Project Linus Charity Quilts

Last fall, my Relief Society group did a service project of making and donating quilts and blankets to Project Linus. We ended up donating somewhere between 40-50 blankets, if I remember correctly. 3 of those were my contribution.

The best part about these quilts is that all the fabric was donated! I was visiting my sister in Tennessee and we happened to pull out her (humongous!) tote of fabric to look for a particular quilt top. While digging through, she came across two very large cuts of  rather beautiful batik fabric that she had gotten from her Mother-in-Law a few years back. Her MIL had intended to make quilts out of them, but never did and was going to throw the fabric out when my sister rescued it. 

My sister was more than happy to pass it along to me to turn into quilts for our Project Linus service project.  I decided not to do anything fancy, just whole cloth and machine quilted. I had quite a bit of large sized leftovers that I was intending to make another, pieced quilt top out of, but ran out of time. 

These pictures aren't the best, and really don't do the quilts justice because I took them with my phone, inside, at night, as I was literally running out the door to the activity!

The above photo is the only finished quilt I have a picture of, but the second one was just like it.  The third one was a small, unbound, tied blanket I found in a box last summer.  I threw a binding on it and donated it, also.  The photo below is a glimpse of it as I was binding it.

The most rewarding part of the whole project was when I got an email from the mother of one of the girls that received one of my quilts while at Johns Hopkins.  It was very touching, and so rewarding to know that my service is being received with love and gratitude.  It makes it all worth it.

Back from Hiatus

I have had a lot going on the past few few weeks.  We had family visit for Thanksgiving and took an impromptu trip to North Carolina in between all the normal craziness of the Holiday season kicking into high gear.

While I have been sewing (frantically at times!), I have also had a couple of other projects going on that took priority simply because they had deadlines. 

I taught a class at my church on my paper-covered barn stars the week before Thanksgiving. 

 

I wish I could say it was a smashing success, but I have come to realize that there are a lot of people out here (I live in rural-ish Virginia) that have probably NEVER paper crafted before.  While it should have been a simple "cut and paste" project, I think a lot of people that took it were overwhelmed.  Oh, well. 

I am also in the Primary (Children's organization) Presidency at my church, and with the new year comes a new theme and just a general renewal of all the materials we use throughout the year.  My current project for Primary was making new binder covers for the Presidency and all the teachers.

     Below is a sample of one of the teacher binders.  Even though now that they are done I wish I had used the same red paper on the text and the list, I think they turned out really cute!

 

(The empty block is where the class, children's names and birthdays go.)

 

I used a free kit from Summertime Designs to make the covers.  She has some really lovely kits, and they are amazingly all FREE!

 

 

 

 

  

 

Baptism Cupcake Toppers and An Annoyance

I spent all of last week, well, the first half, anyway, cutting out giant letters with my Silhouette for our Primary room at church.  We wanted the theme, which is "Choose the Right", in big, bold letters on the wall where the kids could see it all during primary.  I cut each letter out twice...once in green and once in yellow, using the yellow as a border around each letter.  The "the" in the middle, I actually cut out in the shape of the CTR shield.  Even though it wasn't perfectly how I would have liked it, it turned out great, and really adds some spark to the room!  (Maybe next time I take my camera to church I will remember to take a picture!)

In addition to that (not so) little project for church, we had the Baptism Preview yesterday and I made cupcake toppers for the mini cupcakes that were served as refreshments.  I think they turned out so cute!  I made it in Photoshop with a sweet little alphabet and number kit I found on the LDS Blog Train.  Easy Peasy.  I love this site, and am honestly grateful that there are some LDS ladies out there willing to share their talent to create LDS themed digital scrapbook items.  I have found it so helpful in my Primary calling!

I'm linking this to Too Cute Tuesday @ Funky Polkadot Giraffe.

And in other news, I actually found a little time to work on the twins fundraiser quilt a bit this past week.  And it was while I was pressing my seams that I was reminded of why I (almost) always try to buy just a touch more fabric than I think I will need:

Now, a little story about this particular piece of fabric.  After I had cut it out and was placing my fabric, I noticed a spot on this square.  I thought, "Well, let's try to save this," and put some oxy clean paste on it and let it sit for awhile.  After a few hours, it looked like it had done the trick and the spot was gone.  So I rinsed the square, ironed and and sewed it up into the quilt top.

I'm wondering if leaving the oxy clean on the fabric for so long did something that caused this piece to burn, because I had literally barely run my iron over it before it scorched!  Whatever happened to it, I was very annoyed that I had to rip it out and replace it. 

But therein lies the reason I try to remind myself to buy a little extra fabric.  Some people may think, "What is she talking about, reminding herself to get extra?  I always get extra fabric!"  Well, I am probably the only quilter alive that tries NOT to horde fabric!  I never buy fabric without a specific project planned for it.  I try to GET RID of scraps, yes, even THROWING THEM AWAY (gasp!) instead of trying to justify how I could possibly someday use a 1-inch scrap of fabric.  So my natural tendency is to only buy as much as I need to minimize waste, and avoid ending up on the show, "Hoarders". 

Fortunately, I had maybe a quarter yard extra of this particular print, so I was in luck.  And I actually had no trouble tearing it out and replacing it.  It sewed effortlessly into place. Thank goodness for my fairly perfect quarter-inch seams :)

A Few Projects

I have spent the last week or so trying to gather the things I need, and start on a few different projects.

This is how it happens a lot for me...I won't have much on my plate, craft-wise, for a bit and think I can take my time.  Then suddenly, I have a handful of half-finished projects that usually have a variety of pressing due dates.  Not half-finished because I don't finish them, because I hate unfinished projects and almost always finish everything I start, but half-finished because I will acquire one (or two or five) new projects that need to be finished first.

For example, when I started this little blog, the only thing I had on my creative plate was The Bed Quilt.  Now I have the twins fundraiser quilt that has to be done within the next two weeks. 

Fabric cut for Fundraiser Quilt.

Deadline for Fundraiser Quilt: Feb 19th.

In addition, I am the Primary Secretary in church, and with the start of the New Year, we have had new projects due for Spotlight, Birthdays, etc.  And of course, I love to do anything crafty, so I had no problem taking on the job of making a felt birthday cake, and create some Spotlight stickers in Photoshop.

I used elements from LDS Blog Train's "Choose The Right" theme kits to make these stickers.

This week, I need to cut out the words of this year's Theme with my Silhouette, and work on a photo board of all the children for the Bishop's office.

Deadline for Theme cutouts - Possibly Feb 9th or ASAP.

Deadline for Bishop's Photo Board: ASAP.

Also, my sister called me and asked if I could make 6 or 7 initial embroidered keychains for her to give as gifts.

Deadline for Keychains: Early to Mid-March. 

A bag for a friend that needs to have a name embroidered on it.

Bag Embroidery Deadline: ASAP 

Now, my list above may not seem like a huge load to some people, but as I have mentioned before, trying to get anything done with three Hooligans running around is near impossible.  For one, I don't have a dedicated sewing room so I have to sew in the family room...which is also The Room of Destruction for my boys.  So needless to say, I can't leave any of my "toys" out. 

While I do leave my sewing machine out, my boys know that they CANNOT touch it under threat of grave injury (or at least being sent to time out.) However, I can't leave out the iron, spray bottle, accessories, scissors (obviously!) etc, or they will be lost, broken or destroyed in some other creative way before I can can say, "Don't! Touch! Anything!"

So, every time I get a chance to work on something, (which is, of course, only after The Hooligans are in bed for the night,) I have to haul everything out from the office closet and bring it out to the Family Room.  Then, when I am done for the night, I have to pack it all up again and haul it back.  It is the same way with anything I don't want my boys to destroy. 

So while some people may look at my list of current projects and think, "What?  I could get that all done in an evening!"  For some of us, things are not quite so easy.

But lest I be accused of doing absolutely nothing on my projects, here is some photographic evidence that I have been able to sneak in a moment or two of sewing:

Playing on my new Bernina - trying out some of the decorative stitches.

And yes, even cutting out fabric for a Swoon block...I am still squeezing in time to work on TBQ!