For The Children

It's about time - I'm tardy, I'm late, I've been busy quilting.  This past year has been filled with donations being made for various non-profit entities in Washington state, and also in South Dakota/Pine Ridge Reservation and Kentucky/the Appalachians.  

The photo is a snapshot of a "Circus Menagerie" fabric line creation [along with some vintage fabrics of my own] made into a child's quilt, for donation.  The quilt rests on the frame of my "roommate":  my APQS longarm named Lenni [by the manufacturer].  

Without Lenni, I'd be hard-pressed to create quilt tops that have any hope of becoming quilts for children!  (Since I have accumulated fabric over many decades, I'm grateful it doesn't seem to "spoil" during storage. :)  

Creating quilts for Others has become a passion that includes creativity and no small amount of hands-on work.  I love that the fabric designs seem to speak to me loud enough that I can take non-related pieces of fabric and assemble them into a pleasing whole.  

The need for producing a quilt capable of warming a child in his/her cold environment just seems to resonate in me.  So, I direct any artistic 'bent' I may have into putting together colorful fabrics for all seasons and all color palates.  

For The Children has become my ongoing inner 'force' and creative happiness!      

 

 Headed To Camp!

The photo displays a bag of six quilts I donated recently for a foster children's summer camp.  At the beginning of the campers' week of fun, they are given the chance to select a quilt to sleep under for the week and then take home.  I learned about the camp via an email from a quilt shop [Gossypium] not far from me.  My stack of quilts was just ready and waiting for donation to a group that might need them this summer.  

I loved making each of these quilts, in colors and color combinations that appealed to me.  I hope that they will appeal to the kids, too.  Gossypium quilt shop collects donation quilts every summer, so I'm already looking forward to starting another half dozen for 2024.  This time, I plan to select fabrics that are "kid-prints", with fabric designs and bright colors that appeal to children specifically.  This year's donation may have been selected by older campers - and I'd like for younger campers to really like what I can complete for next summer.

Gossypium emailed that 207 quilts were donated this year by quilters around our state, to their shop alone.  I trust that other service- and community-minded quilt fabric shops participated as well.  The summer week given specifically to foster kids is a nation-wide effort, it seems.  If you simply Google "Royal Family Kids Camps", you will see dozens of reference articles and websites that reach out to donors for quilts and pillowcases and funds.  

Many foster children enter foster care with just the clothes on their backs.  At the end of their camp week, they'll head to their foster home with something that is theirs to keep.  Camp is free to an attending child.  Donors throughout the country can give funds to make camp attendance possible.  

ForTheChildren.org is a good place to begin learning about this opportunity for giving children the chance to be a kid.     

 Jan. 14, 2023

For Ukraine

Twenty years ago I traveled to Ukraine twice.  The church choir in which I sang was invited to participate in a mission trip to Kyiv, and I was sent first (as part of a pre-tour group) in addition, to help solidify planning for our larger group's arrival.  During my second trip with my choir, we sang in several concert and cathedral venues, enjoying a return visit to the homes of members of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Music Mission Kyiv whom we met and had hosted during their most recent tour of the US.  

During my two visits to Kyiv, I was privileged to be introduced to and spend time with a number of widows who were 'under the wings' of the KSOC/MMK for visitations and care [food and medicines].  A number of the widows presented us with intricately cut paper snowflakes as a token of gratitude for our visiting with them.  

When I returned home, I pondered about how I might use these beautiful hand-cut paper works of art and settled on the idea to make sun prints on cotton fabric using the snowflakes as the design element.  I set the paper cut-outs outside in the sun, resting on a background base of fabric [still wet] I had just painted with blue transparent textile paint.  [Blue is one of the main colors of the Ukrainian national flag.]  An hour later, the prints were dry.  They measured a little less than 12 inches by 12 inches, a perfect quilt block size.

A month ago, I hand-quilted around some of the design elements of one print, on top of batting, and framed it under glass.  It has been a reminder of the beautiful hearts and total courage and generosity of the amazing people I met and befriended in Kyiv.  Their daily reality now is 180 degrees the opposite of what we all experienced twenty years ago.  However, an unwanted, undeserved war has not changed the hearts and resolve of the Ukrainian people we visited and came to love so deeply.

 

For The Children

Our country has far too many children who need comfort and joy in this holiday season.  So, I'm trying to do a little something about that in my county.

I live close to a JoAnn Fabrics store, which is a real 'plus' during the winter months.  I don't have to drive long or far in any traffic or inclement weather.  Every year, the store seems to offer a stuffed animal for sale at the holidays at very reasonable prices.  I've stocked up on a variety of animals during the past several years:  'boy' and 'girl' bears of many fur colors, white Husky dogs, and moose toys, too.  

The 'art' involved in this project is locating flannel with appropriate designs that I can sew into doubled one-yard square 'receiving blankets' for the stuffed toys.  Each animal is accompanied by a small book for the little child to have for his or her very own.  The animal, and the book, and the blanket all reside in a light canvas carrying bag that has been stamped in one front corner with a small rendition of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.  I have included a 'name tag' in a plastic holder that is attached to a bag handle.  It states that it was made with love, and has a place for the new owner's name.

The filled bags will be delivered this coming Saturday to Issaquah, WA - not far from where I live.  The destination is a non-profit called KidVenture [formerly Eastside Baby Corner].  They are about to host a gift-giving event for families who are currently in financial distress and possibly homeless and living in their cars with children.  KidVenture is doing an amazing, herculean job keeping babies and children of all ages through twelve in diapers, clothing, and gifts.  All year long.

I have also created adult-sized double fleece blankets for the older kids, and age-appropriate fleece blankets for the younger ones.  It takes very little time and money to make an effort to help those so much less fortunate than I am.  It brings joy to me to be able to participate in such a worthy cause that KidVenture has taken on over the years.  They've grown exponentially as the need has constantly pushed their limits and beyond.

So, I get to play with soft fabric and colors and adorable stuffed toys and send my love to the kids that will soon take over the care of the animals for me. 

A Riot Of Color

Today's "mission accomplished" is a quilt top, batting, and backing that I finally put on my longarm APQS "Lenni" yesterday.  I completed the quilting this morning.  The photo shows the quilt after it was just unpinned and laid across the machine frame.  It's awaiting its trim and binding, and then it will be laid on the pile of quilts and fleece blankets I have previously finished, awaiting donation.

The weather in the beautiful Pacific Northwest is forecast to be summer temps again - including one day upcoming in the 90 degrees territory.  Then, as September approaches, so do the cooler temps.  We've not had a real day of rain in who knows how long - but it will come.  Forest fires are burning once again - in our state and surrounding states plus BC and Alberta to the north of us.  The first rains will bring welcome relief and much-needed help to exhausted firefighters.

The pile of quilts and blankets I'm accumulating will go into big boxes for shipping in the very near future.  Cool fall and cold winter come quickly to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, to the Appalachia hills and hollows back east, to refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan seeking new lives beyond their native lands, and to the small spaces housing homeless families in our area.  With the approaching seasons of grey and gloom, the "riot of color" in this and other quilts I'm making could offer a welcome reprieve from the world of neutrals that so many people inhabit.  

I love painting with fabric.  Moving colors and patterns around, cutting and resewing pieces into new designs and color palettes.  Art moves easily into life, and I love living in it and sharing it wherever it's sent.  

 

"Saturn, Interrupted" has been hanging on a wall in my kitchen for a number of years.  It's not the largest piece of art on display there.  In fact, it almost blends into the wall, rather like a fiber art wall-flower.  But, the impact this little work has on me is almost beyond words.

Today I shared with a friend via email just what this piece represents to me:  gazing into a limitless universe, beautiful beyond anything we can conceive in our own mind, where we can hear 'the music of the spheres' loud and clear.

I grew up star-gazing, partly because my father introduced me to its art and mostly because it took my eyes to a realm beyond my comprehension:  limitless, forever space and time and stars and planets and mysteries of incalculable types.  

This "three-part invention" [with a very strong nod to Bach] has brought the limitless Universe into my limited living space, carrying with it a lifetime of star-gazing memories and unlimited joy in the viewing. 

The images of Saturn that I manipulated were printed off of the Internet many years ago, from the NASA website, onto fabric.  Because the original photographs were taken through the Hubble space telescope with no participation by any other for-profit or non-profit entity, NASA has made these particular images available copyright-free.  Users simply need to acknowledge the source of the photos, and I am doing that here and now.  I am grateful that my tax dollars are at work in this fashion and totally for my enjoyment. 

 Christmas Day, 2021

Merry and Happy Christmas to all this day!  Today's post's photo shows a few of my own 'art quilt artist' creations "of the season."  While I am neither Catholic nor Orthodox, I have loved icons for many years.  Fifteen years ago I took an icon painting ["writing"] class and this was the result.  Eastern icons display a totally different perspective, so what looks off-kilter was meant to be.  

The Christmas stockings are pieced and quilted in a variety of fabric designs - holiday seasonal as well as non-holiday seasons.

My workroom is piled high with donation blankets and quilts that are ready to be dispersed this coming week.  My dream goal is to use every bit of my fabric stash before I have to "retire" from sewing and quilting altogether.  Hopefully, I have at least one more decade for creating items that might be of use to others who don't have the means to create them for themselves.

I hope everyone reading this post is safe and warm and healthy and will remain that way into the indefinite future.

Merry Christmas!