Recap of November

I'm not sure where the month of November went! Well, I am, really, so here are a few pictures to share!

 First of all, the quilt show in North Augusta, SC, where I entered my Words to Live By quilt. It was a great show and I feel honored to have won this ribbon - there were many great appliqué quilts.

 I was thrilled with the ribbon!

 Here is my Black and White BOM I finished earlier this year . . . .

And last, my Botanical Garden. A really fun quilt to make,  inspired by Sarah Fielke's book. 

This show was on a Friday and Saturday and I left Sunday for Nicaragua for another mission trip. There were three of us ladies, carrying packages to 74 sponsored children at a Christian School there. 

 Here we are with all our bags, ready to leave.

Sylvia shares more of Jesus' love to the children as we are getting ready to distribute the care packages while the children eagerly wait! 

 I was able to see these children that my husband and I had sponsored in person! 

 What a joy. . .

 and this precious girl we have corresponded with for five years and now she is graduating from high school, wanting to become a nurse. They were all three graduating.

 We took the 15 graduating seniors on a day trip to Lake Nicaragua, lunch at a restaurant and to this gorgeous overlook at Catarina below.

One little village we visited has no running water. This is the way all the people get their water - they go down this path past where the road goes, wash their clothes in the 'river', which is really a stream, bag their clothes up and fill their five gallon bucket and walk back up the hill to their home. Truly amazing!! A well has been dug nearby and now there is an effort to raise funds to pipe the water a couple of miles down the road so the people will have water at their homes. The path was difficult to walk down for us, yet they do it frequently.

Here is the 'river' where they have carved out areas to sit on the rocks as they wash their clothes.

This little ten year old girl filled her bucket with water and waited to lead us up the path.

She would not go until we followed and she knew we would be okay, the whole time holding the bucket of water on her head. Amazing! 

Another exciting thing is that a sewing ministry was started five years ago and many are graduating from this school and are able to have home businesses to make money to help support their families. It's great to see that sewing, which I love so much, reaches around the world to help others!!!

Black & White Quilts

I finished up the Black and White BOM for 2010 recently. Here is a picture of it on a bed.

 And a close up.

 This is another black and white quilt I made several years ago. I want to show how some of the black and whites have faded. 

 These were all quilt shop quality fabrics.

Most often I have had the quilt turned over so it would not get too much sun and the blinds closed as it is in a guest room but even so, a good bit of fading. I'll just say it gives it character!!

Here is another black and white quilt for a great nephew to be born very soon. When I asked for the colors and theme of the baby's room, I was told told black and white fabrics, tee pees, arrows and swiss crosses, so this is what I came up with. A little traditional in layout . . .

 This is a little closer up with the backing showing

and this is really close up. I used EQ7 to make my pattern and quilt layout. 

Happy Fourth of July!!

Dear Jane & Black & White BOM

 Last week I was able to get some more Dear Jane blocks completed.

 I needed to fill in the blanks on Row E, as I had chosen some of the simpler ones to sew first. Imagine that!!

 So now Rows A - E are complete, plus some more for a total of 85 blocks! Wahoo!! 

 Remember, these are 4.5" finished! I just like to do close-ups for the details.

 A little set in seam here.

And one more to complete the row!

 And now, the Black and White blocks I was working on. The alternate blocks surely change the look of this and the borders are on now, too. . . just not in the picture.

I had a coral colored back for this and then when I laid it under the white, realized it would shadow through so had to get another backing. Ugh!! I'll use the coral for something else now but hope to remember this lesson when using a lot of white. I should have known this by now but just another learning experience I suppose. 

Black & White BOM 2010

 In 2010, our small quilt group began this BOM at Quilts 'n Stitchins in Jonesboro. I collected my blocks - most of them - $1 each - and sewed two. Others finished their quilts years ago but mine were aging in their little plastic baggies.

 Last week I pulled them out and stitched what is on the design wall above. I had no more white on white fabric to finish the last two so I am waiting on more fabric. Plus, this is just the beginning . . .there are 13 alternate blocks, each being a 5-patch. I had to order some black and white and I cut the above into 3.5" squares from fabric I had on hand. This will be a queen sized quilt when completed. The good thing is the blocks are 15" so not too difficult.

Here are scraps left for the border which I still need to cut.

 Meanwhile, I stitched two more Dear Jane quilt blocks. This one and the one on the right below.

I am not very good at Y seams or curves but I managed in the purple one. I am over 1/3 of the way finished, meaning I only have 149 more blocks to go!

I stitched this Farmer's Wife blocks, too. It's funny how large the pieces seemed after working with Dear Jane. It is 6" finished and DJ is 4.5" finished. Quite a variety this week but all were enjoyable!

Stitch when you can!!