Sunday, January 18, 2009

Getting ready for National Day of Service!

Hi, everyone! So many of you have responded saying that you would like to spend some time on MLK Day doing some quilting for charity. Awesome! Even if you don't have the time that day, I hope you'll think about becoming involved in some charitable quilting of some sort. If you don't have time to make a quilt, you might consider making a block. Clare collects them for Quilts 4 Leukaemia and the Heartstrings Quilt Project does, too. Check their websites for details.

If you do some charity quilting on MLK Day, please post about it on your blog and let me know so I can put a link to it from my blog. It'll be wonderful to see what everyone has done! Michele at With Hearts and Hands has posted a list of people who are doing charitable quilting that day -- check it out! Even if you are not in the US, please consider participating -- there is a need everywhere.

I responded to everyone who left a comment that they wanted to quilt for charity on MLK Day, and I would have liked to post more links and updates on the Day of Service, but I was down this week with some sort of miserable virus. Our furnace broke, too, but my own personal thermostat was so off kilter between fever and chills that I didn't even notice! Fortunately DH did, and he's the one who had to stay up until midnight while the furnace guy fixed things. DH said the repairman just shrugged off being called out so late, saying it came with his career choice. I'm glad he was willing to work nights because we couldn't wait until morning -- the outside temp had dropped to -16F (that's -27C) and we we were afraid the pipes would freeze.

Since I didn't get any quilting done myself -- charity or otherwise -- I thought I'd give you a tour of my guild's Project Linus stash and works in progress.

We have a finished basement that became my sewing area when the girls left for college and I took up quilting. I volunteered to house the fabrics that guild members donated to Project Linus. As you can see, we have a lot! And we use it.

Here are some piles of projects underway -- tops that need batting and backing, tops ready for quilting, quilted tops that need binding, donated quilts that need a little fixing, great fabrics that need a special pattern rather than one of our standards (we call those "Get Creative" quilts). You can see our finished red and turquoise fungly top in the foreground -- still has to be quilted.
This big roll of batting was a donation from a batting company. We are very appreciative because batting is expensive. Unfortunately, the batting is only 36" (a scant meter) wide, and our standard quilts are 40" x 60", which means we have to piece it! Eek! I see a piecing party in our future!
But this is the only piecing I managed to do this week. These were supposed to be put together as leaders and enders while I worked on another project, but I was so frustrated at not being up to any real quilting that I took 5 minutes and strip pieced them. At least I got something done!

11 comments:

floribunda said...

I hope you're feeling better by now! Would like to be able to sew tomorrow, but unfortunately I still have to work... maybe I'll sneak a little time in at the machine in the evening.

Belvie said...

Sorry to hear you have been under the weather. Hope you are feeling lots better.

Just wanted you to know you aren't in the boat alone with the heater issues. Last Mon. I had the repairman out because I knew something was sounding funny. It was the blower motor. It was fixed right before that cold,cold weather came. We were only 4 below O....so you were much colder.

Magpie Sue said...

SO glad you were able to get that furnace fixed. It's been too cold to be without heat of any kind for any amount of time!

I haven't poked my head out of my nest for a while so I'm only just learning about your challenge to work on a donation quilt for MLK Day. I'm totally in, although I'm not sure exactly what I'll do yet. Kudos to you for putting the challenge out there :- )

Desiree said...

I really like your leaders and enders, they woul look really cute sewn into a top!

Twisted Quilts said...

I am sorry you weren't feeling well. I can't imagine what it is like to live in a place that cold. We didn't get above freezing on Friday and that was cold enough for me. I am doing a quilt for my aunt's church on Monday. Thanks for poking me into action.

Gari in AL said...

Count me in. I have some of a charity quilt done and this will spur me on to at least finish the piecing and maybe even put it on the frame. Our guild gives quilts to the local law enforcement agencies who give them to any children they have to remove from their homes. We try to keep at least 2 in each officer's car. This, unfortunately, keeps us very busy.

FrugalFive said...

Hope you start feeling better! Looks like you will be very busy this week, love to see progress on your donation quilts.

Clare said...

Sorry I won't be able to sew with you all today. Cheryl knows why. I hope to be able to catch up later this week.

In the meantime, have fun and I'll be sewign with you in spirit.

Cheri - thanks for the link.

sewkalico said...

Sending you get well wishes and great sewing wishes too. I can't sew much at the moment, but will try catch up when I can use both legs properly again (I have a Linus quilt I really want to get done!!)

Tonya Ricucci said...

freezing cold, miserably ill and a conked out furnace - sounds awful. Hope you're doing much better now.

jillytacy said...

It's great that you are so active in Project Linus. I'm sure they love having a place to store all of the fabrics! Imagine all the quilts that will be created from that fabric stash!