satisfaction

Yesterday I felt the need to make something quick and easy. Instant gratification. The Open Wide Zipper Pouch from Anna at Noodlehead was just the ticket!


This is the medium size. I used fusible fleece for the interfacing and it works great to make a sturdy, padded bag.

Recently, I had bought a sampling of Essex Linens to try out. I used a half yard in the natural color in my disappearing nine-patch quilt and here it is in the yarn-dyed black color for my pouch. My question is, to all you linen users, do you prewash or not? I prewashed for the quilt but did not for the pouch. I'm normally NOT a fan of prewashing (all those wrinkles!) but I felt it needed it for use in the quilt.

And who doesn't love art by a 3 (almost 4!) year old?

Jack was drawing rain and a storm cloud and by the time I got my camera it had morphed into rain coming out of the top of the cloud with "red hot" clouds above. What an imagination!

in the nick of time!

I had to put off several things to get this commissioned quilt finished in time to mail out on Friday. I'm quite happy with how it turned out! I really adore the simple disappearing nine patch pattern.

I took the photos of this quilt right before washing/shrinking it and you can see a few tiny wrinkles, oops! I think I'll stick to taking taking pictures post washing, the crinkles really hide the small imperfections.

The backing fabric I scored for $4/yard on Fabric.com a while back. Perfect!

We've had 14 showings of our house so far! It's been crazy but good.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!

1. Quilting CloseUp, 2. #27, 3. Pillow, 4. By Sea or By Land, 5. WholeDresCircle, 6. bow tie quilt, 7. Wonky Quilt Bee - Trees, 8. scrappy granny square quilt, 9. Solomon's finished quilt

blogging

The part of blogging that I struggle with is trying to take the "perfect" photo, then uploading it and editing. It sounds so simple but it always seems like such a pain to me.

I've been trying to find a way to streamline that process so I can more easily share things I'm working on here. I haven't been trying very hard mind you but the other day I downloaded the Flickr app to my phone. The idea of taking a picture and then uploading it to Flickr at the tap of a finger is extremely appealing to me! Granted, that means a cell phone picture. But, honestly, with instagram photos being all the rage these days, you don't have to have the "perfect" photo. I tried getting into instagram, I did, but it just wasn't for me. I like having this blog and documenting things I'm working on.

So, here I am sharing a photo I just took of a quilt I just laid out in preparation for assembling. It's just a simple disappearing  nine-patch but I love how it's looking!

I say I cell phone picture is better than no picture or blog post at all! What do you think?

Friday Favorites

1. Ada's quilt, 2. the best ever gift, 3. nine patch baby quilt, 4. My Song Quilt, 5. improv chevron quilt, 6. cloud quilt, 7. Vintage Sheet Plus Quilt (Finished), 8. Lucy's Lovie, 9. Boy quilt

Our first house showing is today! I'm hoping we'll have lots over the weekend too. Have a lovely crafty weekend!

crazy times

Whew! Things have been crazy around here since we got back from Africa. We'd been considering it for a while but then 2 weeks ago decided to put our house on the market. So, if you've done that before you know how much work it is to prepare your house for sale! Luckily our house didn't need too much work but still, there were little things plus packing away all the clutter.

I have to say, my sewing area has never looked better!

And my Sparkle wall hanging found a temporary home in the spare/junk room-turned-play room.

We worked non-stop for over a week taking 3 loads of things to Goodwill and 3 loads of boxed up stuff for storage at my dad's place. The photographer came yesterday to take pictures of the house for the listing so we have a few days break before the showings start (hopefully!). It's exhausting to get your house looking like perfection!

At one point I was able to take a few minutes to pull fabric for my next quilt which is a commission due the first of August. YIKES! I've got my work cut out for me.

Africa

First off, I want to say thank you for your thoughts, prayers and support for this mission trip to Zambia! This was our second year to go with Family Legacy and minister as camp counselors to the orphaned and vulnerable kids there (read about last year). It was such an incredible privilege for us to each meet a new group of kids this year and share the love of God with them!

Each day of camp we got to teach the kids the Word of God, play games, sing songs and hug them (some of which had NEVER been hugged before!). Throughout the week we spent time with each kid in our groups individually to give them a chance to open up and for us to really get to know them and pray for them.

I had a group of eleven girls, aged 12 – 15 years old. Each one of them was absolutely precious! They all have hardships in their lives that we can’t even imagine. Four of them were not in school because their caretakers could not afford to send them (we’re talking cut-rate schools that cost less than $10/month!). They all desperately want to go to school because they know that an education is vital for their future. One of my girls, Christine, walks an hour each way to school everyday!

On Thursday, we got to go out into the communities where our kids are from and share the Gospel of Christ with others. It’s really neat to see God work through them and in them as they share. Amazingly, I saw several of the girls from my group last year that had been sponsored (pic below).  They were all in a Lifeway Christian Academy (that Family Legacy owns and operates) and their English was much improved and they were all doing so well! It was incredible to see what a difference it can make when a child is sponsored! 

My partners were the best! Most of the girls in my group spoke a small bit of English but not enough to have a real conversation so these ladies were invaluable to me in communicating with the kids.

I cannot wait until Jack is old enough to come with us in a few years! I definitely hope we get to continue to go each summer, it is absolutely the highlight of my year (I can't imagine how much more so it is for the kids!). Zambia is incredibly beautiful and it was nice to escape the heat here (the highs are in the 70s this time of year). If you are interested in sponsoring any of my kids you can do so here. Again, THANK YOU all for your support!