Bags and Bee and BOM

Thanks to 31 of you who entered my giveaway for a copy of  Modern Baby Quilts. Number 31, was the winner - Sherry, who's a member of the Des Moines MQG. Congratulations, Sherry!

Have you heard of Operation Christmas Child? It's a shoebox-filling project to collect and send boxes of small gifts to children in other countries. Our church is supporting the effort, even sending 14 people from our church to help process boxes in Atlanta. We took two empty boxes for filling.

We could choose to fill boxes for a boy or girl, in one of three age ranges. We picked the 5 to 9 year-old group, one box for a boy and one box for a girl.

We've been told that book bags are a much-needed item, so it was fun to make these two with fabric from my stash. I adapted this tutorial, making small modifications to make sewing even faster.

For the boy, some essentials (bar soap, washcloths, toothbrush and toothpaste, lip balm, pencils and an eraser) and a couple just-for-fun things.

Likewise, for the girl. It's satisfying to help just a little bit, and know that we'll have helped put a smile on a child's face. We saw the video of what it's like when the boxes are distributed. It just makes you feel warm and squishy inside.

For the Mid-Century Modern Bee, our November Queen Bee, René requested four triangles to sew into a Spider Web block. Here's the tutorial we used. The only difference is that René doesn't want us to sew together the triangles. That's so she can mix them up once she receives pieces from all 12 of us.

These were a mess to make, but oh-so-much-fun! I pulled out several of my small pieces bins to press and cut strips 1" to 2" wide.

I could sew spider web blocks for hours... and probably still not make much of a dent in my scraps. René will be getting eight triangles from me. One of them includes this bit of flamingo. I guess that fabric has become sort of my identification, as I've included it in several bee blocks. 

Keeping up with the Bay Area Modern BOM, along with a few quilters from our Central Florida MQG, I made this 12-1/2" Pixel Strips block. It was easy to sew.

Lately, I've been adding to my fabric stash, for ease in sewing when the moods strikes, or so I rationalize it. I also now own a Quick Curve ruler, and can't wait to make the quilt that's in my head. That is, after finishing the Riley Blake Challenge, a Project Linus quilt, a new quilt design for students in my beginner quilting class, and a couple Christmas gifts! I bet your quilting list is as long as mine. Make me feel better and say, "Yes, my list is long too, Linda!"