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!  

Requiem

 

Requiem 

This week I have been floating in the memories of past decades, several not so distant.  The photo of this fabric 'stained glass' Rose Window came to mind.  I designed it in the mid-2000s, and it was created  by the Banner Team of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle.  It's made of thousands of small pieces of multi-colored fabrics, hanging about five feet in diameter.  It is displayed from time to time in the UPC Narthex, preparing the way to the real stained glass glory installed inside the Sanctuary.  

I love Rose Windows.  I have sat for hours in majestic cathedrals during my working and traveling years in Europe - infused in the fractured, colored light that enters those hallowed spaces through exquisite stained glass windows.  Often, I would also be a silent audience of one during the rehearsals of cathedral choirs - bathed in the mystery of ancient choral repertoires.   

My favorite, soul-healing choral music pieces are the requiems composed by Morten Lauridsen, John Rutter, Faure, and more.  I have sung the first three composers' pieces, plus the choral motet "O Magnum Mysterium" by Lauridsen.

Such diaphanous, ethereal music offers healing medicine beyond what can be dispensed in any earthly world I've experienced.      

   Today is a special day in the memories of most living Americans:  9/11/2001.  Twenty years ago today, the television views of the tragedy in New York City captivated us and stopped us in our tracks, breaking our hearts.  

   Today, 9/11/2021, our world is still torn asunder by such wartime tragedies along with the covid pandemic.  It's the wartime tragedies I am especially reminded of today.  My photograph displays three quilts that I have recently completed.  They [and at least several more] are destined to be handed soon to the Pacific Northwest coordinator for Quilts Beyond Borders.  The quilts plus many more created by hundreds of other helping hands will be given to  Afghan families, newly-arrived in Washington state and many other states, whom war has displaced.  

   These Afghanis are now refugees here in King County and other counties across our nation.  They come with only the clothes on their backs, in many instances.  So, quilts made in love and  welcome and friendship will soon gifted to many of them, along with the basics to begin a whole new life in a new land.  

   The African animals, portrayed in the fabric of one of my quilts, are depicted during a 'great migration', which, although not by their choice, is what has brought the Afghan families to America to begin a new existence.

   Standing in New York City's harbor is our Statue of Liberty.  On its pedestal is inscribed the following sonnet, welcoming refugees and immigrants of many generations, from lands near and far.  Its words are meant for all new arrivals on both coasts and through all borders of our country.    

Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses

Yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of

Your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless,

tempest-tossed to me:

I lift my lamp beside

the golden door.

 -          Emma Lazarus

-          Written in 1883  

   

 July 2, 2021                   The American Cemetery @ Omaha Beach, France

        On July 4th, the USA will celebrate our Independence Day, when we separated from the British Empire in 1776.  However, we're not celebrating our independence from helping other countries keep their own independence.  We have come to Britain and France and many other countries' assistance in times of war and oppression.  Land of the free, home of the brave.  But not all are free, even in America.  We who can, need to do our utmost to ensure all who live here can feel free and brave.  Lots of work to be done to make that happen.

        I took the photo above during a special trip to Germany, the Netherlands, and France some years ago.  My son and I took his teenage son to see several WWII battle sites and cities that have captivated the imagination of so many of my grandson's generation.  Visiting the city of Berlin and the expanse of Omaha beach were particularly moving experiences.        

          This is the closest I have come to making a 'traditional' red/white/blue quilt in honor of our country.  Different from many quilts I have completed [this one in 2013], it represents some of the patriotism I felt as an American, as a quilt artist.  Like most of my quilts, it was donated - and I trust it is still keeping someone warm when warmth is needed. 

        July 4th, 2021 will dawn in a much different world from the one in which this quilt was created.  The covid virus has changed our culture and that of most countries around the world.  The USA is trying to 're-open' after being shut down in varying degrees for the better part of 15 months.  I trust that some day soon we will find the freedom to live openly and safely once again - each one of us. 

  March 7, 2021  

    This Oregon beach was a wonderful happy place each summer for Lucy [left] and Ellis - Leonbergers who changed our family's lives.  Both are now 'angels' - and deeply missed and loved by us all.  They lived with their humans [my daughter, Lise, and her hubby, Paul], always loving and enjoying hours of swimming and chasing balls and eating a bit of pizza crust every Friday night.  They live on in our hearts.

    Following a detour due to medical issues, I'm slowly returning to quilting, sewing, and art-making.  2021 appears to be a year of potential promise and longed-for family reunions as we become eligible for vaccines and evolving immunities. 

    Every day is a gift.    

 January 30, 2021

     Having spent the past four months working through five different health issues, two hospitalizations, and four or five different antibiotics, I have been derelict in my blogging duties.  I also have been away from my sewing and quilting machines that entire time.  Two days ago, I laid out two equal-sized pieces of  fleece with which I intend to start sewing another double blanket, child-size, for South Dakota,.  

    It's time to move back into life and look into the future.  I'm hoping to receive my first covid-19 vaccination in a few weeks and the second not long after that.  Then comes the 'two week' waiting period after which I will relax a bit from the worry about becoming seriously ill with covid-19.  I've had enough of 'serious' illness for now.  I'm ready for creative activities.  

   The view photo above was taken six and a half years ago, when I took my then-eleven year old grandson to Victoria, BC to view the Viking exhibition at a large museum there.  We enjoyed a circle-island bus tour, and this view looked across  the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Vancouver Island to Washington state's Olympic mountains.  It was a 'back to the future' moment.  I love remembering being drawn into the promise of the return journey to come, and years to enjoy other road-trips together with him.

   Covid-19 has kept me almost totally in self-isolation since this past March.  Outside of the unknown  of the disease itself and how it might affect a person of my age, I have enjoyed the time removed from public view.  I have not enjoyed the separation from family and friends.  Hopefully, that will be gone in the not too distant future.

      

Old Year, New Year

January 1, 2020

   I spent a good part of November, 2019, sewing double fleece blankets for deserving people on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.  The blankets pictured are only a portion of those I finished, boxed, and mailed. 
  Earlier last year I sewed this type of blanket for gifting to Head Start pre-schoolers on the Rez.  Quilts I made were also delivered to elders and other adults.  If ever there was a worthy project, this is one! 
  My goal in 2020 is to completely use up a large inventory of fleece that I purchased on sale at Jo Ann Fabrics close to me.  I don't have to drive very far to scratch my sewing itch!
   This morning it's above 50 degrees in the Seattle area - almost spring-like, but dark.  Colder, more wintery rainy days are forecasted to return by this weekend.  If ever there were reasons to stay inside, warm by a lit sewing machine, these days are those reasons.
   My sewing and quilting to-do lists are lengthy, and a New Year stretches out in front of me during which I should be able to finish a lot of blankets to help keep folks warm who live in the freezing temperatures of our country's Great Plains.  This type of creativity feeds my soul, and is a most pleasant occupation that helps keep away the negativity of the journalistic haranguing that is already unfolding regarding the 2020 election.  In the meantime, the summer Olympics in Tokyo are on a nearer horizon and will provide a happy distraction in an unhappy world. 
   My small world in the Pacific Northwest is a happy place, where family are close at hand, and a focus on fleece blankets and quilt-making lights up the dark days outside!
 

Fall Has Fallen
   Here in the Pacific Northwest, the change of seasons is in full swing.  The furnace is coming on early every morning, and darkness arrives earlier and earlier each week.  Leaves began turning color not long ago, and now are drifting off the trees as they dry out.
                                                 

   This photograph was taken on a Vancouver, BC street in 2012, not far from the waterfront.  Amid the glass-fronted buildings, this maple tree in full fall hue was a great example of what inspires the main design feature on Canada's national flag. 
   I'd like to head back north of the border again, but that will be another year.  I've got dozens of fleece blankets to sew for the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and a baby grandson [born this past June] to watch over for several months when his mom returns to her teaching post at the end of October. 
   South Dakota has transitioned from screaming heat and flooding to nearly-freezing temperatures at night.  Folks without adequate sources of heat are in need of blankets and other warm clothing.  I am warm and clothed and in a position to help.  Time to create more blankets!

Back In The Stitching Saddle

   After a hiatus of some months, I have "fired up" my APQS longarm quilting machine [Lenni] and am quilting again.  I cut out and began piecing this 'log cabin' pattern over twenty years ago, and decided last month that I needed to complete the top and make a backing for it. 
 
This particular pattern requires piecing the blocks [made of strips cut into appropriate sizes] with some accuracy, so the pattern lies straight and even from one block to the next.  In other words, it takes some concentration - and I have to really focus on keeping pieces even and equal.  I can assure you that even with this "easy" pattern, I spent a fair amount of time 'unsewing' here and there, to ensure an accurate design structure.

    The 'log cabin' design pictured above was first discovered centuries ago on mummy wrappings in ancient Egyptian tombs.  After making its way through European countries and then onto the New World, it's safe to say that this has been a design originating in the mists of time!
   
My Lenni has performed like a champ - after a bit of cleaning and oiling, and a few minutes adjusting the thread tension, my quilting machine was off to the races with nary a hiccup!  I can highly recommend the APQS company in Carroll, IA.  Their products are amazing and their customer service all around seems above reproach.  My sales representative, Barbara Mayfield, of APQS Northwest in Issaquah, WA is absolutely wonderful.  Hopefully someone reading this blog feels welcomed to contact her with any questions and maybe even stop into her store to try her longarm quilting machines on for size.
 
Time for another ride. 
   

                                                             
As The World Spins 

Last week I woke up with vertigo.  What a bad morning.

 
  Not recommended.  But survivable.  I've slowly come out of my spinning world, resuming what I can only hope will be a 'normal' life once more.  I learned again [I've experienced vertigo once before, about 14 years ago] that I would fail at being an astronaut without gravity, and my childhood dreams of space flights to distant planets belonged to a different someone who does well with being totally unbalanced.

  Now that my world is 'righting' itself, I've been able to return to my current retirement vocation:  creating fleece blankets and quilts for folks who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  While we've experienced more snow and cold during February than we normally do in the Pacific Northwest, in no way has it been the bone-chilling, non-stop biting blasting cold of the prairies of Pine Ridge in South Dakota.  January, February, March, even April - it's just plain freezing cold there. Below zero cold, and some of those incredible people aren't prepared for it.  The fleece blankets will hopefully continue to travel from my apartment home eastward across half of our country, thanks to the US Postal Service, now that I've resumed sewing and can safely drive to the post office to send them away.

 Once again, my mornings are good, and I'm grateful to be grounded again - and balanced [at least for the time being].
                                                                                       

The Gift Is In The Giving

Giving It Away!    

   There are so many 'sayings' that describe the act of making something to be donated.  One of my favorites is "To Give Is Better Than To Receive."  The king-size quilt top in the photo above was completed in August of 2018 after piecing on my Bernina sewing machine and then quilting on my new APQS Lenni longarm machine.  It was donated to Vision House, headquartered in Renton, WA - and became the raffle item for their annual fall fund-raising luncheon in order to raise funds to help homeless families in dire situations.  The woman who 'won' my quilt in a drawing was thrilled to receive it, which makes me even happier than the fact it raised over $850 for Vision House!
   Since my previous blog post, I have made literally dozens of quilts as well as knitted blankets.  The quilts have been donated to Vision House and Quilts Beyond Borders, to be sent wherever needed around the world [including refugee camps in Jordan, the new "home" for many Syrian refugees].  The knitted blankets have been given to Eastside Baby Corner in Issaquah, WA - supporting families in need.
   My most recent sewing-for-donation focus is fleece double blankets [lap size], which are being sent to an emergency shelter in Martin, SD, on behalf of the Sioux Native Americans in that area.  The winters are ferociously cold in SD, and the need for warm shelter, warm clothing, and caring hearts outside of the Pine Ridge Reservation is huge.  Not many weeks ago, I somehow came upon an internet blog written by Sewing For Kids Volunteers, under the parent group of Lakota Friends Circle.  I was immediately drawn in by the challenges facing the residents of the Reservation, and the hearts of many members of the Sioux tribes living there - hearts who are devoting their lives to helping their people.
   Facebook has provided one way for groups to form, in order to send assistance from outside the reservation to these helping hearts and people in need.  Doll clothes and children's clothing are made and/or purchased and sent; layette items for new mothers; blankets and quilts and boots and shoes and school supplies and toiletries and diapers and personal supplies and lap and nap blankets and toys - these are just a small part of the total needs of those living on the Rez.  Money donations help with purchasing propane gas and food and meds and many other survival needs for individuals, schools, and emergency shelters.
   The need is immense.  The opportunities abound for willing hearts and hands outside of the Reservation to help.  Making toys, clothing, blankets, quilts, donating items, giving money - please join in on this journey to make the future better than any challenges of the present facing the amazing Sioux peoples in South Dakota!
   LakotaFriendsCircle.org/donate
   Sewforkids.wordpress.com
   www.facebook.com/groups/SewForKidsVolunteers
   

June 25, 2017

How time flies - it's been almost eighteen months since I last posted on this blog!  In between messages, I've moved twice, and now feel like I'm getting settled in at my small apartment in a small town on the southeast end of Lake Washington.

  I've finally managed to unpack and shelve practically all of my sewing and art supplies, including lots if fabric I didn't remember I had!  This supply includes everything I could ever need for sewing/quilting to feed my new passion:  quilting [and more] for donation!

  The photo above is a patriotic themed quilt that I sold a year ago - but I thought it appropriate for this time of the year!  After this quilt was sent to its new home, I began what has become my wonderful past-time:  sewing and quilting as well as knitting blankets for donation to organizations and individuals in need of  items with which to keep warm and dry.

  This new passion is released in creating lap-size quilts, approximately 45/50" x 60/70".  I donate them to the Ronald McDonald House in Seattle [through a quilt guild], to orphanages around the world [through Quilts Beyond Borders], to Syrian refugees [through Salaam Cultural Museum in Seattle], to families in need via Eastside Baby Corner [in Issaquah, WA], and to the Lakota Sioux nation in South Dakota.  Last summer I sent seven quilts to families who had lost fire-fighters and/or homes due to the horrendous fires in E. WA [via Layers of Hope/Quilting 911].  It just feels plain wonderful to be able to help someone in need through activities that I couldn't love more.

  If anyone reading this blog has a 'quilting habit' like I do, or likes to sew children's clothing, or knit baby blankets and baby clothing items - I can give you all the contacts you could ever need, as recipients for your creations!  Simply send me a communication through this blog - I'll respond with details.

 Happy Independence Day [just around the corner on the calendar]!  

Not Built In A Day

  Late last summer I heard about the opportunity to make quilts for families who were among the fire victims in our state, east of the Cascade Mountains.  This response to devastation and loss was organized by a wonderful quilter who lives south of Olympia, our state capital.  Because I haven't asked her permission yet to include her name and blog links, I can only tell you she has a huge heart and is a tireless worker for those who are in need.

I got out flannels and cottons from my stash, and made several quilts based on a traditional pattern from Eleanor Burns' Quilt in a Day series of books, to be donated to the families in need through the quilter I mentioned above.  While they weren't 'art' quilts by any definition other than due to their color palette, I trust my quilts warm the hearts of the folks who receive them.
  There are countless opportunities to turn our new quilts into gifts that warm both heart and body.  This New Year of 2016, my resolution is to focus on making additional quilts for donation.  Some of the opportunities [among thousands] include the Ronald McDonald House families who come to Seattle Children's Hospital for healing, Quilts of Valor Foundation, Project Linus, Eastside Baby and Westside Baby, Jubilee Women's Center, Mary's Place, Quilts For Kids, and countless other churches and quilt groups and charity auctions for whom quilts are made and funds are raised to help others in need.
  My challenge for you, Dear Reader, is to pick an organization near and dear to your heart, and make a quilt and send it off this month!  Read websites and/or contact the organization for any requirements they have for donations:  size, washing instructions, removing all pins, quilting spacing [so quilts can stand up to frequent washings], types of fabric, etc.  Then, have a wonderful time creating something from your heart to another's.  And, after you've made one quilt, make another!
    

My Name Is Lucy

Seems like my creativity has slipped into a seasonal mood, following my recent posting of the King of Spring!  This sweet, lovely Leonberger's AKC name is "Early Winters Autumn Leaves" - and her 'call' name is Lucy.  She's one of my grandpuppies, and certainly a photogenic, happy, and loving animal.  This cheery, happy "Leo" loves to play soccer and swim for hours.  Leonberger paws are webbed between their toes, making them an ideal search and rescue animal [particularly water-rescue].  They love their human families with a passion, and are so easy to love back.  They are a large breed German 'mountain dog', created in the 1800s by crossing the Great Pyrenees, Newfoundland, and St. Bernard breeds. 
 
The cotton background is a red and gold sun print of blowing autumn leaves.  I topped that with a smaller ink-jet photo print on organza of Lucy, attached with Misty Fuse.  The background quilting is straight parallel lines, a pattern introduced by Laura and Linda Kemshall of Gr. Britain.  After all the quilting was completed, I overlaid the organza print with a second photo print on cotton that I cut out around Lucy's image.  After 'gluing' it down on top of the identical organza image, I discovered I have a 3-D image that has her practically leaping off the background!  [My daughter takes wonderful photos of both of their Leos; I'll have to create something of their young male, Ellis, in the near future.] 

I outline-quilted around the edges of the leaves - which made them pop up after the close background quilting, rather like trapunto.  The narrow border is a fall-colors plaid-like cotton print that reflected all of the colors in the 'picture.'  Lucy's coat is red and gold and brown, a perfect autumn leaf in her own right.

I'm looking forward to seeing which of the two remaining seasons might pique my next creative mood!