Sunday Morning

"God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the 

earth give way,

though the mountains be moved into 

the heart of the sea,

thought it's waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble at its swelling."

Psalm 46:1-3

November Friendship X and + Swap

Oh, it's so much fun swapping X and + blocks with Susan every month! Our Friendship Quilt is growing!! If you missed the guidelines for the swap and would like to join us, you can read all about it in this post. It's not too late; you can begin anytime! 

To refresh your memory, here's the Design Seed photo that we are using as our color inspiration for the blocks. Suz and I are taking turns choosing 3 colors to feature in the blocks each month.

For November, Susan chose fall colors of orange, brown and aqua. (Even though in Melbourne, where she lives, it is springtime!) We each make four different blocks plus  an identical twin set to send to the other. Here are my November twinsies...

Susan sent me these gorgeous blocks to mix in with mine!  I just love those orange ducks geese swans birds! (Whatever they are!)

Don't you think that our blocks play well together? Susan thinks my fabrics are more wild than hers...hmmm...I just am not seeing that!

We are up to 16 blocks now, with two months behind us. Our goal is to make 64 blocks for a lap sized quilt. 

Come back the last Friday in December to see what 3 colors I'm choosing for our next set of twinsies. But first, check out Susan's photos and post!If you are participating in the swap, please leave a comment letting me know how it's going as well as a link to your blog post. Here's the Flickr link if you'd like to see more pretty X and + blocks.

More swapping going on here:
http://carla-graceandfavour.blogspot.com/2013/11/friendship-block-friday.html
http://janesfabrics.blogspot.com/2013/11/friendship-x-and-swap.html
http://occasionalpiece.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/friendship-cross-x-block-swap-part-1
http://kristastitched.blogspot.com/2013/11/x-and-friendship-swap.html

Thankful

We Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November every year. But no matter where we live, it's nice to remind ourselves of all that we have been blessed with. As I make my mental list, I count blogging friends among my many pleasures! One in particular comes to mind today. Her name is Anna and she lives in the San Francisco area.

Anna and I don't correspond frequently, but when we do, I am always blown away by her sweet spirit and generosity. Last spring, she told me about a project that she was heading up to make quilts for some special ladies. She wondered if I would mind if she used my Liberated Cross tutorial as the basis for the blocks and the quilts that she had in mind. Of course, I was thrilled. If you are new to my blog, or don't remember (most likely!), this is the quilt that birthed the tutorial, Anniversary Crosses.

I

I had intended to use Anna's own words to tell you what she did with the 1250 cross blocks that were made by her and her friends and collected between April and October, but I accidentally deleted them! Ack! So, instead, I will direct you to the website for Freedom HouseSF. org. 
And here are the 24 beautiful quilts that were given to the Monarch house and newly opened Nest (for minors) to be gifted to the survivors of human trafficking as they endeavor to rebuild their lives in a safe environment. Thank you, Anna, and your friends for the love and hope that these quilts represent. 

Aren't they just gorgeous! These are not tiny quilts. What inspiration! My eyes well up.

I was able to find this final correspondence with regard to Anna's thoughts on the importance of this organization and it's mission, something most of us have little  knowledge of. Please read.

And now, thank you again for offering to post our quilts. As there are so many charities and needs to be fill in this world. The viewers have a chance to hear a calling to help survivors of human trafficking. If not in a direct way, they may look into and support an organization like FreedomHouseSF.org. We need to let the victims know, there are many of us in support of their journey to rebuild their lives. Sadly, we know there are so many more that are still held in bondage and cannot escape. For these fews escaped, may they find hope, encouragement and strength to rebuild.

I'm thankful for you, Anna.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Carla

Sunday Morning

"Trust in Him at all times,

O People;

pour out your hearts to Him,

for God is our refuge."

Psalm 62:8

I Love Color!

See! I just can't get enough of sewing on  my strip pieced spiderweb blocks. But, like a good girl, I put them away after every Tuesday Sewing Day with Vicki and just look at them until Tuesday rolls around again!

So, when I got the message that Rene' was wanting spiderwebs for her November blocks in the Mid-Century Modern Bee, you can imagine my delight!

She asked for a neutral center star and colorful strips. I used both 1.5 inch and 2 inch strips to make Rene's blocks. The blocks are made a little differently than the ones for my quilt, in that they are not foundation pieced. I like both methods, I've decided, but there is more waste of the neutral fabric with the Bee blocks. Here's how they are made. I'm mailing them to her separated so she can mix them in with the other members' blocks.

I laid Rene's blocks next to mine so you can get a reference of the size of spider that is spinning my webs!

 Four triangles together form a 12 inch finished block verses my 21 inch finished blocks. Obviously there are a bunch more rounds in my webs. Isn't it amazing how different it looks with a bright star verses a neutral star center?  I love them both! 

In other sewing, I'm trying hard to get the rest of my Juicy Fruit churn dash blocks made. (I'm wondering now, why I thought that a twin size quilt was such a good idea!) After mentioning to Suz that I was thinking of adding in some large 12.5 inch churns to the mix, she sweetly helped me out by making and sending me one! I plan to make four more  big old churns...that will save time as well as look awesome!

Thanks, my friend! I love it!! Oh, ya, I also decided to add some lemons in with the oranges, tangerines, watermelon and strawberries, did you notice?

Sunday Morning

"Now may the Lord of peace himself

give you peace at all times and in every way.

The Lord be with all of you."

2 Thessalonians 3:16

Friday Finish: Simply Modern Christmas Tree Skirt

Well, I'm finally able to mark one of the 3 projects off of this quarter's  Finish Along list! Remember, I had this tree skirt all but finished way back when! 

 It only needed to have the binding sewn on!

 I attached the binding before the KCMQG sewing retreat last Saturday and decided to be lazy  brave and sew it down by machine at the retreat rather than my usual hand sewn method. I figure even Santa won't bother to look at the back side to make sure that I caught every inch of the binding with the stitches!

 There are a couple of rough spots, but for the most part, it turned out pretty well. The backing fabric was on the clearance table at JoAnn Fabrics. I like it and think that it matches just great. I like to save where I can!

My goal was to have this ready by Thanksgiving and I made it by a couple of weeks. Yay!
Now, what's next on my UFO list?

Linda Hungerford (Flourishing Palms) and I had coffee this morning while she is visiting in KC. We each picked a number for the other to choose a winner in the Modern Baby book give-aways. Linda picked #14, which turns out to be Sheddy...someone she knows from Florida MQG. Congratulations, Sheddy. Please contact me with your address. (We actually had to pick a second winner because the first one was a no-reply blogger. Everyone, please check to make sure that you have an email attached to your name if you want comments on your blog and to win contests. Otherwise, there is no way to contact you!)

Here is a post on how to check for that  :http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2012/07/no-replypublic-service-announcement.html