Crop for a Cause: Making MS a Memory

Hi everyone. Tomorrow I'll be at the Crop for Cause: Making MS a Memory fundraising event. This is the 4th year for this phenomenal 8 hour event where about 200 scrapbookers, paper crafters and even other crafters come together to have fun and hopefully get some crafty work done.

There will be food and prizes and a great silent auction area where over 140 baskets of goodies are up for grabs. Baskets are filled with not just scrapping supplies but dinners, fitness memberships, Chicago Fire soccer tickets, and even a condo package in Hawaii. Check it out. If you are in the Schaumburg, IL area you can stop by and see the silent auction area for yourselves. The auction area is open to the public.

Since I will be here tomorrow, Saturday, March 6, I won't be posting my daily link but I did post 2 for today. Have a good weekend everyone!

CHA Summer Show 2008

CHA stands for the Craft and Hobby Association and they organize 2 big trade shows a year so vendors can display the newest and best products for shop owners to order from. Today was the first day of the summer show here in Chicago.

Although, I couldn't make it the first day I will be there bright and early tomorrow with comfortable shoes on as a member of the press. I will be ambling down the aisles grabbing sneak peaks for Craft Critique. Over the next few days the lucky group of us will be your eyes to what will be coming to your craft stores for the fall. Please make sure to click your way over to Craft Critique to see what we are up to. Also, while you're waiting for updates of the show be sure to also check out the previews that are up from different vendors in the 3 part CHA Sneak Peak Carnival.

Wish me luck. I'm sure my feet will need it!

International Quilt Festival/Chicago 2008

Well, almost a month ago I went to the International Quilt Festival/Chicago that was held at the convention center in Rosemont, IL. This was my second year except I didn't take any classes this year. Instead, I went one day with my friend Susie and one day with my daughter (who loved the shopping part the best - see picture) and I still didn't get around to seeing everything. There were many, many quilts that were just beyond superb. Quilting just keeps getting better and better. I can't even imagine getting close to the level of many of the artists out there today.


There were just too many pieces at the show to even begin to give details of even just some of the works I admired. I love collecting pictures of techniques I would like to try. Here are some of those details:

This first picture is a close up from one of the Journal Quilts 2007 - Journal Quilt Project. These were small quilts that meant to be pages of a journal. This one is titled Forgotten Flowers by Francis Holliday Alford. I love all the dimension in this and the wonderful use of beads.

This detail is from a large quilt by Carol Taylor called Tiptoe Through the Tulips. The base is squares and rectangles and then it's embellished with multiple threads and stitching. I love the swirls.

Here is just a small portion of a very large quilt with a technique of string piecing. It is called Prairie Dawn by Ann Brauer. This gives me an idea of how to use up the loads of fabric I inherited from my mom.


Now, unfortunately, I cannot find my notes on this next quilt but this detail photo is a very small area of the piece. I was amazed at the wave of buttons - all stars - that spread out through the middle of this quilt. Can you imagine sewing on each of the hundreds of buttons?



Here is an example of another technique that I would love to try - bleach discharging. This quilt named Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire! by Cynthia St. Charles shows the technique, I think, at its best. I also like the beads that have been added to enhance the starburst design.


This is a huge dahlia design and I've lost my notes on this one as well. It was just an amazing piece of an even more amazing quilt. If anyone knows who did this I would love to know. If I'm lucky I will be able to come across this one again and fully credit it. This also is one piece I cannot really tell what the technique was but it seems so geometrically perfect I just love its power.



I'm showing this detail of Open Up! Your Dream Flower by Harumi Asada from Japan. I love paisley patterns as well as the colors of this piece. I couldn't find a site for Harumi but I did find this picture of a quilt using a similar paisley.



The next two pictures are more traditional patterns but are a couple of my favorites. This is a feathered star which was the center part of the quilt Autumn Sky by Gretchen Neal Jackson. This shows 3 feathered stars inside of each other. I have done a feathered star but have not completed it in a quilt yet.



Mariner's compass is another one of my favorites. You might have noticed that a lot of the pieces I have shown has curves in it somewhere . I also like angles which explains the feathered star but the compass pattern has both elements. I really like the triangles (reminds me of distorted flying geese) that circle this compass. The full quilt is called Follow Me by Margaret Curley.

I hope you enjoy these little details from just a few of the pieces I admired and I hope they inspire you to try a new technique.

My First Group Cropping Event

You may have heard me say before how I have avoided scrapping and paper crafts just because I really didn't want to do another craft. I can't even get done, nor will I ever, what I have supplies for. This past weekend I went to one of those big crop events where 226 people signed up to be part of "Crop for a Cause - Making MS a Memory". I did not know what to take with me and really thought with my one rolling suitcase and 2 huge tote bags that I must be bringing way too much. Was I wrong! I saw women bring in cartloads of stuff. I actually looked like I had under-packed. The only person I saw with less supplies was a beader who came to work on her beading projects while she sat with a group of her scrapping friends.

This was the second year for the event which is held at my church, Our Redeemers United Methodist Church in Schaumburg, IL. It was founded by Laura Machonis, a member of the church who has MS and turned her hobby into a major fundraising event. They have raised over $26,000. That is absolutely amazing but if you attended you know why. The outpouring of donations from companies, restaurants and individuals all over the Chicago area helped to create an environment of support to the participants. There were 147 silent auction items that ranged from awesome packs of scrapbooking supplies, Chicago Bulls and Storm tickets, toys for the kids and even a Hawaiian vacation (some of the baskets in the photo to the left).

There was plenty of food to eat and free Starbucks coffee. There were 2 tables set up with Stampin Up stamps and ink to use. There was also a tool table with Sizzex die-cuts, cutters and scissors to use.

This is the bargain table of donated supplies. There was paper, stamps, stickers and books.

The sanctuary (shown below) as well as the large program room (first photo above) was used to seat the participants. I helped to set up the night before. There wasn't much more room to utilize after all the volunteers were done. What was more amazing was how it all disappeared for the next morning's service. The crop didn't end until 11 pm so there were even more amazing volunteers for take down.

I did actually get some work done even though I left early at 9:oo. I'm still a pretty slow scrapper compared to some of these ladies but I'm too much of a perfectionist and I'm really not even finished with the 2 pages below. I still need to get the year on each page. I feel really good about getting my daughter's dance page done because it's done before this year's pictures have even been scheduled. But because of this being my first crop I was always walking around checking out other projects, the silent auction and stopped for dinner which was also part of the package. Hope I can go next year, too.