Happy New Year!

Read the fine print.

I busted my butt to get these quilts finished so they could be delivered by Christmas, only to find out they cannot accept them unless laundered. So, now it is two days after Christmas, I'm snowed in and I have them freshly washed. They do always look better once they have been washed anyway, and they saw them and know they are coming. Once the roads are clear, they will go back to Bridgeport. I think they look amazing.

"Free Tree".

I was so busy with work and quilting this holiday season, I actually threatened not to put a real tree up. After all the kids are in their 20's, and Tim tends to mutter bah humbug from Thanksgiving until New Years Day. Somehow this threat even threw him for a loop!My husband spray painted a dead trees branch silver and he decorated that with silver and gold ornaments.
The kids were still not satisfied. Too minimalist.
It just so happened that Jack, my son, found a tree on the side of the road with a "Free Tree" sign. He threw it ( along with the sign in case I doubted the origins of said tree) into the back of the pick up and brought it home... and so we have a tree after all, and a beautiful one at that!
Before I could deliver the quilts today we had to have our traditional Christmas morning, eating a big breakfast and opening gifts under the tree. My old Mexican circle skirt no longer fits me, but made a great tree skirt instead.
Now that all of that is done, I will try to get a well stuffed husband off the couch to photograph the quilts for the blog. Good luck with that!
Here's wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone, and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Merry Christmas, babies...

And so, the 100 Quilts for Christmas Challenge has been a huge success. By Kate's account, over 120 quilts were donated to shelters for babies and children around the country- and that's not including the 7 we made at Musical Squares Night! The tops are done, thanks to family (including my daughter, husband, niece and nephew!), friends, friends of friends and neighbors.Even star designer- and dear friend- Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom fabrics came to sew! What an honor.
Some of these folks had not sat behind a sewing machine since middle school home ec class, and some like my husband Tim,(in hat) and his friend (award winning musician) Chris Brown had never sewn before. I cut the fabric ahead of time so that part was done. I had different bags filled with fabric for different quilts just waiting to be sewn together and thrown on the design wall for completion. There were also 3 quilts constructed of squares made by my friend James Bosco (fashion Editor at Vogue and Butterick Patterns) and his colleagues Pam Brooks and Laurie Jackson- Murray. They were so beautifully made- maybe I should take a few lessons from them!
It was a mad dash to get these done with wine and cheese and really great music- I can't wait to do it again in February for Valentines Day, and in the Spring with Denyse Schmidt and her Greenfield Hill Collection.
I go off to quilt and bind on Tuesday, so check back before Christmas eve to see them all finished, and before they go to find a place with a child at The Bridgeport Center for Women and Families.
Special thanks to Mark at Trackside Teen Center for letting us use their "Big Room" and for Brett's help preparing for the musical event! Looks like we will be coming back!

It's beginning to feel a lot like "100 Quilts for Christmas", everywhere you go!

This concept of "100 Quilts for Christmas" has really inspired me! We will have our very first Musical Squares event tomorrow night, where we will make up as many quilt tops as possible. Plus, I have friends who have been sending quilt squares and tops for me to finish... oh, me thinks me has created a monster! I may be quilting right up until Christmas Eve! My dear friend, James Bosco (pictured with me last Christmas), who is creative director at McCalls patterns has sent his own quilt, 4 more random blocks, and has the entire McCalls Pattern company mailing in a stack of squares they have been working on during their lunch hours!
I also have received support from Sis Boom's own Jennifer Paganelli, who has donated scraps for the quilts, backs, and take home fat quarters from her most recent lines!
I had invited Denyse Schmidt (also a local CT resident) but she can't make it. However, she has offered to host a Musical Squares event in the spring, using her Greenfield Hill collection.... The generosity is mind boggling! This is the Christmas Spirt like I have never experienced it before.
Thank you to Janice Roy of Little Red Quilt House, who is always so generous and lets me use her long arm whenever I need to. To Helen Bergner, a fabulous and prolific quilter in her own right, who houses the Gammil machine and is always showing me new block techniques and tricks!
A huge "thank you " loaded with hugs and kisses to my dear friend James and the worker bees at McCalls.
And thank you, Kate and Aunt Spicy and your blog friends for creating such a beautiful project to be a part of. I am honored and filled with love and joy as a result.

Pink Elephants on Parade.

This quilt for the "100 Quilts for Christmas" is a whole cloth quilt. It has vintage pink elephants on swings on one side and a mod animal flannel on the back. It's trimmed with hot pink vintage fringe.
Okay, that brings my total to 4 quilts. Next week I hope to get a group of people together to join in the festive spirit of the holiday to have a quilting bee of sorts. Wine, tapas, Brazilian Jazz and a few dozen sewing machines... could be dangerous- but all for a good cause. I already have people signing up and I promise NO SEWING EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! I will guide you (as little as possible) in the process we will make as many squares as we can that will then be quilted up and donated to The Center For Women and Families in Bridgeport, CT. .
If you can't make it and want to send a 12'' square, we will find it a home. Just email me for details.

Got Quilt?

Here is another baby quilt top about to be quilted and bound this Wednesday for the "100 Quilts For Christmas" project. To accelerate quilt production I am organizing a quilting event here in Wilton, CT next Wednesday night, December 15th from 6-9, p.m..
Come and play "Musical Squares"- no quilting or sewing experience necessary. It is an exercise in quilting that requires you to let go of any aesthetic agendas and work as a team for a good cause. After we have created enough blocks, I will put them together quilt, and deliver them.
The baby quilts will be delivered to The Center For Women and Families in Bridgeport, CT.
We will have wine and tapas for the taking, plus great music (thanks to DJ Tim "Brazil Fest" Geaney) to quilt by. Everyone is welcome, but you need to let me know if you are coming so that I can be prepared.
A $5.00 fee will cover batting and quilting expenses.