Stitchin' Mission Voting and Sewing

I've gotta begin this post by asking, "Have you voted for Stitchin' Mission today?"

The contest is still on to win a $1,000 grant, and Stitchin' Mission can win only by capturing the most votes. With the grant, my dream is to make a DVD of Stitchin' Mission's five free beginner quiltmaking lessons. Stitchin' Mission will win only if you help by casting your online vote daily, until noon on August 31.

Please vote for Stitchin' Mission every day at http://tinyurl.com/vote4SM

Now that I have made that important request, here's some of what else has been going on.

Our daughter and her family left our house early Monday morning after spending one-day-shy-of four weeks with us. The house seems extraordinarily empty without the baby bed, high chair, jumper, toys, the baby/dog gate to walk through, and no bottles and baby spoons drying across the kitchen counter. So empty. Though I've spent a bit of time vacuuming, mopping the floor and doing laundry, I haven't yet been able to bring myself to wipe the baby hand prints from the front picture window.

I got such a kick out of this picture of Tay playing hide-and-seek with me. Whenever he was hiding under the quilt, he noticed the fabric prints, pointing at one and "talking" to it. It made my quilting heart sing whenever he headed toward any of my quilts and began pointing at the prints.

After the family left, I plunged into my sewing space. In fact, I've been so excited to be amongst my quilt-y things that I've had trouble sticking to one project! Here are several that I've had in my hands this week.

I pulled out these containers of fabric rectangles and squares that I cut at least two years ago. I began piecing them into the scrap quilt pattern "Stacked Bricks" from the 1985 book Scrap Quilts, by Judy Martin.

I thought it looked like a good pattern for using up the seemingly excessive number of ugly prints I managed to acquire. Did I really like them when I purchased them?

The pattern called for cutting triangles to sew onto each rectangle. I opted to cut and sew squares onto each rectangle. Then I cut the squares on the diagonal.

Though I still need to insert fabric strips, or perhaps scrappy four-patch blocks, between each of the eight columns of 27 bricks, I'm happy with this week's progress. Much of this was accomplished while I sewed at home Friday evening, participating in a blogospheric Friday Night Sew-In organized by Heidi. It's fun to sew, knowing others are "out there," doing the same.

I also made these Asterisk blocks. They turned out nice, didn't they? I needed to make up some to show quilters at my church who are meeting for a sewing day on September 18. We might make a whole quilt like this. I love this block! It's a design that comes from the talented Karen Griska who, on her Selvage Blog, has easy-to-follow instructions for making them. I made mine just a wee bit larger. Karen's blocks finish at 5-1/2" X 5-1/2". My blocks will finish at 6" X 6".

Trying to maintain my commitment to my Ten in '10 challenge (see list at right), I've been hand-piecing to join the Periwinkle Star quilt center to the appliqued border. It would be much easier and faster to join these by machine, but since I've come this far, piecing and appliqueing by hand, I decided to keep the quilt "pure."

This stitchery is coming along as I continue to work on Snowmen A to Z. This is the letter "A."

Oh. And another update, I didn't win any ribbons at the Iowa State Fair this year. I entered Celina's Big Sister quilt and denim slippers made from upcycled blue jeans and got nada. But I'm okay about it. Hundreds of talented quilters and sewers entered the fair and the best deserved their wins.

A group of us at church were asked to make 27 school uniforms for kids living in Robin's Nest Orphanage in Jamaica. Since a mission team is heading to Jamaica in another week, we discovered we have very little time to put the uniforms together. Wednesday evening a group met to cut and begin sewing. This afternoon at 12:30, I too began sewing... navy blue shorts, in sizes 4, 6, and 7. At 2:30 two friends came over to join me.

We sewed until 6:30 and managed to make 17 pairs of shorts and two skorts. There's more sewing to do, including 27 shirts, but we were pleased to accomplish so much in our own little production line.

These are my sewing companions, Kim (L) and Linda (R). You girls are wonderful!

I'll close this long post with another joke that came in during my giveaway a few weeks ago.

A blonde walked into the library and said "I'd like a Big Mac, a large fry, and a Coke."

The librarian, surprised, stammered, "Well, ma'am ... this is the library."

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry!" said the blonde.

Then she whispered, "I'd like a Big Mac, a large fry, and a Coke."

Don't you just love a good blonde joke? Thank you Megan, MusicMaiden, for that cute one.

Hey! Don't forget vote for Stitchin' Mission! Please? http://tinyurl.com/vote4SM