No, I'm not dead

...just busy. And sick. Here's the bullet point for the last few weeks:

* A week of getting ready for the triple threat weekend: our anniversary, middle son's birthday, and fourth of July.

*A week of preparing to be at VBS

*The actual week of VBS. I was busy herding Kindergartners so I didn't get any pictures, but it was great.

*And lastly, the week of VBS resulted in this week which has mostly been me carrying around my heavy congested head and wishing my kids came with mute buttons.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Swaziland quilts are gone! That is, at least, they're gone from my sewing room. I took them all to the church to start adding to the pile. I think we've actually got over forty quilts, which makes me smile and sigh with relief. Everyone was excited to see all the different quilts plus the cute crocheted dolls I received....oh dang. I just realized I forgot to get pictures of those to put on here. Man! I'm so scatterbrained lately. Anyway, the trip is in September so be sure to check back after that for pictures of the quilts in action. Yay!

With all the quilts being done and gone, I'm taking advantage of the cleaned out sewing room by using it to make more, even bigger messes. This week, to take my mind off my compressed brain and nagging cough, I turned the back room into a greenhouse/upholstery room. I built a new light box and started a whole mess of seeds--most of them the herbs I plan on putting in my big herb garden.

Then I finally decided to tackle reupholstering the wingback chair I dumpster dived a few years back. THAT has been more than I bargained for, not so much in how hard it is to figure out how to do, but in how hard it is to remove 80 billion staples from the chair frame. Ugh. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will all turn out well and I won't have ruined a perfectly good free chair. Here it is in all its naked glory:

As if all that wasn't enough, I also started sewing a dress. It's been ages since I made any kind of clothing for myself and I'd been drooling over this pattern for the last year. So I decided to just take the plunge and just make it already. So far I've got the top bodice sewn, only I sewed one part on wrong (the directions, while cute, are very unclear on this one part) and now I've got to seam rip and re-sew and that's just something my snot-filled head is just not in the mood for right now. So I think I'll try to finish the chair first.

And LASTLY (yes, there is an end in sight for this long-winded post), this Sunday I will be hosting the first meeting of the Tampa branch of the Modern Quilt Guild, of which I somehow ended up being the de facto leader. I'm excited and just a little nervous, because I pretty much have no idea what I'm doing. I've never been a part of any kind of guild or group like this. I'm hoping it will be fun, and I won't make an idiot out of myself.

Crazy Quilt Week

Tweet Quilt

 It's been nuts around here the last week. I've quilted and bound my three WIP's, got two quilts in the mail from some wonderful women, and my friend Jenn dropped off one she made while visiting her mom down here. Awesomeness.

Happy Dots

Owly Squares.

Linda's little yellow quilt--thanks again Linda!!!

Jenn's Big Brown Square. Grazie.

Toni's Baby Space quilt. It's flannel and so soft!!

Anyway, with the ones my neighbor is making I've got a growing stack here--about 23 all told. We'll still need more, so if anyone wants to try their hand at a simple crib sized quilt PLEASE let me know.

Thank you for your kind support

Finally getting around to posting a picture of the quilt I received last week. The lighting outside has been kind of icky so you'll have to settle for this indoor pic.

Cute, huh? It looks better in real life, as do all the quilts I post on here. Thanks so much Genevieve for giving this quilt, I know someone in Swaziland will be so blessed.

In other news, I'm still on quilting hiatus over here--for various reasons. Since this project has sort of been taken out of my hands I've decided not to be so focused on it. I am still going to be making quilts for the project of course, just not as...psychotically as I have been.

Today I ordered some cool seeds from an organic seed website. Yay! Seeds are fun. Now that my spring garden is reaching the ends of its Florida heat tolerance I'm starting to plan my fall/winter garden (one of the FEW perks of living in Florida) and I think I have a better idea of what to do and what not to do. For example, never EVER buy tomatoes from Home Depot. They have blight. And the blight spreads through the soil to the healthy plants. I've watched with growing aggravation as the organic tomatoes I babied from seeds grew up into gorgeous plants that soon withered and blackened from those dang Bonnie Bell tomatoes. Another month and I'm going to have to solarize my soil to kill the blight so I don't get it in the next crop.

That being said, it's been really fun to a) walk outside and just grab food and eat it right there, and b) to realize after years and years that I DON'T have a black thumb after all. I just suck at apartment-dweller gardening, that's all.

the everything but the kitchen sink quilt

That's what I decided to call this quilt, since, y'know, a name is a really important thing for a quilt to have. And Steve was already taken, soooo... Originally I was calling it the "stash-buster" quilt, but that was a total misnomer since my stash is not even remotely busted, in fact it's way bigger. Ha ha.  Anyway, I really liked the way it turned out, and this was my first time doing random scraps for binding, which I think goes well with the randomness of the quilt.

Mostly I'm just excited to be done. My stack o' unfinished projects is steadily dwindling, and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Plus is frees up some room so I can start some more unfinished projects. Exciting!!

busy little bee

so i've been busy lately. too busy for pictures, really, and my lack of good camera or picture taking skills does not really inspire me to get out there and do it even when i should. but today i forced myself to come out of my quilting cave and snap some pics of my finished stuff. the above is one of two identical quilts, identical because they were once conjoined twins in the form of a duvet cover that i never got around to finishing. i figured they could undergo surgery and become individuals for the cause. i tried to do some more, um, organic quilting lines and it came out organic all right. and by organic i mean messy and not straight at all. but i sort of like it that way.

then i finished the red and aqua cross quilt. yay!

the new wave quilt, all sewed and bound. note to self--seven year old boys don't make the greatest quilt-holders-for-the-purposes-of-picture-taking.

on top of the general insanity, i've also been purging/reorganizing/cleaning my "studio" (ha ha), and one of my self-imposed tasks was to sort out my horrible overcrowded crumpled up scrap bin. i've sort of tossed any reasonably sized scrap willy nilly into this plastic bin for, um, over a year, and it was getting out of control. so being sort of type A, i had to take out every piece, lay it flat, and then organize them into color groups. then they went into ziplocs.

i felt like i had to MAKE something with them to justify their continued presence in my house, so i started working on this baby, and i think that i'm going to end up keeping this one. i just love the bright colors against the light gray kona, and the arrangement. not to mention it pleases me no end to make a whole quilt out of stuff leftover from other quilts. you should see the back--it's a miniature of the front and it makes me giggle. i can't find the picture of it though and i am too lazy to go take another. you'll have to use your imagination until i finish it and get inspired to wield a camera again.

hope you're all having a wonderful day. i certainly enjoyed the sunshine from behind my sewing machine. i kinda wish i'd gone outside earlier, but i was in conquer mode and the urge to finish cannot be laid aside for the pleasures of baking in the sun. ha.

this might just be my favorite yet

i just finished this new quilt top tonight. i love it. i'm ashamed to say that i'm really struggling with the idea of giving it away. i love the colors. i love the crosses. and it's just my size!! aagghhh.

well...we'll see how many i can get made before september...maybe i'll have an extra one so this one can stay with me??

not likely.

look what i got in the mail today!!

(WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS AN OVERABUNDANCE OF THE WORD "CUTE")

today i got a little box dropped off next to my back door. i had a feeling i knew what was inside, but nothing could prepare me for the utter cute awesomeness!

this rad little quilt was donated by teaginny designs for the swaziland project. i can't tell you how excited i am to have someone else interested in this. and this thing is just so cute! the colors are so bright and cheerful and i'm sure it will bless a swazi baby soon. 

here's a detail of the cuteness:

thank you so much, alex, for your kind gift, and your lovely words. God bless you!

quilt #2 for swaziland

finished this quilt top at 7:30 this morning. it's based on the new wave quilt by oh, fransson! i say "based" because i pretty much just looked at the picture and figured it out because i hate following instructions. nevertheless, credit where credit is due.

see that fabric? remember awhile back when i won some anna maria horner fabrics on a giveaway? i've been hoarding it for awhile, sitting in dark closets and rubbing my hands together while chuckling to myself in a creepy fashion whilst daydreaming of how i would put it to use. this seemed like the time and place.

i like taking pictures of these things with light shining behind them, even if the quality isn't great. hopefully i will look good quilted, but i'm just going to keep pumping out tops for awhile before i start that part. i can only handle so much of that quilting rack and the wedding quilt was so crazy that i need a good long break.

quilt #1 for project swaziland

this morning i was up bright and early, so i decided to make good use of the time alone and finish my stash-buster quilt top. i looked at it, and looked at it, and pondered. should i keep it? it was meant to be a quilt for me originally. but the more i looked at it, the more i thought about how dang spoiled we are already, and how even though all the quilts we personally have in house are, um, well, wannabe quilts from target and ikea, they are still blankets and we are warm when we need to be.

so.

this is going to be the first quilt i make for the children's ward at good shepherd hospital in swaziland. i feel good about this decision.

my oldest, however, is upset that we're not using the quilt top as a permanent curtain. i can't say i blame him, it did look pretty rad with all that morning sunlight shining through. as per usual with my stupid camera, the picture is lame.

swaziland on the brain

ever since our church announced they'll be returning to swaziland this fall i've had it on my mind. i keep thinking about quilts...more quilts...LOTS of quilts.

i mean, i think about quilts a lot anyway, but this is sort of...above and beyond the normal obsession.

our church will be going over to swaziland with a lot of different goals in mind: building water tanks for a village with a crocodile-infested water source. (i'm trying to imagine being in fear for my life every time i need a drink and it just boggles the mind.) they're also going to be doing VBS for the kids there, a youth conference for the teenagers, and (and this is the part i keep thinking about) bringing supplies to a local hospital.

obviously i don't have a secret store of medical supplies hidden up my sleeve. but i do have a sewing machine and fabric scraps. and one of the things they've asked for are quilts for the children there. a lot of them live there and have no personal items at all, and i think that a handmade quilt would be something lovely to give them. if i have time i'll try to do some more softies, but my main priority right now is quilt making.

remember this from last fall? (ugh, those wretched photos! the quilts weren't THAT ugly, i promise) i had very little notice, but me and my friends managed to whip up some quick blankets and softies for the ladies to bring with them. it wasn't much, but it was the best i could do at short notice (and while the 1 month old baby slept. ah, the good old days when making stuff didn't have to be crammed hurriedly between naptimes!).

this time, however, i've got PLENTY of notice. nevertheless, the idea of making 25+ crib and twin sized quilts is...daunting. and so, once again, i'm throwing this idea out to everyone. if anyone is interested in helping, please let me know. if you can't swing the sewing, but have some nice fabric you'd like to donate, that would be rad. i think this is a really great cause and i would love to be able to help bless these kids with some lovingly-made things of their own.

here is a link to the website, just in case you think i'm a criminal trying to steal quilts and resell them or something: Hope Alive 2010

PICTURES OF THE LAST TRIP TO COME LATER. the lady who took pictures last time is one of the busiest people i know and i'm trying to pin her down to give me some! :)

the final tally

so here is all the swaziland stuff that was finished--at least everything i've received. tomorrow was my "due date" and there still might be some other things brought to church tomorrow, but for now--this is it! i'm pretty excited about it. i mean, it's nothing compared to say, craft hope, but then i had a very short time period to get this done and it was a first attempt.




i threw together two more quilts this morning as a last minute effort, but now...stick a fork in me, i'm done!

frilly and pretty...

...is not something i'm usually very good at. so when i was asked if i could make something "frilly and pretty" to give to the swazi women as favors for the conference, i was sort of at a loss. luckily, my friend abby suggested flowers, and we both said, "brooches!" at the same time. i looked around online for ideas, knowing i wanted to make something sort of organic looking (no precisely cut felt flowers, for example),
and i finally came up with a workable plan. eight dollars worth of fabric, some glass beads and a lighter later, and i was set!

initially, i was understandably daunted by the idea of making 60 of these, but really they come together pretty fast after the first few botched experiments i made. and i sort of enjoy the mindless repetition, especially after yet another sleep-deprived night with a three-week old. in the space of one movie ("a good year"--i love that movie) i whipped out thirty of these babies in cream and peach. fun! i didn't get any pics of the peach because i was lazy. whaddya think??

this little piggy went to...swaziland?

i missed church today because mal has a cold, but i used the time alone to make this little cutie. isn't he just adorable?

swazi stuff...so far

here's what i made so far: a blanket (i have enough fabric for three more like it), a platypus and kitty softie, and some weird balls. i'm still hoping you'll join me on this--i'm having so much fun making this stuff!

i'm also pretty excited that i haven't had to buy anything yet--well, except the stuffing. but i have so much scrap fabric that i think i'll be able to make quite a bit of stuff without having to buy supplies. which is great because i'm pretty broke, ha.

pattern ideas and the like

SO
if you are on board, and want to help, i figured there are three categories we can work on:

1. cloth diapers
2. blankies
3. soft toys/softies

here's a site i found with free patterns for softies. oh my gosh, i love the platypus.

for cloth diapers, it appears there are quite a few different types. here's a site that shows you how to make fitted cloth diapers out of old shirts and stuff. i'm sure you could probably just sew rectangles out of absorbent material, too, if you don't want to bother with all the other steps.

here's a pattern for a soft stuffed ball. these would be easy to whip out using fabric scraps (of which i personally have a TON).

as for blankets, i don't even think we would need a pattern for that.

softies and such for swaziland

okay everyone, some of you may have read this already but i'm posting here again anyway. on september 15th three women from my church are going to swaziland, africa to minsiter to the women there and also to look into what can be done for the large amounts of orphans there.

i really want to use my crafty skills to help out and bless these kids who have nothing, and i'm hoping you will too. first i'm posting this email (i'm only including the info about the orphans for the sake of brevity) so you have an idea what is going on over there. later i will post some ideas and patterns, etc., if you want to help out. okay, here it is:

Dear Family and Friends ~

I just want to share with you an exciting opportunity I have been given...

Several months ago, I learned of the desperate situation facing many orphaned children in Swaziland, Africa. As you know, Swaziland is where I spent many of my early years and it holds a very special place in my heart. I recently found out that a dear Swazi friend named Lucy, has begun taking in orphans. These children have been left totally abandoned, seeking food, shelter and with empty, frightened hearts, they are simply trying to survive. Lucy and her husband Isaiah have very little themselves but are giving everything they have to assist these small children. Having no place to keep the children at night, they come during the day and are feed what is available and taught some basic education and most important, about the Lord! I spoke by phone with Lucy and Isaiah a couple weeks ago and heard their hearts. I am told that just in the small town of Siteki (where Lucy resides), there are already 25 coming to them and the numbers are increasing by the day! A local hospital has contacted them, asking if they "would please come get some newborns", left abandoned on the side of the roads and paths. It is so amazing to me that as Americans we are also in a financial crunch, giving up our daily Coke (or Pepsi) to save a buck, yet these Brothers and Sisters in Christ are giving EVERYTHING they have, on the front lines of the battlefield for the sake of the little ones and the gospel. At this point, because they have no place to house these little ones, the children return to the night, often sleeping by themselves under the bushes and stars. There are 5 year old children walking miles, often carrying infants on their hips, to receive the food and love Lucy has...this breaks my heart! I can not sit back and just watch without asking, "Lord, is there something I can do to come along side my Brother Isaiah and Sister Lucy, to encourage them, sending in reinforcements to help them in this fight".

On September 15, 2009, I will be returning to Swaziland to "scout out" the need. I have companies willing to send packets of food containing protein and vitamins mixed with cereal. I have people who have said, "let's go build a structure to house these children and keep them from harms way". I have medical supplies ready to go. I have others asking to send money, BUT I need to see it first hand. I need to see the accountability. I need to see the numbers. I need to see if there is a place we could send a team next summer to build or refurbish a current structure, I already have at least 15 people ready to go! I have a "medical team" willing and ready to go! Though Africa and other parts of the world are filled with the need for such things, God has lead me back to my hometown of Siteki, Swaziland. Who would have ever thought that God would work in such a way. He does far more than we could EVER think or imagine...