A Very Giving Effort

For some time my friend Jean had a vision of starting a quilting group at church. She would teach the ladies how to quilt and then they would make donation quilts. What a delight to have seen this vision become a reality. The group meets twice a month for almost a full day. Some had not quilted before. Jean is not only extremely talented, but a patient and gifted teacher. A fabric company donated many yards of fabric and they all got to work.

The presentation at church one Sunday was quite impressive.

Unfortunately due to my work schedule, I cannot join this group, but I can encourage them, applaud them and pray for them as they continue to make another great batch of cheerful and beautiful quilts.

The beautiful quilts have made their way to Hospice and will soon bless patients. Hopefully the quilts will both warm their bodies and warm their hearts. I know they did mine.

New Blogger!

There are so many creative beings out there, and I love to see their latest accomplishments and ideas through blogs. I especially like to encourage new bloggers. A great new one to check out is http://elysesusan.blogspot.com. Above is a pic of one of her newest - a bright batik sewing machine cover. Also notice the shelf in the upper right corner - instead of the usual wood or metal brackets, she used ribbon! It's not only decorative, but does a good job of holding up the small shelf.

Although taught as a young girl, Elyse is fairly new to the sewing world. She doesn't mind new challenges and is fairly courageous (multiple zippers didn't eve phase her on one of her earlier projects!). I enjoy her choice of bold, bright colors and her use of large patterns in small spaces - something I just don't have the courage to do. I also love the generous spirit she has shown in making her friends so many beautiful gifts.

And yes, she's my daughter of whom I am very proud. Interesting is how I'm now learning from her. It's a direction I have embraced and would like to give her all the encouragement possible. She is a joy, and so are her talents.

Quilts for the Cubicle

I don't work in a cubicle, but if I did, I would definitely want to brighten it. I was so inspired to create three cubicle quilts for my daughter. The first one was this flower CQ that I gave her in May. I had fun using cording, paints and beads.

The second was inspired by her return from Quilt Market. As we quilters know, "Most Fabric Wins" - definitely! I wanted to make this one very three dimensional. I baked yarn for the hair (wet yarn wrapped around a dowel).

I filled the little pincushion and those are real pins in there - just made shorter with a wire cutter. The handbag, well, MK is her favoriate handbag designer and this was the only way she was ever going to get one from me! I went to GoodWill and bought a little purse, cut it up and began to sew. It so reminded me of when I sewed Barbie clothes - I never enjoyed that much either! But just this one was fun. The shoes were a challenge. I was finally pleased with them after I added the glitter paint.

To finish it off, instead of a traditional binding, I used yarn - zig zagged three rows around the edges.

The third was for the Fourth of July holiday. We love Lady Liberty, so I used a silhouette of the statue. Again I chose not to use a traditional binding. I used a "fabric fringe" binding - made it so much more fun!

Wouldn't it be nice to have a CQ for each month of the year?!