The Big Reveal

Whew!  I'm exhausted!  I knew I was pushing it waiting until the last minute to enter Joann's Contest...but man oh man!  What a stressful evening.  I completely finished the quilt yesterday, but today I had to take pictures (wash quilt and take more pictures), try 100 different ways to upload with my old camera, and then trying to figure out how to scan my receipts!  Okay, I have a printer/scanner, so it shouldn't have been that hard!  But for some reason I couldn't get it to scan!!!!  So I went out to Kinko's scanned my receipts and e-mailed them to myself...got home and realized that the file format from Kinko's was incorrect and couldn't be uploaded to Joann's!  And since they were PDF we (my AMAZING husband spent all evening helping me), couldn't get them to save as a different file format.  Very long story, only made a bit shorter....I FINALLY got the scanner to work and about 45 minutes until the deadline, I got my entry submitted!!!!  YAY!! My first contest!  :)  I can't believe I actually DID it!!!

Okay...so here it is...my Sweet Dreams Quilt.

I wanted to make an I-Spy quilt for the kids at the hospital, so I made one little practice one here.  And then I talked to my contact at the hospital and found out that the nurses use little cloth dolls to do medical play with the children.  The doll's faces are left blank so the children can draw on them themselves, and express how they're feeling, whether the doll is happy, sad, confused or scared.  And they are able to show the nurses where the dolls might have owies and get to use bandages and gauze to help make the doll feel all better.  It helps the children be able to express themselves, and be able to feel some amount of control over an otherwise very scary situation.  So...I drew up a pattern to make some! :)  The first couple I made kind of had square heads, but I'm getting better.  :)

So when I heard about Joann's contest, I knew I wanted to try and quilt, but I wanted to do a fun doll too....and then I thought...why not do BOTH together!!!  And from there the idea grew.  So the backside of the quilt is an I-spy, and the front is a wonderful play area for the little dolly.  There's a little bed (complete with stuffed pillow), so that the doll can sleep next to them at night, two different dresses for the doll to wear (attached to the quilt), and a dress/hospital gown that can be removed from the doll.  There's a river, with stepping stones or a drawbridge to cross leading to a castle...watch out for monsters!  And the little doll can actually go inside the castle to play!

 This was so much work, and I've learned SO much!!!  I've never done this much applique...or quilting for that matter!  It's been amazing!  And although it's not perfect, I just LOVE how it came out!  And I can't wait to see the little girl who get's to keep this!  :)  (if I can pry it from my daughter's arms, that is)  :)

 I'll probably take some more pictures tomorrow to post...but for now...I'm pooped!  :)  Relieved, excited, nervous, tired, but also very happy.  :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!  Hope you have a safe and wonderful weekend!