Blankets for Joplin

My sister-in-law, Katrina, is a HUGE supporter of Project Linus. I've blogged about them before, but I thought I'd put up a few pics from the recent round of blanket-making for the tornado survivors from Joplin, MO. Katrina and the Kansas City Chapter of PL did a big blanket round-up and I was only too happy to send a few from Albuquerque! With my help, Katrina was able to turn in TWENTY-ONE blankets! Whooo hooo!

I made four simple flannel blankets using fabric from my stash. Here's a "boy" blanket from my superhero fabric:
A "girl" blanket with cute little ladybugs:
Another "girl" blanket with some adorable froggies:
And a third "girl" blanket with some sweet flowers:
Jennifer made this monster blanket by hand and that sucker weighed a ton - but boy was it gorgeous!
Here are all the blankets before they were shipped off to Kansas City:
The gals that weren't able to make blankets for the first shipment, came through for the second round. Here's a shot of my co-workers (Bobbie and Danita) with me and the blankets:
A couple close-ups of each treasure. The red one, made by Suzanne:
Two pink ones and a race-car blanket made by Stephanie:

Bobbie's dinos:
Danita's monkeys:
And a shot of the bunch before they were shipped off to Kansas City:
Thanks to all of my creative pals for helping support this fantastic charity! I wish we could have done them under better circumstances (poor Joplin folks...), but I'm glad we could help from afar!
~kerrie

2011 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

Fun little post about my BIG support of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event that is sponsored by the American Cancer Society here in New Mexico. This year's walk was held on one of the windiest days ever here in Albuquerque and it was cold, cold, cold. But the Greenies didn't let that stop 'em! We braved the cold and bundled, bundled up!

Happy to report that I was the TOP FUNDRAISER (!!!!) in New Mexico (up until the day before, when someone very, very generous made a giant donation to someone other than me and knocked me off my top pedestal)! I turned in almost $3000 this year and I think I deserve a huge pat on the back, as do all of my sponsors! *blushes

A few shots from the walk with my family and co-workers:

L-R (back row): Steve, Matt, Danita, Matt, Matthew, Jakob
L-R (front row): Carter, Kerrie, Heidi, Lauren, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jakob's cousin (I have forgotten his name...Cameron?)

And just so you know, Carter was wearing PINK socks to show his support for breast cancer research!
Tyler and his daughter walked separately:
And here's a shot of our FABULOUS t-shirts that my work generously sponsors. Just a tad too big for Carter:
Carter says "THANKS FOR MAKING STRIDES AGAINST BREAST CANCER!"
...and so do I! Thank you! Now...let's find a cure, eh?
~kerrie

Fancy Pants

The Greenie's spent a much-needed night out with the adults a week or so back when we attended the annual Albuquerque Mayor's Charity Ball. The Mayor's wife (I guess that would be the "First Lady" right?) hosts the Ball to support ~5 local charities. It's a really great cause and I'm always happy that my company supports it.

Carter stayed home with Hannah (co-worker's kid who is raising money to attend a vet program at Cornell this summer). We were only happy to help support her education and didn't mind that Carter was able to hang out with a young, blond gal (of which he talked about CONSTANTLY the day after...)!

Anywho, I tend to attend several of theses types of events each year with my work and I have a rule about NOT wearing black... Mainly because A) I already own 15 black dresses and B) it's easier to find me if I'm wearing something brightly colored (right Matt?).

So here's a shot of the gang in all of our fancy pants (click to enlarge) and me in my yellow dress:

L-R (back): Heidi, Steve, Laura, Tom
L-R (front): Eileen, Paul, Kerrie, Matt, Danita

Hope you have many opportunities to wear your fancy pants too!
~kerrie

SWE-CNM Quilting Project

Those that know me, know that I'm a huge fan of sewing (or maybe I just like shopping for fabric?!). When my local Society of Women Engineers section (SWE-Central New Mexico, or CNM) started a charity project that involved making a quilt, I signed right up to help!

The quilt was created to raise scholarship funds for SWE-CNM and folks from around the SWE nation submitted quilted 12"x12" "squares" and SWE t-shirts that could be used to create it. And after all of the donations were collected, myself and 3 other local SWE members spent and entire Saturday stitching the quilt together.

Let me first say another THANK YOU to Fran (and her hubby, Mike - who took a few of these photos - which you can click on to make bigger) for opening up her home for our little quilting party. Fran has a SERIOUS quilting hobby and some SERIOUS amounts of fabric (*jealous*) - we even chose a few to use for the quilt:
We ALL had a great time and I snapped a few photos to capture the memories. Below is a shot of the beginning of the quilt layout (and no, Danita didn't come with the quilt, she was just selecting a few more fabrics to make a few more "squares" for the quilt):
A couple shots of the squares and t-shirts (pre-cut) laid out to make the nearly queen-sized quilt:
(And "my" squares - first time making them! - were the "Pink Ribbon" - for breast cancer awareness - and the "SWEeter Futures Outreach Program" square - top right, which supports the region's outreach program that I helped create.)
A few action shots - me (sitting), sewing; Sarah (left), ironing; and Danita (right), cutting up t-shirts:
Me (left), pinning a few "new" squares that we made that day; Fran (middle), ironing; Danita (right), still cutting t-shirts (she totally had the worst job of the day...)
Sarah - sewing:
The nearly-finished front (can see my "Outreach" square better in this shot; it's two above the Pink Ribbon - which is a 3-D square, by the way...the ribbon stuck out! I'm so cool!):
We decided to make the back super-colorful (or like a "circus tent" according to Sarah...ha!):
Working on putting the back on to the front (L-R: Kerrie, Fran, Danita):
Adding in the batting - Fran (left) and Danita (right) pinning it to the fabric:
And it took three of us to stitch the back, front, and batting together - that sucker was HEAVY:
And took three of us to help "feed" it through my machine (L-R: Danita, me, Fran):And a finished product - Danita, Kerrie, and Fran (Sarah's not in the photo, as she had to skedaddle for a Thanksgiving meal):
I'm not sure of the final numbers, but I think SWE-CNM raised over $500 for this quilt project. I'm bummed that even though I purchased a boat load of $5 raffle tickets, I still didn't win...

Alas, it was for a REALLY great cause and all in all, it was a super-fun experience and I'm glad my talents were finally put to good use!

Thanks to all the quilters that participated and a big congrats to Leslie for winning the quilt! I'm sure it will keep you warm during this time of year!
~kerrie

Run For the Zoo

The Greenies participated in the largest running event in the history of New Mexico. Nearly 11,000 people came out for the 10K, 5K, or 1-mile charity run/walk for the Rio Grande Zoo!

Our pal Amelia invited us to join her and her kiddos for the 1-mile "Fun Run/Walk" this past Sunday. Historically, it's about 85 and sunny and most people wear shorts. We, however, got to participate when it was about 40, gloomy, and rainy. Weeeee!

Oh well, it was for a great cause and we had a great time chatting with Amelia along the way.

Here's a shot of the Greenies with Amelia, Liam, and baby Greta (thanks to my co-worker Heidi - also at the 1-mile run/walk - for taking our photo!):
Hopefully next year it will be back to 85 and sunny!
~kerrie

Making Strides

Just a simple post to say that the Greenies participated in the 2010 "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk" here in Albuquerque this past Sunday. I have participated in this 5-mile walk for the past 9 years and have been a top-10 fundraiser for New Mexico since I started. This year I turned in over $1500 in sponsorship!

Matt and Carter joined me (and actually this was Matt's 5th walk and Carter's 2nd) and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! Perfect day for a stroll (with our closest 20,000 friends)! The walk took us right along the Rio Grande and the scenery certainly made the 5-miles go by quickly.

Here's a photo of my team of co-workers and friends (minus Matt - he was taking the photo):
Let's hope they find a cure for cancer in my lifetime, eh? Until next year...
~kerrie