A pillow or two

Back when we were collecting ornaments for the tree, several folks weren't confident in their finishing techniques and asked me to finish them for them.
Terry sent me several of these. Two were the Lizzie Kate, Peace, Love and a Cure pieces. I instantly knew these would make great pillows rather than ornaments and after talking to Terry and getting her permission this is what I did.
I have a wonderful pillow maker, Bev, whose name is kyla1dog on Ebay. She has made several pillows for me and she is top notch. I don't sew, and she has been a lifesaver many times.
So I sent the fabric that Terry included and the two stitched pieces. Bev made them into pillows.
Here is a picture of one of them.

I am going to sell raffle tickets for the pillow. I think it will do well.
Terry also sent me a stitched "Never ending cup of hope for a cure" (pattern is on the right side of my blog). I am going to make a box that will hold tea bags and put her stitched piece on the top of that. We will auction this off at one of the team captain meetings and I am willing to bet we can get about $20 or $25 for it. You would be surprised at how much you get off of the silent auctions at team captains meetings.
Thank you too all. We are stitching for a cure!

A quilt square from a friend

Jeanine, whom you may remember made many of the ornaments for the RFL Christmas tree, graciously agreed to make a quilt square.
She did the green one, which represents kidney cancer. My picture doesn't do the color justice. It is more vivid in real life.
I lost a dear friend, Charlie, to kidney cancer. I spoke about Charlie and kidney cancer in a previous post. To this day, I see the green ribbon and I instantly think of him. He was such a kind man and so giving.
Sometimes I worry that I have become obsessed with this project. Obsessed with helping to find a cure. Am I talking about the project too much? Am I thinking about the various RFLs and how much money we can raise for cancer patients?
The answer is yes. But then I think of Charlie, and of MaKenzie and Justin and Kim and Logan and on and on. I don't want to lose another person in my life to this disease.
And so I am obsessed. But in a good way.
Thank you so much Jeanine for your beautiful square. This quilt is going to be stunning and will raise lots of money.
And thank you to all of you out there, who are stitching for a cure or simply reading and passing along what we are doing here. We are making a difference!

1 down, 23 to go

I have finished a quilt block! Hooray! Mostly hooray because I have not been in much of a stitching mood here lately.
We are working on the quilt for the Killeen, TX Relay For Life. But just a little after that is the Waco, TX Relay For Life and we will need another quilt.
I haven't put that request out on the blog yet because I know stitchers are trying to finish up their Christmas stitching and I didn't want to ask too much right now.
But we are going to need another 11 squares in the ribbon colors. I have someone working on the middle square right now and I will be starting one of the smaller squares today. So hopefully over the next few weeks I can get several done myself.
Here is the teal square I finished. It was made in honor of one of my directors' mother who died of ovarian cancer.

Hopefully all you who are stitching on quilt blocks are not having too many visits from the frogs. I had a meeting with the queen frog and explained to her the rule that no frogs are allowed to visit a stitcher working on a charity project. She agreed, but had a twinkle in her eye, so who knows what that means. Let me know if I need to speak with her again!

Go Purple in November

November is pancreatic cancer awareness month. Purple is the color ribbon for pancreatic awareness.
I encourage you to go to the site below and check out ways you can help!
http://www.pancan.org/section_get_involved/pancan_awareness_month
Let's put an end to this terrible disease. Go purple this November!

New Yahoo Group

Hello all! Our quilter for our new project, Halina, has a new Yahoo group. You might want to check it out and possibly consider joining the group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltsForCancer
Right now she and I are the only members, but it will grow I sure. Halina has been a part of the Yahoo group, Quilts for Breast Cancer and has put together many of the quilts for them.
On this new group, we can chat and do updates on the quilt squares and it will be another way to get out the message about what we are doing!
Thanks to Halina and all of you for what you are doing to make a difference!

Update on Trees

With the new project up and running I realized I hadn't given an update on the trees. We have made $1100 so far with the trees. I think we will start seeing a little more money coming in closer to Thanksgiving when people really start thinking of Christmas.
It is quite a bit less than the $5000 I would have liked to have made off the trees but still think how far that money can go toward helping cancer patients. How much gas can it buy for the Road to Recovery, a program that helps cancer patients get to their treatments. How many wigs and cosmetics can it buy to help with the Look Good, Feel Better program? That helps cancer patients undergoing chemo and radiation to have licensed hairdressers and make up artists to show them how to look their best while dealing with the problems of chemo and radiation. How many cups of coffee will that buy for the support groups that ACS has to help folks while going through the fight of their life?
The answer too all of these questions is: More than they had before we started this project! And that my friends is a good answer.
We raffled off the small pink & white tree. The winner was a cancer survivor who is very active in cancer prevention in our area. She donated the tree to our local ACS office. So the tree not only made money for ACS, it will help bring a smile to those fighting the fight and those helping to fight the fight.
Thanks again to all. We are raffling off the big tree on Thanksgiving. I will let you know then our total numbers!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a quilter!

One of my worries when I decided to do this quilt was that I did not sew or quilt.
I felt I could find stitchers to make the squares but I wasn't 100% sure I could find a quilter that would be willing to take on this project.
Silly me, I don't know why I worried about this. As with everything we have accomplished, the saying "if you build it, they will come" has been true.
So I am happy to announce that we have a quilter. Halina Miller from my Yahoo group, Quilts for breast cancer, has graciously agreed to do the quilting for us! Whew! Isn't that just fantastic?
The last two squares have now been taken as of 4:45 pm CST on 11/04:
Pink DMC 601 & 603 For Breast Cancer (TAKEN BY PIKE ON 11/04)
Brown DMC 433 & 436 For Colon Cancer (TAKEN BY RIONA ON 11/04)
They are done on 28 count Lugana with DMC. I will provide the fabric and the thread.
Thanks again so much for everything and THANK YOU HALINA!

Update on Quilt Needs (updated again)

I have had a GREAT response to the need for quilt squares since Friday. Please read the post before this one for details!
Here are the squares that are left that need to be done. As of 9:45 pm CST on 11/02 we just need 2 more stitchers (I do have the other two listed below that still need stitchers for the pillows)
Pink DMC 601 & 603 For Breast Cancer (need one)
Green DMC 699 & 701 For Kidney Cancer (TAKEN ON 11/02 by Jeanine)
Brown DMC 433 & 436 For Colon Cancer
Lavender DMC 210 & 208 For General Cancer Awareness (BOTH TAKEN ON 11/02 by Carolyn)
We need 1 middle piece with the Gloria & Pat Design, "What Cancer Cannot Do". (TAKEN ON 11/02 by Janet)
I am also needing someone to stitch two more of the G&P WCCD pieces that will be made into throw pillows for the other 2 Relays in the spring.
The larger piece will be stitched on 28 count evenweave Cream Lugana and will have 2 shades of pink, 1 shade of purple, and 2 shades of green DMC (again, I will supply the DMC and the Lugana).
And if you are a quilter or know of a quilter that would like to put this 26x26 quilt together let me know.
As I mentioned below I will be supplying the fabric and thread for all squares. I need them in my hot little hands by Feb. 1 so please don't take a square if you don't think you can do it by then.
E-mail me at stitchingforacure@yahoo.com if you want a square and give me your mailing address.
And thanks to all!