Please join me in welcoming guest blogger, Teresa, as she shares her Nifty Fifty quilting group and charity. An awesome group that has accomplished so much.

I created the Nifty Fifty state quilt block swaps which also make charity quilts for Breast Cancer Awareness. I live in Virginia and I have been quilting for almost 20 years. I love to hand piece and hand quilt. I do all my appliqué by hand including the 50 state quilt blocks that I have made in the past.

In 1995 my quilting pen pal and I started a centralized 50 state quilt block swap. I represented the state of Virginia and while making my 50 Virginia state quilt blocks (all hand pieced) I thought how easy it would be to make a couple more quilt blocks for charity. So I requested our quilters to make two extra quilt blocks. We decided to use one quilt block for a charity quilt and one for a museum quilt. As a group of women we voted to make our charity quilt for Breast Cancer Research since this disease touches so many women’s lives. The museum quilt would be used to collect signatures of breast cancer survivors and victims.

Our Original Nifty Fifty Quilters meeting in 1998 to sew the Breast Cancer Charity Quilts together

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Peggy who won last week’s Miniatures quilt contest, sent me these more detailed photos of her mini quilt to share. You can click on each photo to view a larger version.

The title of Peggy’s quilt is Let Freedom Ring!. It finishes at 7.875″ x 7.125″. Here’s the story she submitted:

About 2 wks before 9-11 I took a mini class with Carol Henry. I made 5 tiny grandmother’s flower garden blocks of various colors. 3 of them were red, white and blue. Over 2 yrs later I was inspired to finish the quilt as my dedication to 9-11. Hexagons are 1/4″ wide & fussy cut. Total time 300+ hr.

To see the scale, Peggy included a quarter and a dime in the photos.

I can safely say I will never have the patience to accomplish such a quilt. Thanks Peggy for sharing these detailed photos.

Congratulations to Peggy Mead for winning last week’s Miniatures quilt contest. Peggy’s Let Freedom Ring! quilt is made with 1/4″ hexagons. I can’t even imagine how difficult this quilt was to make. Thanks to everyone that entered and took the time to vote. Friday was the highest traffic day ever on the Quilting Gallery site!

This week’s contest is Watercolour Quilts and is sponsored by Patchwork Gracie Quilting Fabric & Services (a new sponsor here!). They’ve donated a $50 gift certificate for the winner to use as they wish in their online shop.

Patchwork Gracie Quilting Fabric & Services

Patchwork Gracie Quilting Fabric & Services was started by four sisters and a daughter in 2008. With over 100 years combined quilting experience, we are keeping our family quilting tradition alive through Patchwork Gracie and bringing you our favorite quilt fabrics, batiks and quilt supplies.

Our family’s creativity for quilting started as far back as our great-great grandmother growing up in Ohio. We keep the passion alive through Patchwork Gracie and have expanded from Hawaii to Oregon to Tennessee.

Bette, our longarm quilting sister, now has her own quilt shop studio built by her wonderful husband of over 25 years in the heartland of America, Tennessee. Her smoke-free studio is equipped with the lasted quilting technology including her Gammill Statler Stitcher. She provides professional longarm quilting services at competitive prices and 100% customer service guarantee.

Tammie, the daughter, has recently opened a small physical location in Kapolei, Hawaii and plans on expanding the space to allow quilter’s from the Islands to gather and share various projects. Visit our web site for more information on this location.

Our online quilting fabric store carries an extensive inventory of fabrics for quilting, batiks and quilt supplies to cater to all your quilting needs. We stock a variety of name brand, quality quilting fabric and batiks at everyday low prices and continue to bring new inventory in each month. With the stunning collection of beautiful patterns, colors and designs available, the biggest challenge will be choosing!

Look for our fabric stash-builders, scrap bags and great quilting fabric markdowns.

We are currently offering FREE shipping for all online orders through 2010 (offer does not apply to longarm quilting services).

We are offering a $50 gift certificate to this week’s winner towards any of our fabrics, batiks or notions. Here’s one of your fat quarter bundles that this week’s winner might like:

To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EST). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.