  She's at the beach, but her stuff is in storage, and I have no idea where her fabric ended up!)

3.  After making these blocks, I just couldn't put that sweet fabric down!  So here is where my sewing seriously digressed.  Instead of finishing up the above-mentioned baby quilt, I sat down and sewed a disappearing nine-patch with some Kona Ash sashing for my daughter, Marian's, 2nd birthday, which, I hesitate to mention, is not until November.  

(It's a bad picture; and I've since added another border.)

4.  In the picture below, you can see some blocks to the right of the Posy basket, yes?  This was the next thing I got distracted by.  Charlotte's first oncologist, Dr. Amy, is having a baby boy soon.  When we left Arizona, I desperately wanted to give her a thoughtful gift.  But I was only sewing crayon rolls at the time, and did not think that would be very useful for ordering chemo or writing up scripts of zofran.  But now she's expecting a baby boy!  I could not be more thrilled.  So I took some leftover blocks from Matthew's quilt, have made a few extra, completed the layout and now it's ready for sashing and for completing the quilt top.

5.  I then received this bundle of gorgeous "Mirabelle" fabrics (and other goodies!) in the mail from Cyndy.  I won her giveaway - hooray!  The sweet thing about this is that I've wanted this fabric but did not have a "real" reason for buying it other than a bit of nostalgia. You see, my fourth child, Marian, was born months before this fabric was released.  And the crazy thing is, she was "Mirabelle" in the womb for at least six months!  Really: even the cake at the baby shower had "Welcome, Baby Mirabelle" on it.  But about two weeks before she was born, my husband and I both confessed that we just did not feel right about the name.  It just did not seem to go well with "Elyse, Henry, Charlotte, and... Mirabelle?"   It was not until two hours after she was born that we settled on "Marian" as her name.  Crazy, eh?  So back to my quilt guilt distraction: I've been generally dreaming about what to make with this pretty bundle.  (Thanks, Cyndy!)

6. Then there was a sale on shipping over at Sew Me a Song and wow, I'm just a sucker.  I had to get this "Itsy Bitsy Spider" fabric (by Heather Ross) for my sweet Charlotte, because she just loves that song and the poor dear did not get a quilt for her last birthday.  But after cutting everything up into charm squares, I decided that I don't want to do another disappearing nine-patch, after I got it out of my system with the one that I showed you above.  So now what to do?!  I'm really crazy about the Rocky Mountain puzzle block and am thinking of this (check out Erica's version here: I'm just a tad obsessed), but then I'd have to re-cut my fabric and there'd be quite a bit of waste.  Or there's this quilt-along.  Well, any suggestions for charm squares, some of which I definitely want to highlight the fussy-cutting?

7. Last but not least, I pulled out the lavender color way of the Briar Rose layer cake that I had left over after making this quilt.  I paired them with solids, followed this tutorial, and wow - I am loving this baby quilt!  Again, such distraction because I did not have a recipient in mind.  But after adding those solids and seeing how they definitely increase the vintage feel of this fabric, I have the perfect person in mind.  Or... her baby, rather.  :)  (And that design wall...  Where have you been all my life?  It's small, but it's sweet.  I'm so grateful to have a permanent little sewing space in our new home.)

Did I say that I got distracted and was working on "five" things?  I just counted seven, so it must have been an understatement.  Sigh...  I am happy to say, that those 2.5 inch Posy strips in the first picture have been nicely ordered and stitched into a quilt, and I'm now working on the last step: hand-stitching the binding.  And I made a list this morning of future quilts and the order in which I should work on them.  But will I stick with it?  Probably not!

Question: does this happen to you, or am I the only one who is so scatter-brained in my sewing projects?  Any remedy for sticking with the task at hand and just getting it done?  Especially baby quilts for babies nearing their six-month birthday?...

(Linking up with Lee for WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, Kelly with NTT, and at Fabric Tuesday.)


*I did a little google search for "quilt guilt" and came up with nothing.  If I'm plagiarizing something or someone somewhere, do please let me know.