Brown, pink, green, stripey dots for my daughter-in-law, Sarah.
Check out all the other handmade goodness at Everything Etsy.
Brown, pink, green, stripey dots for my daughter-in-law, Sarah.
Check out all the other handmade goodness at Everything Etsy.
I guess I went a little bit crazy. I made up for not being in a real fabric store in so long! Ooooooo, I can already feel another shopping trip coming on….
Ok, it is not really new–I cut the original 3″ inch strips and sewed them together in March of 2008. The next step was to cut them on a 45 degree angle, then sew them together again. I had a fear of the 45 degree angle, so I put the entire project under the bed and slept on it, literally, for over a year.
Today was the day I decided to tackle those cuts. My folding table is stored behind the back seat of the truck. My iron is in the linen closet. Scissors, rotary cutter, thread, magnetic pin bowl are in the wicker trunk in the living area. The sewing machine, folding chair, cutting mat and rulers are all kept under the bed. It took a while to gather everything together, but I finally got started. Then I couldn’t figure out how to place the ruler on the fabric to accomplish the 45 degree cuts. Dang.
The guy who lives next door is a carpenter. I went over there and asked him about it, so he came over and helped me figure it out. Thanks, Dennis. Between the two of us we got it. He went home and I worked on it all afternoon. The picute above are all the strips I cut today. They are numbered because you have to sew them together in a certain order to get the pattern to come out right.
There are eight sections in all. I finished three of them today. This is going to be a really large quilt, queen sized at least. This one is for Becca and Ken. I have another set of strips all sewn together, with all the same fabrics except one (I didn’t have enough of all the fabrics to make two quilts). The second one is for Seth and Sarah. I am going to send both of them to be quilted by the lady who quilted Becky’s quilt for me. I think these are going to be gorgeous.
When my daughters were young, I was their Girl Scout leader for more than eight years. We did lots of things in Girl Scout Troop 147–we camped, we went on lots of out of town trips, we sold cookies, we sang songs. But one of the most important things we did was community service projects.
We visited the local nursing home to play bingo with the residents once a month. We made tray decorations for Meals On Wheels. We collected food for the needy and helped deliver the boxes when the girls were older. For the girls in our troop, the community service projects were a very important part of being Girl Scouts.
Last year, I joined Facebook, and have connected with many people I have known over the years through there. Many of my former Girl Scouts have “friended” me on Facebook, and I have been very proud to see how they have grown and matured. One of them, Jimell, is a stay at home mom to four beautiful children. Her son, Coby, thought up a neat community service project of his own.
Coby is making bookmarks to sell in his mom’s Etsy store. The money he makes on them is going to be spent buying books for his school library. I think it is a very good thing for him to do on his own. What a good kid!
Jimell says:
….”Coby just turned 8 in May and is going into the 3rd grade. He loves making crafts with me and has made bookmarks for his classmates and other friends and has always had fun creating new designs. He was brainstorming last week and asked if he could make some to sell on my Etsy shop. He thought of the idea of selling them to buy new books for his school library since they were doing a ‘bookraiser’ this last school year. I told him I thought it was a great idea and I would help him get the word out if he made the ‘Marks’ as he calls them. He made me agree on one condition…he got to read the books first before he took them to Mrs. Rachel (the librarian)”….
and here is what Coby says:
…”Hi, my name is Coby and I am 8 years old. I am in the 3rd grade. I love to make crafts like my mom. I love to read. I want to get my school some new books for the library. I came up with the idea to make book marks and sell them on my mom’s shop to raise money to buy new books. I make all my book marks myself but my mom lets me use her stuff.
Please buy a book mark from me. They are good for your Bible or a gift. Buy a bunch! I can make any color you want, just tell me. Thank you…”
One of my new co-workers is adding a baby boy to their family soon. I had bought these fabrics in Flagstaff on our way up in April, and have been letting them sit there for a while, while I figured out what to do with them. I think they will make a very nice baby quilt for a little boy, don’t you? Now I just have to figure out what pattern to use…