The new quilt is in!

I received the new quilt for the Waco Relay For Life today. I start selling raffle tickets for it at our Relay Kick-Off on Monday!
These are lousy pictures, but here is the front and back of the quilt. The editor on my Photosnap is not working correctly now.


Thanks again to all the stitchers who worked on this project and esp. to our quilter, Halina who did the quilting on both!
I will keep you updated on how much we raise with these quilts!

Off to the quilter they do go!

I received 4 squares in the past few days. So we are now ready to go off to the quilter tomorrow! Woo hoo!
I received this square from Marian. Blue is the color of colorectal cancer. She did a lovely job on it!

I received two lavender squares from Carolyn. Lavender is the color for general cancer awareness.

And I received this pink square from Cathy. Again, another lovely square!
This is why Cathy said she stitched this square:
"My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, father-in-law and grandfather have all battled various forms of cancer. I also have several friends and coworkers who have also.
I chose to stitch the breast cancer square for my sister-in-law (Dana) and a lady who's very active in our church and the chairperson of the board I'm on (Pat). Both are currently "cancer free". Besides 603 is my favorite DMC color.
Thanks for allowing me to help with this project.
Cathy"

So with that, this quilt can be "put to bed". I am sending it off to the quilter tomorrow.
We are still working on our other quilt. I am in need of a green, yellow, lavender & blue square, so if you haven't stitched yet or you want to stitch another, more fabric is on it's way! Just shoot me an e-mail at my SFAC Yahoo e-mail and let me know what you want!
Thanks to all! Keep checking back for pics of the quilt!

Another quilt block from a friend!

This quilt block was stitched by Sandra in honor of her cousin Marshall, who just completed his second round of chemo for leukemia!
Woo hoo! Thank you Sandra!

A new update

I received two purple squares from my new friends, Sheila and Barbara.
Sheila stitched the square in memory of her mother in law, Mary. She survived diabetes, heart attacks and even colon cancer, but in the end pancreatic cancer took her life.
Barbara stitched her square in HONOR of her husband who is an 11 1/2 year SURVIVOR of pancreatic cancer! Woo Hoo!

This is another centerpiece for our quilts (remember, we are doing two!). Janet did beautiful stitching on this piece.

This is the backing fabric for our quilt. I had some purple ribbon fabric all picked out, but when I went to order it, they were sold out so I took a chance on this fabric. All I can say is WOW! It is perfect! In fact I am going to use this on the back of the second quilt also. It has sayings like "Friends forever", "celebrate", "dream", "inspire" "beautiful, wonderful, lovely", "amazing" and "friends are fabulous".
The colors are right on with the thread colors I chose for the squares.
I have several people who are sending in their squares and I should have them this week. So by next week I should be able to send Quilt #1 to the quilter. Fantabulous!

More quilt blocks & memories

I received this yellow quilt square from Vicki today. It doesn't show up very well in my picture, but it is really pretty.
Yellow is the ribbon color for bladder cancer. She stitched the square in honor of her grandfather, who died much too early from bladder cancer.

I stitched this quilt block in honor of my friend Carolyn. Blue is the color for colon cancer.
Carolyn was a good friend. She passed away 10 years ago this year at the age of 57 from colon cancer.
I angry with her. That anger has subsided over the years, but is still there. Why? Because Carolyn had EVERY sign that she had colon cancer and did nothing about it. Her mother had colon cancer and it ran all through her family. For over a week she was in severe pain, with severe colon symptoms and did nothing. By the time she went to the doctor all they could do was take most of her colon out and do a colostomy. It had spread to her liver.
Carolyn lived several years more, but her life was limited. Limited in what that vivacious woman could do.
A colonoscopy done a few years before could have prevented it. Her doctor had recommended it. Her family had encouraged her to do it. But she didn't have one because of the "embarrassment".
I miss my friend. Don't let any of your friends miss you too soon. Check with your doctor and see if he recommends a colonoscopy. It could save your life.

What cancer cannot do

As most of you know, we are doing 2 quilts this year for 2 different Relays. I have two stitchers doing the centerpiece of the two quilts.
Today I received the first one from Karen. Trust me when I tell you my picture does not do this piece justice. It is quite beautiful and will be a wonderful centerpiece to the quilt.
I have heard from some stitchers who are sending in their squares in the next few days. After those come in, I will just need to receive one more and we can send the first quilt to the quilter.
Woo hoo! I ordered the backing fabric today.
If you are interested in doing a square, please e-mail me and I can let you know what colors are available.
Thanks for all of your help!

Lots and lots of new stuff

This past week my mailbox has had lots of goodies in it for me!
I received two stitched quilt squares.
This one was made by Linda:

I photographed it on an angle, so it looks a little crooked, but it is very beautiful in real life.
Linda stitched this in honor of her mother, Isabella (isn't that a beautiful name?). Isabella was a very crafty woman and loved to sew, esp. to quilt. Linda loves to cross stitch so she thought that this was a great way to honor her mother, who died Nov. 2, 2008 from pancreatic cancer. I think it is a great way also!
This square was made by Zerelda:

Zerelda stitched this in honor of Mac Parker, who died in 2006 of pancreatic cancer. Mac loved his family and his dogs with all his heart and is missed by many.
I also received 4 pillows made by Jeanine. She is the tumor register person at a major hospital in Texas. You have seen her beautiful ornaments and her quilt square. Now she has these wonderful pillows. Jeanine sees cancer at it's worst everyday. She says this gives her something to stitch for!



She also made this biscornu pillow. The stitching on both sides is just fabulous!:


I also received these ornaments from Olga. While the tree has already been raffled off, these will be great silent auction items for the team captains' meetings next year. Several people wanted an ornament, but didn't necessarily want the whole tree!

Thanks to all who have contributed! It makes my day, my week, my year to see how many people care so much for people they don't know.

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!