Yep, I found this little beauty on the side of the road. She looked lonely, so I stopped to say hello. I noticed that she seemed to be a sturdy little girl. All parts were intact as she sat firmly along the curb. I began to wonder why she would be cast off, so I invited her home with me.
Today we celebrate Memorial Day – a day to honor our veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice for love and freedom of country and countrymen. Their bravery and courage have provided one of the greatest blessings one can have as an American.
As we begin a season of patriotic holidays, I thought I would make a simple applique banner to celebrate this great country. I happened to have a little package of 5 denim pennant banners with grommets already in each corner, so I am going to make use of them. You know my motto – if you’ve got it, use it!
A friend gifted me with a nice collection of upholstery samples some time ago. They are nice samples of chenille and ultra suede. Some are placemat size, a few are pillow top size, and some are small in size – approximately 9 x 6 inches.
The ladies of the Quilt Ministry and I have started a sewing ministry. It all came about when Connie became gravely ill a few years back.
It was a scary time first, because my dear friend was so sick, and secondly, I worried about the fact that our quilt ministry would suffer. We still had Barbara, my other precious friend and mentor, who along with Connie keeps us going in the right direction but I feared that Connie might not be well enough to continue on with the ministry. I have come to rely on the both of them as friends and mentors.
My thoughts turned to the fact that sewing is not widely practiced among the younger crowd which made me worry for the future of the quilt ministry. So after Connie recuperated, we sat down and hashed out some ideas for this new ministry. Our church trustees welcomed our proposal for a new ministry with open arms and dedicated a room specifically for us.
I’ve mentioned our church’s Prayer Quilt Ministry before. We make lap quilts from donated materials to give to members of the community when they are facing a trial of some sort, such as an illness or loss. Before being presented to the recipient, strings are secured around the quilt. The quilt is laid across the altar rail and the congregation is invited to come pray for the person and then tie a knot in the string. The knotted strings are a tangible reminder to the quilt recipient that they have been remembered in prayer. The purpose is to bring the peace, hope, strength, and comfort of Christ to them during a time of anxiety and suffering.
Being a part of this ministry is one of the greatest blessings of my life. It allows me to use my God-given talent of sewing for His glory. Getting to work with some very talented, loving women in the ministry is a blessing as well. I’ve spoken of my mentors in several previous posts here, here, here, and here.
Designing and piecing is my favorite part of creating a quilt. The ladies of the ministry are so gracious to allow me to do that part while they do the (boring and tedious to me) tasks of basting, quilting, and binding the quilt tops that I piece.
Definitely preppy, this quilt top is made from thrift store oxford cloth men’s dress shirts in pastel colors.
Thanks for coming by to see how I made the fabric leaf to go on my swatch pumpkin. It is very easy and uses the smallest of scraps.
Welcome back! Thanks for coming by to see how I made the pumpkins from fabric swatches.
As I mentioned, I had tons of fabric swatches that I had collected over the years and true to form, I simply could not throw them away. After years of collecting, the light bulb went off one day and I came up with these little swatch pumpkins as a way to use all my samples.
I actually did it! In all honesty I didn’t think I would write for the entire 31 days of the challenge. I couldn’t imagine that I would have enough to say and complete enough projects to feature. In my head, I had even planned what to say about not posting all of the days. Thankfully that unwritten post was filed in the trash.
Look what I won in a random drawing of the participants – a wonderful leather journal that will inspire me to continue to write!
Admittedly, I did have a number of the projects finished before I signed up for the challenge, but only enough for just shy of a week’s worth of posts. I kept my nose to the grindstone however and came up with enough content for the entire month. And you know what? I have more thoughts brewing in my head.
After the first half of the month, I sat down for a brainstorming session and came up with additional ideas, some of which I did not have time to get to. So those will happen and I will show them to you.
Well, did you guess at the material I used to create this version of patchwork pumpkin?
Fabric swatches!
Yes, fabric swatches started it all.
Back at it today with a different type of pumpkin – the one that started this whole addiction of mine. Put your thinking caps on and guess what I (re)purposed to make this little beauty.
