7 Layer Studio

Cousin Time

My sister-in-law has been in town, and it's been so fun to visit with her and have all the little cousins play together! This is Brooke.  Isn't she just the most beautiful, cherubic child ever?!

I cannot get over what a perfect little angel she is...an angel with a mischievous glint in her eye, to boot!

She's a tiny little 2 year old, but she climbed all the way up the playground ladder like a monkey.  I hear she's quite the little daredevil/counter climber at home.

Hard to believe with a face like this, eh?  And those curls!  Sheesh.

Here she is with doting big sister Ellie and cousin Hazel.  Awww...

I made little skirts for all of them out of my fabric line, The Garden Club.

I'm so glad my kids have cousins their age - it makes family get-togethers so much more fun.

Yum yum, can I have some?

They're headed home tomorrow, which makes us all very sad.  But cousin time isn't over yet...next week we leave for Boise to visit most of Steve's family = lots more cousin time with Daddy's side of the family! 

We went to Virginia Beach this past week, which I'm still recovering from (didn't take the camera, so no pictures of that trip unfortunately, but the kids had a blast!)  I still haven't finished the laundry from that trip because I'm scrambling trying to get a bunch more projects designed/finished for quilt magazine submissions.  The house is a wreck, of course, but I just don't have time to deal with all that right now.  Even though I can't show you pictures of what I've been working on, I've been a very busy bee lately, I can assure you.  :-)  Secrets stink, don't they? 

But cousins don't!

 

Full Circle

I'm very happy to report that the 60 drawstring bags are now in the hands of sweet orphaned/abandoned children such as the ones you see here!  

Nickolai Gavazov, the Bulgarian director who oversees and manages the One Heart Bulgaria program in his country, is shown here delivering YOUR bags to these very grateful youngsters.  What a heartwarming sight to see.

But guess what?  There are currently 75 children in the Sloveikov Orphanage, so I'd like to send another 20 bags (so there are a few extra) to them as soon as possible so that all the children can have one and nobody feels left out. 

I already have 8 beautiful bags waiting for shipment that didn't make it in the last box (thanks, Manuela!) so I need 12 more for this orphanage.  I know a lot of you have told me you're working on some bags, so if you have any of them done it would be great if you could send them to me.  Please email me and I'll tell you where to send them.  Thanks so much!

ps.  Just in case any of you are thinking that perhaps there are other, more poverty-stricken children these bags could be going to (based on the pleasant background you see surrounding these children in the photos), please be assured that the reason the walls and furniture look clean and neat is through the efforts of One Heart Bulgaria.  The Sloveikov Orphanage used to have rotting, falling plaster, broken windows, filth everywhere, and extreme under-staffing, among a host of other problems.  OHB has been working with this orphanage since 2003, and it has helped Sloveikov immensely! 

For more information on this particular orphanage and what OHB has done to help, please click HERE.

Thanks in advance for more bags!

 

Attempting Applique

My fabric line, The Garden Club, is FULL of images perfect for applique.

My trouble is, however, that

1) I don't have tons of experience with applique and

2) I don't have a sewing machine that can do a blanket stitch or even a good satin stitch, believe it or not.  It's a high-horsepower, light industrial workhorse with very little, um, finesse.

So when I set out to make this quilt for Benartex's display at Bernina University, I had issues.  I didn't have enough time to hand-applique all the shapes within the white squares plus all of the little flower blossoms scattered about.

My machine couldn't/wouldn't do any standard applique stitches.  So I ended up using the raw-edge technique that is growing increasingly popular, but to be perfectly honest I'm not a raw-edge kind of girl.  Life goes on, though, and at least it was much faster than doing everything by hand!

I used embroidery floss to do a simple running stitch around all of the applique shapes plus some of the details within the birdhouses, which is an effect that I really like.

My friend Sharon came to the rescue once again on the quilting and binding = I did her son's senior portraits, she did a beautiful job on the quilt.  Bartering is great, isn't it?  I sure think so.

And, despite puncturing my leg on a rock (hit an artery = an amazing amount of blood!) which necessitated an ER visit, stitches, and a tetanus shot, I was able to get the quilt sent off in time.  Fortunately my neighbor was able to wrap my leg well so that the bleeding stopped and I was able to do more work on the quilt and get it sent off to Texas before going in to the ER.  Just 4 or 5 hours after the accident....no biggie, right?  My husband, who came home from work after hearing about my injury, thinks I'm crazy.  I hate to admit it, but he's probably right.  :-)

Good News plus a Hiccup

Well, the Good News is that the first box full of drawstring bags for the orphans/abandoned children of Bulgaria has been shipped!  Here you see a large portion of the bags stacked and ready go in the box (not all bags are pictured, some were still awaiting drawstrings at this point...so if you don't see your contribution in the picture, please don't panic!)  A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who sent bags and/or money donations so that this Sewing For Orphans project can get off the ground.  I've listed your names in the righthand sidebar...please let me know if I have missed your name or you would prefer not to have your name published.

I owe a very special, huge, HUGE thanks to Amy Darger Stewart, a local friend who came to my rescue this past week.  She and her daughter Jean-Marie went out and bought more cording for the bags that didn't have cords, which they then inserted into the bags (about half the bags didn't have cords yet).  They also bought an assortment of hard candies and little notebooks and pencils for each bag, which is more than these kids receive at Christmas.

They then lovingly loaded all the goodies plus the laminated bookmarks (thank you to all the local children who helped color these!) into each of the 60 bags.  I also included 7 yards of Pellon DecorBond for the orphan girls in the sewing classes to use when they make bags and other things to sell. 

Amy insisted on paying to ship the large box to Bulgaria, which I was very grateful for because I haven't even come close to breaking even on all the expenses I've incurred for pattern publishing, travel to QuiltMarket, etc. and I haven't started receiving income from my fabric yet because it's just now getting distributed.

We both figured it would be between $100 and $200 to ship the box to Bulgaria.  Anybody want to take any guesses as to the actual cost?  Herein lies the hiccup....

 

Since the box was over 35 pounds, they were going to charge $800 (!!!!) to ship it.  Which, of course, is out of the question.  Amy was able to split it into 2 separate boxes, but it was still $400.  Super duper, giant OUCH.  I'm going to split the cost of it with her, but we've got to figure something out for future shipments.  And if any of you feel like you want to contribute to help offset the cost, there is a Donate button in the righthand sidebar set up for that specific purpose.  I can't stand asking for money, but it's for the orphans so that's what I'm doing.

I'm going to look into shipping future boxes to one of the college interns who go over there to volunteer at the orphanages.  If I only have to pay for shipping to somebody in the US, and then whatever fee the airline charges for an extra piece of luggage, that's a lot less expensive than the alternative.  I'm also going to look into getting some corporate sponsors, but to be honest I'm not sure how to go about doing that.  Anybody have any ideas?  I'm all ears at this point.  I'm finally getting to the point where a large number of people have said they're going to make bags and some have already shipped them to me, and now that we finally have a box ready to ship, it turns out that the cost is more prohibitive than expected.

This is the back page of the Slug+Snake pattern, where I describe a little bit about all the work that One Heart Bulgaria does to help these children.  As you know, I'm donating all the net proceeds of this pattern to OHB in addition to heading up the Sewing For Orphans project.  Every time I see pictures of these kids and think about how they are crammed into cold rooms with no Mommies or Daddies to tuck them in at night, read them a story, or soothe their cries, it just breaks my heart.  No child should ever have to start life parentless or abandoned.  The work we're doing is just a drop in the bucket and a tiny fraction of what these children need, but I'm hoping that it will help them know that they are loved. 

I keep thinking of the Starfish Principle.  Do you know that story?  A storm had "beached" hundreds of starfish, and a boy was throwing them back one by one.  A man asked him why he bothered; there were so many it would be impossible to save them all.  The boy replied, "It makes a difference to this one," and he tossed another starfish into the surf.

I feel very strongly that I shouldn't give up on this project.  Things will work out, and we'll be able to figure out a better way to get the bags over there.  Sending big bear hugs to all of you who have helped make this project a success!  I'm so grateful for all your help, and I know we'll be able to bless the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, more orphans in the months and years to come.  Thank you!

Oh - one more thing - my friend Stacey, who was letting me use her business PO Box as an address to publish online for where to send completed bags, is moving.  Please email me to know where to send them from now on.  Thanks again!

 

I've Changed My Mind

 

Remember a few weeks ago when I said I was only going to sell my patterns wholesale?  Wellllll......I'm re-thinking that decision after hearing from so many disappointed readers!  I'm still not ready to have a sales website/online store, but you can email me about which pattern(s) you'd like to buy (please include your name and snail mail address).  I will email you a Paypal invoice, and once that is paid I'll get your order sent off right away! 

I'll need to charge $1 for shipping/handling and I'll send it First Class USPS.  If you need it faster, I'll charge the amount it costs to expedite it via your choice of carriers, with no separate handling fee.  International orders will be charged the amount it costs to ship with no separate handling fee as well.

PRICING:  The 4 quilt patterns and the Slug+Snake pattern retail at $9, but for my blog readers I'll make it $8.  The Infinity Tote and the Hazel+Eliza Skirts retail at $14 ($12 for my blog readers) because they are much more involved and have more than twice the pages as the other patterns.

If you own a quilt shop/online store and would like to carry my patterns, please email me and we can get that set up for you.  Thanks!

It's going to take some time before many of the local shops will be carrying my patterns, so in the meantime, feel free to email me (see email link near top of righthand sidebar) and let me know what you'd like to order!  Thanks, as always, for your support!