quick projects

Hi there! The weather has been so wonderful here lately it's been hard to be inside for very long.

Yesterday I finished up a few quick projects.

This is Kidlet (PDF), a gift for a cousin's new baby boy. I had all the materials on hand except the webbing for the handle. I just reinforced some fabric with interfacing and quadruple folded it. Love how it came out!

This is a "Charm Quilt" that was a custom order. You tie charms onto each white square - the child gets a new charm each year for their birthday through the age of 18. I had never heard of this before but it's a neat idea.

It's been such a great week here! We got a very large donation for our trip and it just about covers what we needed! The drawing for the quilt is tomorrow and we've raised almost $800 for it alone! So exciting!

Raffle for Zambian Orphans

Today I would like to go somewhere I don't often go on this blog: personal! It's something I'd thought you'd like to know about though because it has and will be affecting my life in a big way.

Last fall my husband and I decided to sign up for a mission trip to Zambia, Africa this summer. A lot of people from our church went last year and the stories they came back with were so amazing we decided we wanted to be a part of it.

So, in June we will be heading out with a highly experienced missions organization called Family Legacy to serve as camp counselors. This Camp Life program for the orphans of Zambia is one of many programs Family Legacy started doing 10 years ago. They also are building schools and safe havens (for orphans that are in life-threatening situations) and running sponsorship programs. It's really amazing all that they do and how effective they are!

Our involvement will allow 25 orphaned kids to spend a week at Camp Life. Each day at Camp Life we will be working directly with the same group of orphans: playing games, teaching Bible lessons, singing songs, and simply hugging and loving these kids in a way most have never experienced. This week of camp will be the highlight of their year!

Zambia is a peaceful country located just north of the country of South Africa and as you've probably guessed, is extremely poor. Because of HIV/AIDS, it has the highest per capita orphan rate in the world. And what's really sad is that there really are no state-run orphanages where these kids can go so they are left with relative who don't want them or they fend for themselves.

As you can imagine, we have quite a bit of money to raise, mainly because of the cost of airfare. We are getting close to our goal though! We still need about $2,500 out of the $7,500 required for the both of us to go.

One of the things I am doing to help is I am raffling off one of my handmade quilts! I thought I would give all of my blogland friends an opportunity to join in! (please do not feel obligated in any way!)

TO ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN:

• give $5 for 1 chance
• give $10 for 3 chances
• give $20 for 6 chances, etc.
• link to this post on your blog for an extra chance!

1. Click HERE to give (this is our fundraising page and the money goes directly to Family Legacy for our trip) OR if you'd rather send a check email me at quiltsbyemily(at)yahoo(dot)com.
2. Just leave me a comment or send me an email at quiltsbyemily(at)yahoo(dot)com to let me know you've entered and if you've linked to this post
3. I will be drawing a winner on April 1st!

Quilt Details: This throw quilt is my own pattern, Optimism, which will be available soon. It is 43" by 57" and is made with fabric from the Cotton Blossoms collection by Moda.

Thank you! I cannot tell you how excited we are to have the opportunity to do this!!!

Museum Tunic

Here is a little something I finished last fall but only got to wear once before it got too chilly.

I followed Anna Maria Horner's tutorial but then had to make several adjustments to make it perfect for me.

Here are the mods I made:

• I used elastic thread for the waist instead of sewing in elastic (only because it was all I had)
• had to take in a ton on the sides under the arms to make it a bit more fitted - don't ask me how I did it, I just winged it
• Shortened the length by cutting off one row of squares

It's a bit fiddly to wear because I have to keep adjusting the sides of the waist because they start drooping down after a while. Also, I have to safety pin the shoulders to my camisole and bra to keep them up. Despite this I love how it came out!

Road Block

Ugh! Sometimes knitting "builds character" as my dad would say.

The thought of having a finished knit was so exciting I jumped right into seaming the collar onto my New York Cardigan. Then it became more and more apparent that the collar would not be long enough. I pressed on to the bitter end hoping it would stretch and magically fit. It was only a delusion though. And to make it worse, I have very little yarn left and I don't know if I'll have enough. Wow, do I sound whiny or what? It's been sitting in this state for weeks now and it's time to do something about it. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I have tons of quilts in progress that I can't wait to show you. However, one particular custom order ate up a lot of my time last week!

A lady asked me to make a keepsake quilt for a fundraising auction for a 1st grade class. She sent me the "word patches" on which the kids had written all kinds of inspirational words on. I sewed them all on in the style of a ticker tape quilt, which was quite a feat considering how large this quilt ended up.

It took almost as long to trim off all the loose threads after washing as it did to sew all the patches on!