History, Favor, and a Giveaway!

Update: Giveaway is now closed. RobotMomSews has won! Congratulations :)

My Birthday is in a week!

My first blogiversary was August 3^rd I had no idea! I’ve been a little disconnected…

In celebration of my first blogiversary and my birthday, I decided to share a little more about myself, ask a favor, and have a giveaway!

Next Wednesday, I will be 23 years old.

I grew up the second child of four girls!!

I went to Catholic schools from preschool to eighth grade.

I was a girl scout from kindergarten until early high school… (I was screwed out of my Silver Award so I quit).

My mom and Nana were really into crafts. My mother crocheted and did cross stitch and random wood paintings with carbon transfers of images from those old Leisure Arts books. My Nana sewed, very well, she made garments, quilts, knitted us teeny tiny Barbie clothes, and made outrageously gorgeous and time consuming cross-stitched stockings that we still pull out every Christmas. So crafting pretty much runs in my blood. My big sister makes phenomenally beautifully dresses and garments sewn to perfection and perfectly tailored. I’m a more lax crafter. I like crafts that have wiggle room and can easily be tweaked if something goes wrong (cue extra borders).

I was always the creative type. I like to bounce around between crafts and still enjoy most of the ones I have tried, even if I don’t do them regularly. I started out real big on sketching and painting. My mom taught me how to decorate cakes when I was about 6 years old. In middle school, I would bake and decorate 2 layer cakes to bring into school whenever a friend had a birthday. It caused so much of a raucous in the lunch room that I no one was allowed cakes my last year… I still was into painting and painted a mural in our school cafeteria with the art teacher and a few other students. I did cross-stitch from an early age and did a sampler or two here and there and some random ornaments. I also loved those crazy melt-y bead things J I attempted crocheting at one point but could never really figure out the tension… I took to knitting in high school and loved it but never actually finished a project. I even made comic strips for my boyfriend during our first year together just a little something sweet whenever I thought of him and one of our adventures.  And then I fell in love with quilting in college.

I always wanted to make a quilt and I’m ALWAYS cold (you’ll see me in the heat of the summer with a blanket, yeah, I’m that crazy). “Why not make my own blankets?” I asked myself. I’m pretty savvy and resourceful so, I asked my sister to borrow her machine, went to JoAnn’s bought a book, Material Obsession, some fabrics and a beginner rotary cutting set. I got right to it sewing rows definitely not with a quarter-inch seam allowance! I wasn’t too skilled yet. I was empowered to prove the naysayers wrong and I have made nearly 15 quilts since!

So, as I said before, I don’t typically stick with a craft; I like to vary immensely. Why did I stick with quilting? The quilting community is exceptional! I know you hear it from every blogger, but it is true! I fell in love with Mary Fons’ personality when I discovered her online TV show Quilty last year and quickly became addicted to online blogs about quilting. And soon, I found quilting friends who inspire me and encourage me. I could not imagine leaving all this behind!

I kept with quilting because it’s warm. Quilts warm your soul when they are made by someone you love and they certainly add style to your home. You know when you’re sick and you just want to curl up in a blankie with a cup of tea or a bowl of soup. Well, when you’re sick, you NEED that quilt, you yearn for that quilt. I am sick. I don’t have a cold. Instead, I have a handful of autoimmune diseases. Recently, (in fact the reason I’ve been off the grid), my rheumatologist started me on anti-malarials for lupus diagnosis.

Yes, that dreadful disease that nobody wants and if you’re white nobody believes you have and that takes about five years (it feels like a million and one) to diagnose. Well, I still don’t know for sure, that’s the whole point of the drugs to help the doctors determine with certainty. Making quilts is my medicine. It uplifts my spirits and warms my soul knowing the time I spend to make a beautiful quilt is well worth it when I see the smile on the recipients face. It helps me get passed my troubles. That’s where the favor comes in. This coming spring I’ll be walking for lupus and I would love to make a quilt of butterflies (that’s the symbol of lupus). I had this idea rolling around in my head and then I saw Maureen’s quilt and knew I must make it! But I need your help. Would you DONATE some butterfly fabric? Any size, any print (I won’t say no to Anna Maria Horner). I will put this very special quilt together over the winter and raffle it off in the spring to raise money for lupus research. Whether I get the official diagnosis or not I know how scary it is to have a disease with no cure. And I want to do everything I can to make someone’s life a little better with my craft. Email me for my address: spolgarquilts@gmail.com

Today, I went out and treated myself for my birthday! My local quilt shop owner is retiring so they are closing up shop and everything is 50% off! So I had to buy some things….

The perfect taupe-y gray for a baby quilt that was started but never finished because well I didn’t have that perfect taupe-y gray!

And I found this amazing holly Christmas fabric. It’s perfect for all the Christmas projects I am hoping to have finished in time for a craft fair or two this November.

And I got some great basic prints! Polka dots, stripes, and Kaffe Fassett florals!

And I got a slightly used 24” x 36” cutting mat for just 12 bucks! How could I say no when mine is crazy warped from steam…

Now for the giveaway…

Since everyone loves presents on their birthday, I decided to give away a fat quarter bundle! One of each print in the above photo and some fabulous coordinating prints from my stash!!

The giveaway will only be available to US and Canadian addresses due to cost of shipping. Just leave a comment with your favorite birthday memory. I will announce the winner next week on my birthday! September 18^th! Good Luck!