Tardy for the Party

yes--i've outed myself as an avid watcher of The Real Housewives--well, "only" Atlanta and NYC (starts tonight!)--as if that makes it less trashy :-)


anyways, the party in question is Don't Look Now's Joseph's Coat Quilt-Along. this quilt is breath-taking but it looks like it'll take years to finish! this Quilt-Along started a few months ago--it took me that long to commit to this quilt--it just looks like sooooo much work (and it is!)



i prepped this first block (only 48 more to go!) at a Arts & Craft morning that my friend organized for our church. it was so much fun to have an uninterrupted 5 hours (!!!) to just work on my quilts. i didn't bring my sewing machine but was able to start prepping this project as well as start work on the 2nd Beloved Quilt.


i'm using a mostly pink palette from my stash and from the newly acquired stash of Kaffe Fassett's (LOVE these fabrics) and am using Kona Coal as the background. i love DLN's white background but since this is my "porta-project," i would think the white would get dirty right quick. it's funny--just a few months ago, i wrote that i never use solids but i'm bowing to peer pressure out in blogland--solids seem to be the new "in" thing with quilters! the idea for using gray as the background came from Mrs. Schenkman --hmmm...can't find that particular post but you should read her whole blog anyway--she does amazing work!


i started stitching the petals down on this block today--the twins had their first gymnastics class (after the first 10 min of being painfully shy--they shook down and took part in everything--they did great! :-) so i was able to do it during their class. i think i have only 4 more "Marbles" to go--that's such a easy & portable project, i almost don't want to finish it so soon.

Porta-Projects

25 of these blocks finished!!! i started these back in July, and they really did go pretty fast. in fact, the last couple of months, i started working on my other big handwork project (Grandma's Pop Garden - May '09) in the car while the twins napped because the dresden plates are more portable.

i decided to set the blocks 5x5 instead of the pattern's 6x4 'cos i think it might be a little more usable (6x4 makes for a longer, skinnier quilt which won't fit on our bed). i still haven't decided if i'm going to applique down the little circles that go in-between each block. lots more work to do--i've gotta cut them all down to the same size (i'm sure they're wonky from all that handwork) and lay them out. i'm thinking of prairie points around the edges. we'll see...


and here's my newest hand project. it's the Marble Champ pattern (i talked about it here). there's 42 of these blocks (i use 21 different fabrics for the circles, so 2 each) and i just finished prepping all of them (that wonky white thread is the basting thread--i like using that for appliquing much better than pins--i always poke myself!). these go really fast--it takes me around 45 min to do one and i was able to finish two blocks at a school meeting :-) i think i've finished 8 already so this shouldn't take too long (famous last word). enough time so that i'll be able to prep for my next big portable project (more on that later...)

UPDATE: i wrote this post back in january and forgot to post it. i haven't done anything more with the Dresden Plates but am almost finished with the Marbles. Also almost finished with Row 8 of the Grandma's Pop Garden--have to admit, i'm getting a little bored with this project, but have 6 more rows to go!

Beloved

(this is one of those word-y posts so feel free to skim through for the pictures!)

over Christmas, i got the book Quilting For Peace for myself because i heard about it on blogland and because it was cheap :-) on pg 13, Pascha Griffiths and her project Beloved Quilts was highlighted and i never did get farther in the book! Pascha is a fellow Christian who felt called to make quilts for the homeless in her area. after reaching her goal of 100 quilts, with the help of friends and friends of friends, she has decided to make quilts for children who are victims of sex trafficking.

"'How unloved these girls must feel and how tainted their concept of love must be,' says Pascha, who wonders what 'bed' must mean to them after what has happened to them there. 'Then to think that there's this blanket that says they are beloved. They might be too wounded for it to mean anything, but it might mean something. It's one way of saying, 'You're seen, and here's some safety.'"

i couldn't stay dry-eyed through that paragraph.

this story actually started awhile ago for me.

my church has a strong calling to social justice--and much of that vision came from a former pastor, who left a couple of years ago to join International Justice Mission as a staffworker (that name always makes me think of the old superhero cartoon --International Justice League :-) though people working at IJM are truly the heroes of this world). when the pastor left, at his last service, his new boss from IJM came to speak to us and tell us about IJM. he showed a video about some of their work throughout the world. it's been a couple of years so the details are fuzzy but there were some incredible stories told. one of them involved the rescue of child prostitutes in India. now i knew that there was such a thing as child sex trafficking in the world but it was the first time i saw evidence in front of me--pictures and videos of these beautiful little girls who were being treated in such an inhumane and ungodly way. as a mom now, i can't help but relate everything to my kids, and i couldn't even fathom the pain of having my daughter go through such torture. i turned and found my husband sniffing and discreetly wiping away his tears (and trust me, he never cries!)

well, we wrote a check to IJM and that was pretty much that. sex trafficking is a huge issue and i couldn't conceive of a way to even think about it.

fast-forward a couple of years to last August when our church had our first church retreat. we were beginning a series of "Visioneering"--how to create a vision for our own lives that is in keeping with God's vision for us and for our church and for our world. one of the exercises was to write our own obituary (not as morbid as it sounds :-) in examining my life, i thought my relationships were in order--yeah, i yell at my kids a lot, but they love me and would miss me when i'm gone (well, that's what i tell myself :-) and i have a wonderful husband, and loving friends. all that was fine. but in terms of what have i done with my life outside of family and relationships, that was a lot less impressive. i haven't worked professionally (use to be a librarian) since the kids were born (over 7 years now) and even then, i wasn't really a stellar librarian--or at least, that wasn't my passion in life. quilting is, but that's not a career. (one side-note that i haven't even realized until just now--i'm starting to make quilts for my friends--in the past, i've made lots of baby quilts for their offspring--maybe i'm trying to perpetuate my legacy through them now).

nothing was really resolved at the retreat--i just pondered what i wanted to do with my life--especially as the kids grow older and i have time for myself. one out-there thought that entered my head, was that the child sex trafficking issue is so horrific that i want to do something about it. but i immediately scoffed at that idea 'cos i'm not the activist type and what can i do about it?

so when i read about the Beloved Quilt project, it was a Hallelujah moment. my compassion for children who are caught in this horrific situation, my love for quilting, and my hope to follow God's will for my life were all intertwined into this one project.

i emailed Pascha and she seems like such a kind person! she was excited for me but because i didn't have anything really definite to tell her, we sorta left things up in the air. one thing she said made me smile, that she was struck that i was so moved by just reading about her project in a book. and i couldn't really explain in an email, just how many years it took for God to work on this hard heart!

as you can tell from my (very infrequent) posts--it takes me forever to get things done. so it took another month or so to actually make the quilt and sadly enuf, another few weeks, just to photograph it and now to write this blog post.


i used some of my much hoarded Grand Revival fabrics--i actually can't really remember which lines i used, i think Barefoot Roses and Darla.

and on a frivolous note, i even had enough scraps left over to make a scarf for myself (here modeled by my oldest :-)


i will be emailing Pascha soon to ask if she wants the quilt now (she sends them overseas periodically) or if i can wait until i make a 2nd one to send along as well--who knows how long that will be!

one of the reasons why i've been in such a hurry to finish up some of the WIPs that were languishing was because i don't like things hanging over my head and i wanted to start a 2nd Beloved Quilt with a clean-ish slate. i would also like to involve some of my friends in the making of the quilts but i'm not really sure how 'cos they're not quilt-y people--still pondering that.

i'm so grateful to Pascha (who appears to be much more of an activist type than me!) who was obedient to God's calling for her, and which then enabled me to participate in this way. i don't really know where this path is leading--whether it'll get bigger or if it'll stop after 2 quilts (i personally committed to at least two, if not more) --but i'm learning that God's journey for me is not of my making and not under my control. all i can do is obey what is in front of me.

Max's Truck Quilt

finally--a finished quilt! this is just a "quick" (though it still took months to complete) bed quilt for max using scraps of truck fabrics leftover from another project (and those were scraps too).


because this is a quilt for everyday use, i decided to machine bind it so that it'll actually be done (it'll take me a couple more months to hand-bind the other 2 quilts i've finshed binding from the last post). i'm still not very good with machine binding but this method does make it a tad better. these are Clover pins--and they are just thin enough to sew over. yup--i said SEW OVER!!!! i've heard that there are quilters who sew over their pins as the norm, but that just seems to be living too dangerously! as it is, my heart stops everytime the machine needle grazes a pin. however, it really does help the back of the binding lie flat while sewing it down.


these pictures show the pins from the front of the quilt--but i found it easier to pin from the back after awhile--that way, i'm sure to catch the entire seam allowance.


i'm still not a big fan of machine binding but it's so much faster than hand-binding!

Basting

phew! a nice productive Saturday afternoon as Paul played (and worked) in the yard with the kids.


Pieced a backing for the bottom quilt and pieced the batting (yeah, i'm cheap, i use up odd pieces of batting to make a new bigger piece) for the middle quilt and then pin-basted all 3. Hooray! these WIPs have been weighing heavy on my mind.


the top quilt is the Christmas quilt i talked about here. i really wanted this done before Christmas but once our tree was up, there was no space in our living room to lay out quilts to baste.


the middle quilt is Max's Truck Quilt. it's a pretty loud quilt, made up of bits and pieces from the scrap pile--but it's got trucks and i think Max will like it.


the bottom quilt was made for VLJ but now i'm not so sure. i'm giving her the opportunity to yay or nay it this saturday when we hang out. the fabrics are beautiful (Posh & Charisma by Chez Moi, Moda) but it's a tad simple. well, if she doesn't want it, i can think of other people who will :-)


of course there's still tons to do--quilting them (i usually just meander all over them) and then putting on the binding. i don't think i'll machine-bind them this time after what happened in the last post!

binding

i've been working on machine-sewing the binding on quilts--both sides, not just the top part--it's turning out horrible! but functional. and so much faster than hand-sewing the back so i guess i'll keep practicing (nope, i'm not showing pictures of my terrible workmanship--these are just pretty pix of the fabrics :-)


this is my latest quilt--it's completely finished today--hooray! i'll try and take a good picture and write up the whole story soon--it's a quilt for charity--inspired by Quilting for Peace

Swimming & Quilting

the kids were swimming (first lesson! they did great :-) and i was quilting (when not taking pictures of them). this is the Dotty Dresden Plate quilt that i've been working on. it's the hand-sewing project that i carry everywhere and i'm on block #24! (started this in july of last year). the pattern calls for 24 blocks but i think i'd rather have a 5x5 setting (i.e. 25 blocks) rather than a 6x4 setting so i only have one more block to go. of course, it'll probably take me another 6 months after that to actually finish the quilt...