Cleansing and Charity....

A lot has happened in my life in just short 12 days.  New routines, new thought processes and new view of my life and where  I want it to go.

I've been sorting through all my quilting related stuff and "cleansing" it out.  I have sold over $600 in fabric in the past 4 days and still have SOOO much more to get rid of.

Now, don't panic---I'm NOT giving up quilting, but I just have re-evalued my quilt style.  Why do I spend money and how it is useful/wasteful.  How it has effected every aspect of my life from my home, family, friends, marriage etc.  I have opened my eyes a bit wider this past week and feeling a sense of clarity I haven't ever had in my life until now.  It is a GOOD feeling.  It is a fulfilling need.

I have also thought a lot about my Word of the Year - Charity, this week.  While I was going through my stash I found several UFO's I planned to work on for charity purposes and started to "beat" myself up internally.....then I took a step back and tried to remember the definition of charity:

1 : benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity
2 a : generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering; also : aid given to those in need b : an institution engaged in relief of the poor c : public provision for the relief of the needy
3 a : a gift for public benevolent purposes b : an institution (as a hospital) founded by such a gift
4 : lenient judgment of others

Well, I've done a lot of charity for ME this past few weeks.  And I should be proud of that and continue to work on charity for myself as I'm going through this very challenging time in my life.

My goals for the week weren't all meet, but they are goals and I did success in a few and hope to get at least one more done by end of today.

-Quilt 2 baby quilts due to customer - quilting process right now/today on one.

-Make 2 pillows for customer - done and made a little bit of cash.



-Finish add hand work touches to both RRBloggers pieces - still working on this

-Stash sell prep for Wednesday - SUCCESSFUL, made lots of money-still have more to move out of my house though

I'll post new goals tomorrow to start off the week in a good direction---thank you for letting me ramble in this post :)

My one little word for 2010

Pat Sloan posted in her blog about Ali's yearly commitment to one word during the year.  I read both blogs and decided to also take action.

Over the past 3 years, I have been focus on rebuilding myself from the inside out.  I had alot of demons and insecurities I need to work through to find stength, honestly and purpose.  I have learned to accept and take responsiblity for all my actions...let me tell you it is still a hard pill to swallow and humbling at times.  The one thing I have missed in the past 3 years is community service and charity work.  I believe if you take care of yourself you can then be strong enough to take care of others.  I noticed more over the past 4 months that I'm ready now more than ever to do service for others.

So, my word for 2010 is "Charity".  Charity has many possibilities (which is Pat's word) and stories (Ali's word).  Charity allows me to grow more as a person and build faith in human nature.

Charity:

1 : benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity
2 a : generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering; also : aid given to those in need b : an institution engaged in relief of the poor c : public provision for the relief of the needy
3 a : a gift for public benevolent purposes b : an institution (as a hospital) founded by such a gift
4 : lenient judgment of others

Every week, I plan to post something about Charity and my daily life actions to use and live it.

What word would you live by in 2010?  Now if Pat could make me a banner for my word that would be cool :)

Help Ireland Flood Victims

I got this email from Sherry, Editor of Irish Quilting, this morning:

Hello Quilter Friends,

Most all of you have heard about the flooding in Ireland. They say it is a flood occurrence that happens once in 800 years. The South and the West were first affected. Closely behind came the midland areas, such as, severely affected Athlone in Co. Roscommon.  With more torrential storms this past weekend, the Dublin and Kildare counties are experiencing the same.
The number of homes affected in the beginning was tremendous: 500-600.  News from County Cork put the displaced families at a staggering 18,000.
There will be a number of weeks before many residents will be able to adequately estimate the real damage to their home and belongs.

Irish Quilting is asking you if you can help the Irish families displaced. We are donating quilts to bring warmth to these victims.
Can you sew a 13 1/2" unfinished block?
or
Can you donate a quilt?
or
Can you and your friends create a charity quilt (pattern included here!)?

If you said yes to any of these questions above, please contact us. Or, just sew and send!  Be sure to include your name. We will be working with Saint Vincent De Paul and the Irish Red Cross to give back warmth to our flood victims.

Many of our quilting groups are breaking for Christmas. Maybe your group can meet with this need in mind?--several people creating 13" blocks will have a quilt top in no time.  Attached is a flyer asking for blocks (with block pattern) and charity quilts.

Forward all your blocks to the address below. If you know of charitable amounts of wadding and/or backing available, all is appreciated.  So often we work for charities overseas, now there's a clear need for warmth at home, so let's help out!

If you have quilts ready to be donated, please email
me or call me and I will arrange the dropoff/collection point for charity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want all the information, just comment and I'll forward her email on to you.  Her email included a 13 1/2" block pattern as well.  I'm going to host my own make a block day and I'm going to approach this at my shop and see what we can do as a shop.

Read more details at Sherry's blog:  http://verrysherry.blogspot.com/

Yesterday was a bust…

well, for the most part. I did get grocery shopping done, salads prepared for today's bbq and cut things out for my first big block quilt top.

But after spending time with my quilting frame system and again ending up frustrated and angry at it, I'm strongly considering trading it back in and getting a Designer 1. The mega quilting machine its self is awesome and FAST for piecing :D but I haven't been able to find the right speed, thread, needle combination that allows me to quilt one line without the thread breaking, while it's on the frame. le sigh.

I'm going to try one more time today and reset up a charity quilt on the frame. Right now I'm using just 2 large pieces of fabric and batting to practice on.

I also plan to piece today a few charity quilts I was given in pre-cut packages.

Let's see how productive I can be today.