Look what I got!

Dean obviously reads my blog because he surprised me with a gift of this Vancouver poster! Now that it's all beautifully framed I have the perfect spot to hang it. Thanks, Deano!

Auction for Baby Molly runs until Sunday

The Bamboletta Auction for Baby Molly has been live since Monday the 23rd and the current bid for my sweet doll quilt is $62.00! Everyone is being so generous for this good cause and I'm thankful to all the bidders.

There are over one hundred amazing handcrafted items that have been donated. If you want to take a look, you can see all the items or just the listing for my quilt. The auction runs until 7:00am PST on Sunday, January 30th. I'm interested to see how much money they'll raise for Molly's family!

1st quilt of 2011!

I have to tell you the truth. Although I founded the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild in 2010, I didn't complete a single quilt last year! Between organizing the guild, taking care of a busy preschooler, and fighting the exhaustion of the first trimester, I didn't find the time to finish any quilting projects. Since I'm due in March, I can't see myself getting much quilting time in in 2011 either, so I'm happy to say I used my time wisely in January and finished off a quilt! Here's my first quilt of 2011:

It's a 15"x20" pinwheel doll quilt that will be auctioned off by the amazing Christina of Bamboletta Dolls to raise money for Baby Molly Campbell's medical costs. Molly was born in Victoria on November 23rd, 2010 and at one month of age was diagnosed with leukemia. On Christmas Eve, she and her mom and dad had to leave her four siblings with family and travel here to BC Children's Hospital to start her treatment.

Here's Sophie holding the quilt to give a sense of scale

I first tried pinwheels for Karen's block in the Red & Aqua Bee and really loved them! When I heard about Baby Molly in late December, I knew I wanted to do something to help, and this pink and tangerine pinwheel quilt came together very quickly!

For the back, I had a perfect piece of Heather Bailey's Lindy Leaf left over from when I made Kristi a Barcelona skirt for her birthday. I quilted along the diagonals, using pink thread in one direction and tangerine thread the other way. Some Kona cotton in Cheddar was the perfect frame and I enjoyed hand stitching the binding.

The auction starts on Monday, January 24th and I hope my quilt will find a good home!

Snail Mail

Image from Canada Post 

Does anyone out there still send real letters? If you do, and you live in Canada like me, you should know that Canada Post's rates are going up tomorrow. It will cost 59c to send a letter anywhere in Canada, $1.03 to send a letter to the US, and $1.75 for International letters. Despite the cost, I still love sending the occasional letter and, of course, it's a treat to get real mail in my mailbox!

More info is available on the Canada Post website.