Marie Osmond: Little bit quilter

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Have you noticed how celebrity Marie Osmond seems to be everywhere these days?

She and brother Donny are singing together again in Las Vegas, she's losing pounds with NutriSystem, she's fainting on "Dancing With the Stars" ...

Now you only have to open any of the myriad quilt magazines to see her face inside them, too. Osmond, who turns 50 in October, not only designs fabric for Quilting Treasures, but she also markets home sewing machines for the Janome company.

She recently issued a challenge for quilters, offering more than $17,000 in prizes and sponsoring an eBay auction of the 10 finalist quilts with all proceeds going to Children's Miracle Network, a charity Osmond co-founded in the 1980s.

The top three winners are:

Dean Deerfield of Midland, Texas, made a crazy quilt titled "A Little Bit Country."

Her first-place prize included a special edition sewing machine, $750 in storage and organization products, $750 in assorted Marie Osmond Quilting Treasures fabric and products, as well as a porcelain doll designed by Osmond with a coordinating quilted table runner. (Total package valued at more than $9,000.)

Natalie Mouw of Wheaton, Ill., created "Victory Garden" to win second place and a sewing machine, $500 in storage products, $500 in fabric and a doll. (Package valued at more than $2,499).

Gretchen Stumme of Rochester, N.Y., entered her quilt titled "Marie's Stars" for third place. She, too, received a sewing machine, $250 in storage products, $250 in fabric and a doll. (Package valued at more than $1,800).

Osmond, who boasts, "I am an avid quilter myself," chose the final 10 quilts from hundreds she received, posted them online and asked people to vote for them on her Web site, www.marieosmond.com Voters chose their three favorites before all 10 were offered through eBay....