Hot Pink Chevrons and Baby Girls, They Go Together

     My close friend's daughter is having her first baby and it's a girl. She chose hot pink chevrons with purple accents for her nursery. Since I had Riley Blake Hot Pink Chevron in stock, I imagined 60's style flowers appliqued from a cute purple floral print. When I went shopping I couldn't find anything I had imagined. I did, however, find all the Michael Miller and Moda Dots pictured below and bought  them in 1/4 yards or fat quarters.

     I used the freezer paper method to make the flower applique then used the applique stitch on my machine. It was the first time I'd appliqued with the machine so I practiced first. It get easier the more you do and by the time I finished all 10 flowers I felt like an old pro.

     I used the lightest weight polyester batting and spray glued the layers together. Then I quilted just the top of every other chevron. When I finished hte quilting I showed The Engineer and his comment was that it didn't look complete with every other chevron being quilted, back to the machine, I quilted every chevron. He was right, it looked finished. I lengthened my stitch from a 2.5 to a 4, I think a little longer stitch looks better. 

     Here's the happy mom with her finished quilt. I forgot to show a picture of the backing, it's light purple minky with little swirls that look like flowers.  I was worried about the hot pink thread I used to quilt with, thinking it would stand out too much on the back. The minkie swallowed it but you can still see a slight chevron pattern on the back.  

    

The baby shower was fun, good friends and food were plentiful in Barbara's beautiful yard. 

I have to share with you the adorable baby buggy fruit bowl she made, 

have you ever seen anything so cute?!?!

FINALLY! But It's Worth It.

I have to say I can't recommend chemotherapy, it's not fun at all. Yeah! I'm done. However, I have been slow to start much of anything plus I don't have much energy. Now that I'm done there is this kind of lost feeling, like what do I do now? I was consumed with cancer, then chemo treatments and doctor appointments have defined my life since last July. I can't explain it other than it's sort of like Stockholm Syndrome. But on to brighter things...I FINALLY found the gumption to finish my nieces quilt. It's been with me the entire cancer journey as this is one of the two quilts I pieced the week I found I had cancer.

Since this has been such a long time coming I proudly (and with a lot of relief) post these pictures!

I'm really a beginner on the long arm and have never undertaken quite an aggressive design before, all of my own design. I did four different block patterns in each row and changed them up each row so no alike blocks were together. Then I tried a loopy wave pattern in the dark sashing with hot pink thread. What was I thinking?!?! Well, for better or worse, here it is.

Be kind with your thoughts here, I free handed this and I know it wouldn't win an award. But I do think the pink thread really makes the quilt. 

The picture above shows the true colors, it's a vibrant quilt. I thought the stitching on the black back looked really cool. I made one block too small by mistake and used it to make the back interesting. 

Here's proof in the pudding. My sweet niece Becky loving her quilt! Her smile makes it all worth while. 

WE HAVE A WINNER!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Awyna B

You are now the proud owner of these three pink fat quarters.

I'll be emailing you to get your address and they will ship tomorrow. 

To all, keep your eyes on my website, I'm putting some charms on sale. 

NO MORE CHEMO!

Monday the 24th was my last day of chemotherapy! Shout Hooray with me!
I've lost my eyebrows, the lashes are going, I'm sad. After I read several cancer blogs and realized it could take almost 2 years for the brows to come back in, I was even more sad. The Engineer told me to shop for someone who does good work because he's taking me to get permanent eyebrows and eyeliner!! What a guy! He batted it out of the park with that one! My energy is low, the doctors say it will be about 90 days before I'm feeling all my juice again, I can wait. A few have asked...Yes, I'm starting reconstruction in January of 2015.

I'm wanting to build followers on my facebook page and to celebrate my chemotherapy being over, I'm giving away 3 pink fat quarters! Pink because it's breast cancers color.

Sign in with the Raffle Copter link below, enter your information, then like and follow my facebook page to win the fat quarters!  (If you already have LIKED my page you can still enter to win) To win extra entries leave the first name of someone who has been touched by cancer in  the comments below this post. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quilt Raffle!!!

This morning when arrived for my treatment I was greeted by this beautiful raffle quilt in hanging in the lobby. The funds go the patient assistance fund. The lighting isn't the best, but I inspected it closely and it's well made and quilted. If I haven't mentioned yet, I'm a Batik Freak! I bought 15 tickets and would love to have this quilt in my quilt stash! Send your winning thoughts my way and I'll accept every one!

Thank you Barbara Henderson, I don't know you but I but I suspect your life has been touched by cancer. 

I snapped some pictures so I could share the quilt and a lady who was waiting for her appointment simply said, "Quilter?" To which I said, "yes!"
I found a new friend :) She was finished with a year and a half of three different rounds of chemo and was in for a 6 month check up.  Again, I realized how lucky I am to only have experienced my small cancer story compared to hers.  I didn't get her name but when when she told me that she had just started quilting to have something to do while she was recovering our kindred spirits melded together. The conversation got exciting as we spoke in our new common language. I told her about my store and blog, she took my card. I didn't get her name, but I know she'll look and read this blog one day. I wish her a long happy cancer free life!

She has a beautiful head of hair, I'm excited for that day to come for me. My eyebrows are just  about gone and I have a little bit of down like white stuff on my head. Plus the eyelashes are starting to thin. My mom was upset to see my new look. I'm hoping it doesn't upset you, this me me with out a wig and make up.

Chemo Versus Quilting

Chemotherapy temporarily is pulling ahead of my quilting. But I see light at the end of the tunnel and it's not going to win! I should have posted long ago but just haven't felt like it. My son said to me, "Mom, you have to realize that you can't go 150 mph any more. You will just have to be satisfied at 80 mph."

I've been having treatments since November, they haven't been the easiest task I've taken on. Though I've lost a ton of energy and desire to be active I've actually had an easy time with the treatments. The nurses and doctors say it's because of my good attitude. I've heard from so many of you about your trials and am continually thankful for mine.

Again, I'm always amazed on how much of my energy has been zapped. For instance it took over two weeks to get the Christmas tree up and when I decided it was done 2/3s of the ornaments were still in the box, It was December 21st and I was satisfied. (That is SO not me!) With out chemo I would have had the tree up and the house decorated the day after Thanksgiving.

I think about quilting, mostly its when I walk past the quilting room and wish I felt better. My thoughts are full of projects I imagine getting done but the reality is they are just thoughts. However two of those thoughts have turned into projects and one is finished. I started this quilt before I was diagnosed so all I had to do was finish it. I attached the binding and worked the quilting threads in. The best part, I had a finished quilt I could give to my friends baby. I rolled it up in a polka dot ribbon, how cute! She and her family loved the baby quilt.

For those who've been to my website you will notice it's made with the classic black n white charms. Really, it's the 2 inch strips left from when I cut the charms, I just couldn't throw them out. I added a 2.5 inch strip of pink ombre to make each strip of three a square then did the lay out in a split rail pattern.
And yes, it's the quilt top I'm sewing in my picture on the blog. I told you it was a UFO.

I know there's a ton of you out there who purchased my Classic Black n White Charms in January. I have pink, aqua and green ombre in stock along with the coordinating polka dot ombre if you wanted to copy this quilt. Simply click on the "chick" to go shopping on my website.