More Hospice Bears. . . .

Here are some pictures of the latest Hospice Bears I have completed.

Something Pink........

You all know that I am passionate about Breast Cancer Awareness because of my mom's battle with this disease. After mom's diagnosis, I purchased a breast cancer awareness braclet and wore it every day, day and night. I decided that I wanted something more permanent, so I searched and searched for the right design and finally found it! So, on June 14th, I got a tattoo! It's on my right leg, just above the ankle.



The pink ribbon is of course for Breast Cancer Awareness, and if you look closely, you will see a black ribbon behind the pink one.......that is in memory of my mom. The scroll work signifies the need to keep spreading awareness, and additionally, for me, the fact that life continues even after the loss of a loved one.



Thanks to Jerry at Atomic Tattoo in Wintersville, Ohio for his wonderful work. And thanks to Mike, for recommending Jerry!

Hello Again!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Things are busy with work-----we have a June 30th year end----and home. I had some damage to my home just after Thanksgiving last year and it is now completely fixed.......new roof and new plaster inside! Yeah! So I was not getting much quilting done----but now I have regained my bedroom and turned the spare bedroom into my sewing room. I still need to do some organizing.....but will do that as I get back into quilting and arrange as I go.

I have been going to alot of my cousin's Babe Ruth Baseball games.......he just won the 14-year old regional division on Sunday and is going to the State Championships in two weeks. The first picture is of my cousin, Mike playing 1st base.......

This is the team photo:

Team members include front row from left to right Tyler Foster, Tyler Shifflett, Brennan Dettinger, Houston Schuler, JD Brown, Justin Chenoweth and Tyler Bedford.

Second row: Coach Junior Phillips, Coach Adam Shaffer, Ryan Bonnell, Caten Murphy, Mike Phillips, Corey Howell, Riley Lloyd, Scott Fox, Manager Chris Broughton and Scorekeeper Marshall Lloyd

On Saturday, I got the two quilts back that I sent to the quilter in May! They are beautiful. I only have a few photos of the block of the month quilt taken-------I attached the binding and it is ready to hand sew down-----that's why all of the clips are there! I will put up a picture of the other quilt soon!

And finally, a picture of the back:

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I bought this Chinese Tree Peony for a Mother's Day gift for my mom several years ago. It has always bloomed for Mother's Day......... except last year........my first Mother's Day without her. I was so worried that it wouldn't bloom again, but this year it is beautiful. Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Here's a closeup of the bloom........they are huge!!

Off to the Quilter...........

Here are two quilts that I am taking to the longarm quilter tomorrow. This will be my first time taking quilts to someone else to quilt. I will post pictures of them when I get them back......I hope I can take them outside so that the pictures are better.

The first quilt is a Marti Michell Block of the Month, entitled Hidden Stars.

The second quilt is an Atkinson Designs pattern, Tic Tac Mo. I enlarged the pattern by adding more block to make it full sized. I used Thimbleberries fabrics for the blocks. My mom picked out the fabric for the background setting triangles and the borders.

Bereavement Bears

I am including some pictures of Bereavement Bears I have been making. During my mother's illness, we were fortunate enough to have the services of Mountain Hospice. They were wonderful, caring individuals, who did the work of angels-----this year I received a letter asking for volunteers. I really wasn't ready for in-home volunteering and called to let them know that. As I spoke with the Volunteer Coordinator, Tia, I found different ways that I could help out....... and the one I decided on was making Bereavement Bears.

They had wanted to start this program earlier, but had no volunteers who could sew.......well here I am! The idea is simple, after a patient passes, hospice offers to have a bereavement bear made from a special piece of the patient's clothing for the family to remember their loved one. I hope in a small way, I can help these families with the grief they are feeling.

So, if you have some time, check out your local hospice agency and ask if you can donate your talents to help them out!

West Virginia Race for the Cure

Well, 3 miles later here we are at the Charleston WV Capitol Building.

Left to Right, Sandi, Angie and me!

It was a great day and over $120,000 was raised for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation!

The event had even painted Pink Ribbons along the course which ran up and down a section of Kanawha Boulevard.



After some Retail Therapy, we came back to Elkins, WV and I caught up with my cousin, Chelsey P for her prom. Here she is in her dress, getting ready to go in for dinner before the Prom.

Too Many Quilts, Sew Little Time.......

Well, I am back.........taking a moment out from the busy week to check in. I have been doing everything BUT QUILTING!!! My cousin's daughter Chelsey P is getting ready to go to her Junior High School Prom and I have been altering/adjusting her prom gown. I will post a picture when I am finished. She will look beautiful!

This week is a busy week as well........with work, a college class and a dinner meeting on Monday, a swimming class, on Tuesday, Wednesday holds a couple of baseball games (another cousin, Mike P.) and maybe a t-ball game (yet another cousin, Hannah P.), Thursday is the local quilt guild meeting, and Friday I am going to our state Capitol in Charleston, WV for the 2008 Susan G. Komen West Virginia Race for the Cure on Saturday morning.

I participated in this walk last year in memory of my mom, Brenda Riffle. I walk to honor her memory and the fight she waged, in hopes that someday soon we can find an end to Breast Cancer. I am attaching a few pictures from last year's race and will post more next weekend.

Spring...........

Well, today is a beautiful day. Saturday (April 5th) was the warmest yet.......I actually got a bit too much sun attending a cousin's baseball game in the afternoon and turned a bright shade of red. Oh well......next time I will remember to take sunscreen. Sunday and Monday were cold and dreary, I think winter's last hurrah before Spring finally stays for good.

This is a picture of the Magnolia tree in my front yard.......it is a special treat when it blooms..........as I live so far north the frost usually gets the blooms. Not only is it pretty, it smells good, too!!!

I am working on my challenge project for my local quilt guild, The Log Cabin Quilters Guild. The requirement was to make something inspired by a literary work, favorite poem, etc. My small wall hanging is a stained glass pattern from a local quilter, Fran K, entitled "West Virginia Mountains". I did four patterns, one for each of the seasons, and my inspiration is from the Bible verse Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

To every thing there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to get, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to rend, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time of war, and a time of peace.

New Wallhanging for Spring

I finally finished sewing on the sleve on this wallhanging so that it can go up in my office. I started it way back in the 90's.........It is a Country Threads pattern and my favorite flower (tulips)! I think it looks spring-y!

I was in my sewing room last night and came accross Shar's quilting templates for miniature grandmother's fan, dresden plate and tumbler quilts. So I decided to make a block to see how it would turn out. I am using a packet of 5 inch charm squares that I picked up at a quilt show last year in Bridgeport, WV. Right now the block is 7", but should be cut down to 6 1/2" unfinished. Here's what my block looks like:

Hello again. First a little more about me. I started quilting in 1994. My mom had been quilting since 1978, when our neighbor brought mom some templates and scraps to make a Grandmother's Fan quilt. The neighbor thought mom needed something to do. Ha ha ha! Mom made that quilt and Dad helped her by using a Carpenters Square (metal) to cut the background squares out that the fans were appliqued onto. My haven't we come a long way since then!

Then mom got me into quilting. She had taken some classes at our local quilt store, The Elkins Sewing Center and I decided that I wanted to make a Lone Star Quilt from a Georgia Bonesteel book. Well, I made it. It was all 100% polyester, solid colors. I still have that top........needless to say it isn't quilted yet...........still in a stack of UFO's. Someday I will finish it.

Well, Mom and I quilted, joined several Guilds and went to alot of quilt shows. We had our machines set up in our sewing room side by side and we each added to a combined stash. We were known as the Riffle's----a fab mother-daughter quilt team. We had no project that the other hadn't helped with or sewn on.

In February 2005, she found a lump in her right breast which turned out to be breast cancer. Mom fought a brave battle and we thought we were beating the Cancer Beast, but she lost her batter on October 5, 2006. So Breast Cancer Awareness is dear to my heart. I have made a few projects to honor her and raise awareness that I will post picutres of soon..........since this is the beginnng of my blog. Remember ladies, get those mammograms!!!!!!!!

So, needless to say, it took awhile to get back to the sewing/quilting of it all. Everywhere I turned there were memories. Mom was bad to stash fabric in books for projects she wanted to make someday. Also we have alot of UFO's to finish........and I found her notes on how she wanted to finish them. But now, this is all comforting and I feel closer to her when I am sewing.

That said, I am now finishing up alot of the projects that we worked on together that have been in the UFO stack and it is so much fun finishing the projects and remembering what we were doing when we started them, where we got the fabrics, etc.

Our local Guild President JJ, of the Log Cabin Quilters Guild issued a challenge in our January 2008 newsletter to finish up one UFO a month this year. Well so far so good. Here is one of them. It is a Rose of Sharon block that my mom took in a class from a local teacher Fran K on March 25, 1996!!!! Well I finished the quilting and bound it on April 4, 2008! So it's never too later to finish..........this one only took 12 years!!! Ha ha ha!

In the Beginning................

Well, this is my first entry in my new blog. I hope that it will be as fun for you as for me.