Remember This?

Remember This?

And This?

And This?

And This?

Well, obviously I'm not very good at the demo thing, am I? I got all those squares put together, trimmed them all down to a neat 5 1/2", and set them on the dresser in my guest room / Studio / Mom Cave. And there they sat until this weekend -- when I'd had more than enough of Simply Pink and needed a break.

I didn't take pictures as I went along this time, but I can tell you what I did. I stitched squares into rows, with a 1 3/4" piece of black fabric in between. My rows were set with 17 blocks in one row and then two rows each of 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, 3 and 1. That 17-block row will sit diagonally across the top of a queen-size bed. The shorter rows work out in order from there.

The rows were also set with 1 3/4" sashing in between. And yes, these are all set on point.

The trouble with designing a quilt is that there are no patterns or directions. Instead, there is a big, bad pile of black fabric mistakes in my Mom Cave.

Once the rows were set, I went in and set a solid black triangle in the space at the end of the row. The triangles are cut from 7.25-inch squares. I should have used 7.5-inch squares, but without a pattern, it was all guess-work.

After that was done, I went back and stitched a 1 3/4" strip around the outside -- as much to stablilize those triangles as anything else.

Now... I'm not sure where to go next. IDEAS? I have 10 inches of border to work with. I'm considering doing pinwheels set irregularly in the border. Kind of more organized chaos. What do you think???

Set Your Tivo...

Another Update!: Here's Jennifer Reyna's story about the story! www.click2houston.com/bumpertobumperblog/index.html

UPDATE: Here's the link to our story on Click 2 Houston!
www.click2houston.com/video/22307392/index.html

What a Whirlwind! Things have been moving so fast, my head is spinning!

Last Tuesday, I got a call from Jennifer Reyna at Channel 2 (NBC) in Houston! They wanted to do a story on Team Tiara and our quilts calendar! AND they wanted visuals! YIKES!

Wednesday, I got busy cutting out fabric so I could sew some on Thursday. However, Thursday morning, I got THE CALL from school.

BOTH the girls were in the nurse's office -- throwing up. In fact, they had started getting sick within about a minute and 30 seconds of each other. LOVELY.

I brought them home, set up a infirmary upstairs, and got to sewing. You can get a lot done when your kids' being sick forces you to be upstairs all day!

Fast-forward to this week....

Both the girls are well. Thank goodness.

Jennifer came out yesterday and shot the footage for the news segment. We all had a blast -- I'm hoping she had as much fun as we did!

It's going to air today at 4:00 or 6:00 -- we aren't sure which. So set your Tivo!!! Here are a few pix from the "Big Event."

We gave a shout-out to Frank Billingsley from the tent!




I didn't have enough of the brown to do the back of this little quilt, so I pieced in strips of the pink. I like how it turned out....

I'm not all that thrilled with how the front turned out, but it'll do.

These are two other quilt tops I threw together to show....

But the best story of the week has nothing to do with being on the news.... The best story is about how people bound by a common cause can go to extraordinary measures.

As I was beginning to launch this quilt campaign, I contacted two bloggers whose posts I read regularly. Both are quilters. One apparently didn't think this was her cup of tea. The other? She's amazing.

Dana has a blog called "Old Red Barn Co." Last year, she did a quilt-along and I linked to it for those of you wanting to learn to quilt. I learned a lot from that quilt-along. I can finally mitre corners, and that's a very big deal to me.

Dana didn't just agree to help with this project -- she put the word out to a Flickr group that she runs, and they have donated enough blocks to make THREE quilts for our calendar and auction! THREE!!! I took some time on Tuesday to look through the pictures of their quilt blocks. They are simply beautiful. And their comments were beautiful. And it warms my heart to think of the love they're putting into those blocks -- and how badly they all want to help us find a CURE!

Calling all Quilter Friends!

Team Tiara needs your help with a major fundraiser for 2010! Please help spread the word that we need 25 pink quilts by March 31. I know that's a significant number, but I also know we can do it with your help!

To find out more, please check out our team website at http://www.teamtiara.net/.

I Haven't Posted in Awhile....

I've been busy with more important things.

Like subbing.

Making soup.

Dripping the faucets.

Posting my bra color on Facebook.

That's right. Iwas one of them millions of women (and a scary number of men) who "flashed" the Facebook world yesterday.

I was wearing Pink, and I let the world know. Would you expect anything less?

One of those emails had hit my inbox -- actually about 50 versions of the same email. It was like a giant recipe or sock or dishtowel chain-letter, only this one wouldn't cost me a dime. Flashing is Free, you know.

So I flashed my friends and family.

This game being played, and it continued into today with a few late-comers to the party, was originally set up to raise awareness about breast cancer. Or at least that's what the email said. But I immediately thought about my friend Ann who actually has breast cancer and who was more than sick of the color pink by the time October 31 rolled around.

We all know about breast cancer. Awareness isn't the problem. If you're anywhere in my realm, you know I'm gonna make sure you know all about it. That you'd better check those chi-chi's and get those mammograms -- or you're gonna be up for a Momma-sized lecture.

The let-down wasn't in the posting -- I had a blast watching my friends' responses. Nude. Pink. Lavender. Beige. White. Commando. (Commando!) Black with Sequins and Feathers. (Oh my!)

The let-down was in the email. That this really cool firestorm of color and creativity was all fluff. No call to action. No clamoring for a CURE. No directions for donating.

As someone who works so very hard all year to raise money for breast cancer research, that was the "Oh Man!" part! How much could that game have accomplished if it'd just contained a donation address for the 3-Day? In a flash it spread like wildfire across Facebook. Everyone was in on it. What a missed opportunity!

But you know what? I believe in second chances. Here's your chance.

If you posted your colors yesterday, and so many of you did.... If you Flashed your friends and family.... If you got Flashed..... If you want your boobies to keep sporting their colors....

Then please, please go to www.the3day.org/goto/teamtiara and make a donation to the team member of your choice. Our goal is to raise $250,000 for breast cancer research this year. A quarter of a million. That's a huge goal, and we can't do it on November 1.

It's so easy. You can set up payments, did you know that? Your donation is 100% tax-deductible. You can donate online. Over the phone. By check.

You know what else? You could sign up to walk with us this year. It's all right there. www.the3day.org/goto/teamtiara.

You think it was fun flashing your friends on Facebook? You should try it in real life. And there's no better place than the 3-Day. A place where bras aren't just for wearing. A place where cars and tents and signs are all decorated with bras more creative and crafty than the ones flashed on Facebook.

I promise... If you thought yesterday was fun, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Come join us. Help us with a donation. Forward this post. Please do something. Help us take action, so we'll all have colors to post for a very long time to come.

Happy New Year from the Land of Wii....

Okay. Where life in general is concerned I don't have many qualms about airing it all out right here.

But I can't right now. What I can tell you is that I should be buying lottery tickets left and right. The odds of all the things happening to us that have happened to us in the last week have got to be slim to none -- and Slim left town.

This has been by far the most stressful week of our year.

Our New Years 2009 Black Eyed Peas ran out one week too early. I should have had one more spoonful last year.

Yes, there were bright spots to our Holiday. Christmas Eve in Waxahachie with snow flying through the air was nothing but magical. Snow Ice Cream for breakfast the morning after Christmas was an all-new experience for our girls. And watching the Sound of Music piled on the couch with Abs and Kait is one of those "Mary Memories" I will treasure forever in my heart.

Through our travels the Wii Fund grew and grew to a point where Biggsy was able to make the purchase Tuesday morning. A Wii and Wii Fit. We were set -- until he got on the balance board to "set up" his Wii Fit profile.

Oh Boy.

It said he needed to lose 30 pounds.

It must be joking.

My man doesn't have 30 pounds to lose.

When I saw what it was telling him, I decided there was NO WAY I was getting on that thing in public.

Our week continued its downhill slide. By the time I accidentally deleted 6 years of my children's pictures off our new computer at 6:00 last night, I didn't have much more to give. I was numb.

Don't worry. Biggsy got them back about 5 hours later -- but those 5 hours were pretty much sheer hell for me.

In the meantime, like I said, I was numb.

So by the time 11:30 rolled around, the boys were all outside STILL shooting off fireworks, the kids were across the street doing whatever kids do, and I was facing down the Wii.

I logged on, got on that balance board and took it for a spin. Braced myself because if it thought Biggsy needed to lose 30 pounds, there was no telling what I was about to hear.

And it gauged my weight surprisingly low. In the normal range. Knowing full well it was "off" by several pounds, I smiled real big for the first time all week. And started playing games. Had a blast playing the penguin-eating-fishies game. My kind of fun.

Biggsy came in, and I proudly told him what it had said.

He informed me that I'd forgotten to add the carpet thingies under the balance board.

Oh Well. I could deal with "normal." I slept well last night.

This morning Biggsy took Abs and Kat to Denny's. While they were gone, I decided to slide around on the iceberg some more.

Uh-Huh.

I put the carpet thingies on the balance board.

Uh-Oh.

That blasted thing told me I'd gained 17.30 pounds overnight! And then it proceeded to lecture me on the dangers of late-night snacking!!!!!!

AND my Wii Mii got really fat really quick. How rude!!!

This is NOT what I signed up for!!