Giving Tree

I don't usually talk about things I do outside of my family, but today I want to share with you a little about what I've been up to this crazy month of December.  A little background:  I'm Relief Society President in my ward.  For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, I am over the spiritual and temporal welfare of the 200+ women that are 18 and over in my church congregation (we refer to congregations as wards in the LDS church).

One of my responsibilities during the holidays is to oversee the Giving Tree.  I try to find out what families need help with for Christmas, and then we place tags on the tree for members of the ward to take and get things for these families.  It takes a lot of coordination, because we try to make the giving and receiving as anonymous as possible, but also because in our particular ward we have a lot of needs.  For those of you who are not familiar with the way Mormon congregations work, it's all by geographical boundaries.  You attend the ward where your home fits within the boundaries.  You can literally type your address in on lds.org and it tells you which meetinghouse you would attend.  I can travel anywhere in the world and easily look up where I would go to church.  It's kinda nifty.  Anyway, the boundaries in my particular ward include a section of downtown Columbus, and we happen to have a lot of people who struggle financially and are going through hard times.  A lot of families needed to be on the Giving Tree.  I also wanted to make sure that single parents and widows weren't forgotten about.  This meant the Giving Tree was quite a huge project to manage.

For the last week my house has looked like a Christmas explosion with gifts, stockings and gift cards all over the place.  Last night I emptied my house and we came to the church to make all of the fruit baskets and organize all of the gifts to be distributed.  It was quite a production.  We put it all together in just over an hour, and then sent out people to make deliveries.  After all was said and done we gave out 44 fruit baskets, 46 gift cards, 15 stockings and 18 gifts for children, and 5 turkey dinners.  The cellophane wrapping didn't hold as much fruit as we originally thought it would, so we also had a lot of extra fruit and nuts.  We ended up giving another 20 families the rest of the fruit. 

It was a completely chaotic evening, but it feels so good to have everything done and distributed.  My favorite part of this whole experience has been to witness the generosity and thoughtfulness of so many people.  The Giving Tree wouldn't have been possible without their willingness to give and to serve.  I love the holidays for this very reason.

Now that this particular endeavor is behind me, it's time to do some holiday baking.  :)  I'd say I was going to sleep for 24 hours straight, but since that's not an option I'll settle for baking. 

Catching Up

I'm determined to get everything done by Christmas.  I may go crazy in the process (well, technically speaking my husband would probably argue I've already stepped over that threshold, so maybe I should just embrace it).

Anyway, I was thrilled to get both of my Skill Builder blocks quilted yesterday.  I took very opposite approaches with them.  The first I went for minimalist quilting.  It just felt like less is more with this block:

 The second block I really wanted to play with Echo Shells.  I've never tried quilting around an applique design before, so it was really good practice for me:

 I particularly like the view from the back:

Inside the diamond is my favorite part.  I believe Leah Day affectionately refers to this stitch as the Hairball.  The name fits a little too well.

I have one more Skill Builder block to do before I can put this quilt together.  It's finally starting to come together!

Slightly Behind

Why is it always the month you have the most to do that you have the least amount of time to do it in?  Life has been so ridiculously busy that after a full week all I have to show for myself is one Skill Builder block. 

I did at least get Modern Beauty done today.  I used the "invisible" thread again only this time I used a different zigzag stitch on my machine, and it worked a bit better.  I'm still not a huge fan of this thread, but it wasn't quite as bad as last time. 

Next up is getting some of the kids' gifts done, and also I need to quilt this block.

Gettysburg Getaway

Joel's parents were kind enough to send us away for 24 hours while they and Aunt Liz watched the kiddos.  They live just 45 minutes away from Gettysburg, so it was the perfect distance.  We stayed at the cutest Bed and Breakfast.  It's called the Baladerry Inn.  The place is absolutely charming with the old brick fireplaces and 1800s decor.  The original part of the home (the brick section pictured above) was used as a hospital during the battle of Gettysburg.

I hadn't been to Gettysburg since my 5th grade field trip, so it's been a while.  They've really built up the place.  The new visitor center is huge!  Joel and I decided to spend the morning taking the self-guided car tour.  I've always found the Civil War very fascinating, so it was a very interesting visit.  The picture below is the view off of Little Round Top - the valley below is where "Pickett's Charge" took place.  Lee lost over 5,000 Confederate men in one hour charging across open fields.

Total casualties (killed, wounded, captured, and missing) for the 3 days of fighting in Gettysburg were 23,000 (Union Army) & 28,000 (Confederate Army).  It was pretty sobering to think of so many men fighting and dieing here.

How Can It Already Be December?

December always sneaks up on me.  Even though I was feeling good about myself for knocking a couple things off my list early I now find myself with quite a few things to do before Christmas.  What else is new?

1- I started prep work for another Skill Builder block:

I was supposed to be using this quilt as a Christmas gift, so I need to get my booty in gear and finish up the last couple of blocks. 

2- December Blocks for do.Good Stitches - this may have to be pushed back until after Christmas

3- I have a list of things to make for the Torres Cousins and the kiddos.  Once my Skill Builder block is finished I'm going to start ticking these off my list.

4- Eh...remember this quilt top from last year?  Oops- it's still sitting in my closet waiting to be finished.  I should probably work on that one of these days.

5- My Sisters' BOM blocks still need to be made into a quilt top, but that may also get pushed back until after Christmas.

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 5

Barbie Needs a Quilt, Too

We're on our second round of the stomach bug in under a week around here.  Little Man stayed home from school and the kiddos have been lounging around in their pajamas all day while I've been sanitizing the whole house...again.  There's nothing quite like a reoccurring illness to make you paranoid about germs.  I've got just about everything wiped down, washed and/or swept, so I can finally sit down and post this.

I haven't gotten much done so far this week, but I did manage to start a birthday gift for one of my nieces.  She's turning 5 and my sister requested that I make quilts and pillows for her Barbies since she's getting a Barbie house for Christmas.  I think it's always fun to work on mini-versions of things with scraps, so I was excited about this project. First thing's first - I had to borrow a Barbie from a friend to measure how big to make the quilts, because my daughter hasn't hit the Barbie phase yet.

Here's Barbie quilt top #1:

One of the reasons why I love using scraps so much is because each fabric reminds me of the previous quilts I used them for and the people I gave them to.  It makes every scrap bust a trip down memory lane while I piece the new project together. 

A while back I started saving all the triangles I cut off while making quilt bindings.  I kind of did it on a whim and didn't have any particular idea in mind when I started saving them.  As I was thinking about possibilities for these little quilts I thought, "Hey - I have all those triangles!  Let's do some mini pinwheels."  I wasn't very particular about cutting them down so not all of them line up, but somehow I don't think Barbie will mind. 

I made the two quilt tops coordinate by using matching borders.

Here's Barbie quilt top #2: 

 

Lots o' Projects

It's been a while since I went to the trouble of making the actual list for WIP, but I'm needing to get myself organized, so this is a good place to do it.

1- Receiving Blanket was started and completed this week.  Check that one off!

2- Sister's Modern BOM:  All of the blocks are completed, so now I need to make a quilt top.

3- Skill Builder:  I got one block done this week.  I'm about 5 behind...I think.  I've lost track at this point.  I'm not too sure I'm going to be able to get all of them done by the end of the year.  We'll see.

4- I've cut out what I need to make purses for my daughter and my niece (for Christmas).  That's the first thing to cross off my list this week.

Other projects

do.Good Stitches- need to do November blocks

Christmas quilt - really should be on the radar, but it's not

Upcoming projects

Stuffed Animal Sleeping bags for the kiddos
Mel's birthday gift
Madrid Temple Wholecloth quilt

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 3
Completed projects - 1
WIP- 7

The "Not-So Invisible" Invisible Thread

Anyone else love Princess Bride?  This is what came to mind when working with Invisible Sulky thread yesterday:

As part of a Skill Builder you are supposed to get outside of your comfort zone and try things you've never done before.  I tried "invisible" thread and boy is it a pain in the buh-tootie to work with.  It's super fine and very difficult to see, and the thread tension is crazy weird.  See all of those thread ends to work with?

I personally think that for the amount of pain it is to work with that this thread isn't really worth it.  I think it's still pretty visible.  Maybe if I used a smaller needle the punch marks wouldn't be so noticeable in the fabric.  I still have another Skill Builder block to do with this thread and I'm debating about just using regular thread for the applique. Anyone else worked with this stuff before?