Quilting progress or lack thereof......

Sometime late last year I feel like I lost my quilting momentum and the love and passion just disappeared and I looked up one day and it had been weeks since I'd even touched my machine. I was such an addicted quilter before this and hardly ever went more than 5 days without sewing. In August I got stiffed in an online Christmas swap, then my Dad had a stroke and it seemed like all my spare time was spent traveling to see him and the holidays came and went without much fanfare. January came and I decided to move my sewing to my office space and thought maybe that would spark some interest but it just sat there. I am planning a trip to Albania in June for my son'sweed ding and then will go to Greece for a week so I was looking online one day for quilt things/shops in Athens and stumbled upon Kristine in Thessaloniki, Greece that is teaching young girls to quilt and helping make quilts for women and children taken in from human trafficking and also for some orphanages in the local area and it all just touched my heart how they needed quilts and I decided to start making quilts for her. I now have 6 quilt tops ready to send and all it really took was looking outside of myself to get my quilting going again. It probably doesn't help that I have a pinterest account and I spend so much time looking at things to make and never actually making anything. So if you are interested on helping the orphanages in Greece go check out her site and blog, I know she could always use more help. I had also just read another article last week that as the economy in Greece continues to tank more and more families are taking their children to orphanages and turning them over because thyme can't afford to feed them and this just breaks my heart and so reminds me of our own great depression and it's a country in desperate need right now. Her website is www.toquiltorknot.com.

All in all life is good, my son's getting very excited about his upcoming wedding, he should graduate next spring, my Dad is doing very well and almost back to normal and at almost 89 that was a great feat. I'm quilting again and grateful to have some focus on what's really important in life to unearth my apathy. I'll try and take pictures of the quilts before I ship them so you can see the fun I've had these past couple of weeks.

I hope everyone else is having a productive and happy winter, I won't be long before we're back in the heat and draught of summer.

The stars are aligning for something big!

I came to Philadelphia last week for my son's engagement party which is scheduled for Saturday night and also to meet and visit with some new found cousins and family I haven't seen in awhile.

 We were enjoying a wonderful luncheon in New Jersey with family when all of a sudden the lights starting swaying the table shook. Everyone was looking around not knowing what was going on. We had no cell phone service and it was just a little disconcerting not knowing if it was an unheard of earthquake or some sort of terrroist attack. We had a couple of smaller aftershocks later that day but nothing serious. Now this in and of itself is pretty unusal for New Jersey but the next day they start talking about Irene making a path up the eastern coastline and we should start preperations for the "storm of the century".  We have pretty much just been going about out usual days shopping and enjoying the wonderful weather of the east coast. My future daughter in law Greta and I went to Phildelphia's Magic Gardens on South Street and had a great time taking in all the wonderful art that Isaiah Zagar has blessed the city with. If you haven't ever been here this should be on your must see list if you come to Philadelphia.

Sunday we went to Atlantic City

  and walked the boardwalk , shopped and enjoyed the wonderful early fall weather they have been enjoying.

 This morning my cousin Diane and I decided to drive to Ocean City, NJ and see what was going on and do some more shopping and walk the boardwalk. We hit everyone of the TaDah shops on Asbury Ave. and came away with some fun stuff.

We shopped for all of 2 hours and then everyone was buzzing about saying we needed to get out of town because the NJ govenor was calling for all out of town people to leave the area and they were already making preperations for evacuations of Cape May that will be mandatory tomorrow morning. And to think I was so excited when I got here last Thursday to finally see rain ( we haven't had rain in central Texas in a long long time). Be careful what you wish for. With any luck the engagement party will still take place on Saturday night in time for us to get home and batten down the hatches before Irene hits on Sunday. With any luck my flight will still make on Monday afternoon.

Say a prayer for us all that we are safe and the kids enjoy their engagement party and if nothing else it will be memorable.

Summer Sunday reads...

 So another book I just finished is one of Nicholas Sparks, Safe Haven. It's an easy read with a good ending and a good feeling book. Not too heavy just a sweet love story. I wouldn't exactly call this a favorite but it's definately something I would read again and feel safe recommending. I have read a number of his books , some better than others and this is at least a keeper book. Have you read this one? What did you think? I just finished "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand another great book. Do you have any suggestions? Any avid readers out there.

Happy summer reading....

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday bag

I've been meaning to make this little bag for my sister for her birthday (belated) and while it's supposed to be a Two-Hour Tulip purse , I think that only means if you know what you are doing. It's only my second bag and it took me more like 4 hours but I hope she'll love it none the less.

I chose to make mine out of batiks which I really loved

 with a beautiful purple lining (batik) with all the pockets and dividers but I added a cardboard covered square to the inside to give it some structure. I also added a peice of polymer I had for the button and she's all set. Hope she loves it.

Heart warming

Have you seen this yet, it will make you smile and hopefully make you want to pass it on.

Have a wonderful day!

Calming Effects

It's that time of year again when the fawns start stepping out on their own and it's so fun to finally get a chance to photograph some of them. I am working on a quilt called Calming Effects and love the similarity in color and peace from both the fawns and the quilt. This is a pattern I bought a few years back at Creations Quilt Shop in Kerrville and only just this weekend got the top finished.

The concept of the quilt was to use striped fabrics cut into strips and then into triangles. Then you sewed the triangles into squares and the squares back into rows. I played around with various striped fabrics but ultimately went with a neutral batik stripe for that calming effect shown on the pattern cover.

 A close up of the squares sewn together and the overall effect  of the batik.

The inner border is a stonehenge in green/brown tones and the outer border is another batik with a lavender hint. I am thinking about hand quilting this in purple with a matching lilac/purple binding.

Here's the batik going on the back.

 

Happy August, stay cool and pray for rain for Texas!