And the winners are...

We accepted 54 pillowcases in the Pillowcase Challenge! The are divided and ready to be donated to Arcadia Acres Nursing Home for the residents and the Hocking County Children's Services for the foster kids. The photo shows the three winners as voted on by our customers. There is the Noah's Ark pillowcase that won Viewer's Choice, then the pique cotton butterflies and flowers that won Best Children's, and finally a paper pieced sailboat pillowcase that won Best Adult. Congrats to all volunteers and the winners!

1 Million Pillowcase Challenge

Visit the shop and see all the handmade pillowcases we have had donated so far. They're all hung from the ceiling and you can vote for your favorite. $25 gift certificate goes to the Best Children's, Best Adult's and Viewer's Choice. Make your own pillowcase to donate and get in the running for the gift certificates.

Oh yes, and... Bring your pillowcases in during March. Prizes will be awarded April 1st, and pillowcases will be donated to Arcadia Acres Nursing Home, The Timothy House (Athens homeless shelter), Someone Cares (pregnancy distress center), or Hocking County Children's Services (foster children).


For more info on the challenge visit www.allpeoplequilt.com and click on the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge.

Stefanie has left us...

It's a sad day, but we rejoice that Stefanie Spielman is in heaven now. She has finally succumbed to the breast cancer that has made her name a household name for her strength and focus on the battle. Her husband, Chris Spielman, gave up his pro-football career to focus on her care and health when she was first diagnosed.
We have been making quilts from volunteer blocks for over 5 years now and donating the proceeds of the quilts made to her foundation, the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research at the James Cancer Center at The Ohio State University. We will continue the volunteer work and strive for a cure some day. Until then, we thank Stefanie and Chris for their drive, their love, and their perserverance toward the cause. Thanks Stefanie for a fight well run!

Here it is! Scrapbag Picnic Quilt

I got the top finished and it is pretty if I don't mind saying so myself!
Using 2 charm packs of the Moda - Miss Jump's Scrapbag and a neutral coordinate from Maywood along with Miss Rosie's Quilt Company Schnibbles pattern called Picnic, I made this top in about 4 days of a few hours a day. I ordered several more Picnic patterns from Carrie Nelson and we will offer this as a kit in the shop. If you have some nice neutral background fabric (about 7/8 yard), then you can just get the pattern and 2 charm packs. I think you'll be pleased with the composition and color values of the version we made. I would suggest that you be a confident beginner or intermediate quilter at least. You mostly need to make sure you make very accurate 1/4" seams so the final blocks fit together nicely. To order the Scrapbag Picnic Quilt kit. To order charm packs. To order the Schnibbles Picnic pattern.

Quilt Sample Progress

Here's what I'm working on now! I got the blocks pieced and need to finish piecing the blocks together and do the borders. I should be able to do that today.
I woke up in the middle of the night (by the cat who urpped all over the front door sill) and while trying to get back to sleep I got a distinct vision of a fall table runner. I quickly got up and sketched it out so I would remember all the piecing. I plan also on using my EQ6 software to sketch it out better with graph paper lines. It has a double pumpkin in the center and ghosts on the one end. I didn't come up with a theme for the other end of the table runner, so what do you think? I want it to be pieced, not appliqued. I thought about a witch's hat, but I'm not into the witch thing - too creepy for me. Ghosts are okay, but witches I can do without. Maybe another ghost? Or is two ghosts too many? Maybe a corn stalk stack? That might be hard to visualize as to what it is unless I use true corn stalk print fabric. Or maybe Indian corn?! That might work. Hmmm. What else could I use as a visual image for autumn. I could go with the traditional leaf block, but I was hoping to use those for a border or corners. Let me know what you think. I'd love to have your help designing our next shop quilt kit!

New Projects

I've got two new projects in the works from the Miss Rosie's patterns I picked up at Quilt Market. First project is using Picnic, a Schnibbles charm square pattern. I chose the Miss Jump's collection of charms and it seems to be going together pretty quickly! The Picnic pattern has baskets and since the Miss Jump charms has good contrast in the colorways and the tones, it's working out very well. Lots of half square triangles, but Carrie Nelson has a very ingenious way to quickly make lots of the HST with the 5" charms. Two evenings so far and I'm hoping to get the blocks together tonight! I'll photograph my progress with my posting for tomorrow. (I'd do it now, but I forgot the digital camera at the shop!) The image shown is the front cover of Picnic, but my colorway uses teal, browns, ecru, sage and brick red. It'll look much different! Check back tomorrow night for the progress. Until then, sew something pretty yourself.
The second project is using a jelly roll from the Moda - Portobello line. I bought way too many of these specific collection of jelly rolls and even though the fabrics are gorgeous, I still have way too many in the shop. So.....I'm making a shop sample using the Portobello jelly roll and a nice Maywood printed plaid and floral background. I'm hoping it won't be too "busy", but I'll see once I get it cut out. I just chose the pattern and the fabrics today, so I'll need a few days to get everything cut out. Stay tuned for more from the Honey Fork studio!

Charity Quilt

Yesterday I spent all day selling raffle tickets for a quilt that I donated to the Pickaway-Ross school's Scholarship program. We sold over $800 worth of tickets! Great way to raise $$ for assisting Appalachian area kids to further their education. This quilt was the one our shop created for the Mystery Harvest Shop Hop last October. It really is a gorgeous batik quilt using an exclusively designed batik by Hoffman for our shop hop. The batik has the image of Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky on it plus the state bird for all three states, the cardinal. The winning ticket holder was Mary Lou and hopefully she will cherish the quilt. If I hadn't donated it to the school it probably would have been just another one of the quilts that I fold, stack up and keep. This way it was put to good use.