12 Months of Giving: JANUARY

Three entries in a week and a half must be some kind of record for me!  I was excited, however, to come across my first project, which I just sent out this weekend and I wanted to share.

First, some stats:
The Organization:  Craft Hope (The website is currently down, but they do have a Facebook page)
The Cause:  Hurricane Sandy Relief
The Project: Homemade softies for children who lost toys during the hurricane
The Deadline:  January 10th (but it's a flexible deadline, so I'm sure getting a little project in the mail by this weekend would be fine)

This was a great first project for me during my 12 Months of Giving because it was fairly simple and also got something I didn't really need out of my house.

I found this fabric panel a while back at a church thrift shop.

I thought it was so sweet, but I had absolutely no use for it.  The panel made four softies total:  A frog wearing glasses, a pink bunny, a tiger kitty, and a puppy with floppy ears.  I could tell the previous owner had high hopes for the kit because she had begun to embroider the details on the bunny and the frog.  It was cheap enough that it was silly to leave it there.

When I took it home, I realized that the little guys would be pretty small when the seam allowance was taken into consideration, so I thought they might make sweet baby rattles.  Upon asking for a "rattle piece" at the fabric store, however, I was met with some weird looks.  Then, a very sweet old lady in the shop pulled me aside and said that a jingle bell would do the trick; it was small enough to fit inside a small toy, and would rattle (rather than jingle) when it was surrounded by the plush stuffing.  Thank goodness, really, for sweet old ladies in quilt stores.

So then, with everything all picked out for my little rattles, they sat, for about 6 months... in a box...

All cut up and ready for sewing!

Then, I read about this project and it caused me to smile, thinking of the little rattles, unmade, sitting in a box, and I knew it was time to dig them out.

It took me one night to make them and address the envelope and it has brought me so much joy to think of the little babies that they are bound for.  They came out so sweetly and I would feel blessed to own one.  I know that they are all bound for good homes.

Whoever their previous owner was, I hope somewhere she has a happy feeling as well.  After all, we did technically make them together.

God is good.
Life is good.
Little lingonberries are everywhere.

4 Months of Sewing and 12 Months of Giving

Right now a sleepy puppy is curled up next to me and our new electric fireplace is blowing warm air into the living room, so I am feeling content, to say the least.  This Christmas season has reminded me how blessed I am.  I have good friends, a warm home, and a loving family.

I feel like this holiday season has also reminded me what a challenging time others in the world are having.  Its really hard not to remember the people left without family and homes as a result of the numerous national tragedies that plagued us this year.  But I found myself also thinking about the people that spent the holidays without family and home because of less news-worthy (but just as important) issues-- poverty, domestic violence, mental illness, terminal sickness, deployment, etc.

I had a lot of fun sewing some projects over the last few months.  I think it is time to use my sewing energy to make some things for people who need them.  SO I have one New Year's Resolution, and it is to volunteer or donate to a different non-profit every month that collects hand-crafted goods for people who need them.  I'm still going to make sure that I sew some projects for friends and family, of course (3 weddings this year!), but I want to focus on giving back, too.

So, now I want to show some of the projects that took up the last 4 months.

One of the biggest projects I made, I never ended up taking a picture of (bummer), but it was a quilt for friends of mine who got married in October.  The pattern for that quilt is here... and you can trust me... it came out beautifully.

Above was my next big project.  During the hurricane, I made a quilt for one of the women at my office who was having twins.  She has since had the little guys, two very sweet (and very bitty), little boys.  Since she did not know the sex of the babies during her pregnancy, I made a gender-neutral baby quilt.  It ended up being the colors of her nursery, just by coincidence, which made me smile.  We were really fortunate to never even lose power during the hurricane (not the case for those around us), but I was so paranoid that we were going to, that I initially rushed through quilting it, a decision that almost led to disaster when the entire quilt came out all buckled and wrinkled.  Five hours later, I had managed to un-quilt (via seam-ripper) the top from the bottom and decided to tie the quilt instead.  The end result was a plushy, soft quilt that I was proud to give as a gift.

I have wanted to make these Christmas Tree Pants (because not all trees wear skirts) since I saw the Sew-A-Long courtesy of Happy Zombie last year.  When I started the project, I cut all the fabric and then spent three days panicking that I this would the ugliest thing I had ever sewn.  I just hated all the fabrics together.  I had really carefully assembled all of the fabrics and I felt like they looked fabulous... until I saw them cut into squares together.  It wasn't until I sewed the 9-patches that I started to love it.  I was  happy with the result and it was pretty cute under the tree.








Life is good.
God is good.
Little lingonberries are everywhere.