Welcome to the Sew Some Love linkup! Please link-up any post about a project you're sewing for charity.
This week I've been working on finishing up the hot and cold corners tops. Here's the first one on the wall with a border audition. Inspector Rory, standing by.
Inspector Rey had enjoyed some lap time. (Plenty more cat pictures on Instagram)
Covered in Love has been so blessed by donations from quilters, I want you all to see what each other have going on! For purposes of the linky, I'm going to define "charity" really generally. If you're sewing a quilt for you co-worker's mom with cancer or your friend's uncle who lost his home, that totally counts! Anything you're sewing out of the goodness of your heart for someone outside you immediate circle of family and friends.
Lots going on around here. The faded quarter cabin block to Jan/Feb's Covered in Love block drive have been coming in and they look great! I've been experimenting with layouts and really like the one above. There's still nearly a whole month left on the drive if anyone wants to jump in and contribute!
Nearly all of the blocks from my Nurture circle pals for January's do. Good Stitches bee are here. I have been experimenting with layouts. What do you think of the one above vs below? They look kinda the same to me, even though they aren't...
Nancy R. gifted me some leftover black/white/bright paper pieced blocks that I've started peeling the papers off. Going to see what I can do with these.
The actual goal for the week is to get the last of the corner blocks sewn into 2 tops.
Meanwhile, what I should be doing is studying this, but I don't wanna!
There were some great projects linked up to Sew Some Love last week. Remember to come back every Wednesday to check out what folks are sewing and link up any charity sewing you've got going on!
Today's Friday Finish is not a quilt. This post is about a topic that's very personal to me and I have to warn you there is a bit of language here (although I've blurred and bleeped where appropriate.)
Depression and anxiety (and other... idiosyncrasies) have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Since I was born, I suppose. It has been a part of every moment of every day of my life. As I've grown I've learned better and better ways of coping, but it hasn't gone away. If I'm having a good day -if I look "normal" to you- that's because I've had the time and the resources to do all the things that I do to keep my mental illness in check and they're all working well today. You see me walking around, doing my job, talking and smiling. You don't see all the work it took for me to be able to do those things. You don't see what it costs.
Things have gotten somewhat better for people with mental illness in the past decade or so as awareness has grown. It's still something of a taboo topic, but it's better than it used to be. Of course there has been push back. My generation (Millennials) has gotten a bad rap for being "special sensitive snowflakes" with our trigger warnings and safe spaces and etc. I'm not even going to go into a rant here about what BS the snide comments about those things are. I'm just going to say that if you were educated about mental illness and what trigger warnings and safe spaces actually are you would think it was all perfectly reasonable and logical.
And I'm also going to say that I know America has a long and venerable tradition of dealing with mental illness by just "toughing it out," "quit being such a wimp," "pull yourself together soldier" and coping by becoming a sulky alcoholic, watching too much TV, and slapping around our family members when no one's looking. I know that's how we've always done it, and it was good enough for our grandfathers. I'm just saying, as one of the people who 50 years ago would have just had to "deal" with this quietly and wound up an alcoholic filled with self loathing, that maybe if trigger warnings and safe spaces and talking about feelings and access to medications is what it takes for more of us to be salvageable, to be functional, then maybe that's worth trying?
Anyway, the reason for this rambling post is that I've been very fortunate. My illness is relatively mild, I grew up in a supportive and loving family who took me to a doctor, I have the social and financial resources to get help, and the medications work for me. Very few people are so lucky. Many live on the verge of suicide or in such intense mental distress that I doubt very much someone without mental illness could comprehend it. One of those people is a very good friend of mine.
When you have mental illness, as with many chronic illnesses, every day is a battle and every mundane accomplishment (like getting out of bed and leaving the house) is a struggle. Every day. Every time. But she does it. She has a killer job and doctorate from a good school and she looks totally put together and fine to the casual observer. I don't know HOW she does it. I'm constantly in awe. Because of her illness she only sees herself as a failure when she's the bravest, toughest, not to mention smartest person I know. (Yes, YOU. I know you read my blog ;) )
I made a sash to remind her what a BAMF she is and sent it off in a goody pack along with her first medal, of many. Because people who live with this disease, and keep going anyway, are amazing. Everyday.
Welcome to the Sew Some Love linkup! Please link-up any post about a project you're sewing for charity.
I've been doing some quilting and binding of donated tops and my orphan block top. My trusty assistant was nearby, of course. She thinks she's so stealthy...
Covered in Love has been so blessed by donations from quilters, I want you all to see what each other have going on! For purposes of the linky, I'm going to define "charity" really generally. If you're sewing a quilt for you co-worker's mom with cancer or your friend's uncle who lost his home, that totally counts! Anything you're sewing out of the goodness of your heart for someone outside you immediate circle of family and friends.
This scrap quilt was a long time in the making. I started a couple years ago sewing 1.5"x2.5" crumbs of scraps together and just finally finished!
I love using up even the smallest scraps of fabric. This was started as a leader-ender project, but I can never leave them as leader-enders. They have to go on and become my main project!
Originally I was going to set these still on point, but in a zig zag arrangement instead of the pinwheels (like old gum wrapper chains). Then I saw the Bonnie Lass pattern and decided to go that direction instead. I decided to go with setting triangles cut from scraps rather than white and I really like how it looks.
I quilted the top with a stipple and bound it with black. Scrappy binding seemed like the natural choice, of course, but I wanted something more solid to give a definite edge to the craziness of the top. The size of this quilt was determined by how many of those little blocks I had made... it wound up at 64" square.
Of course this quilt is going to Covered in Love. I just took a big delivery up to the hospital yesterday bringing our total to 155 quilts! If you want to join in you can find details about program on the main page or find our block drive going on here.
Welcome to the Sew Some Love linkup! Please link-up any post about a project you're sewing for charity.
I've been working on using some more orphan blocks from last year's block drives for Covered in Love. This time it's the Sun and Sea and Lattice blocks on the wall. I'm thinking about doing scrappy piano-key borders on the top and bottom but haven't made up my mind yet.
Covered in Love has been so blessed by donations from quilters, I want you all to see what each other have going on! For purposes of the linky, I'm going to define "charity" really generally. If you're sewing a quilt for you co-worker's mom with cancer or your friend's uncle who lost his home, that totally counts! Anything you're sewing out of the goodness of your heart for someone outside you immediate circle of family and friends.
Waaay back in July I asked for Star blocks for the Covered in Love block drive. I received lots of lovely blocks that eventually made four great quilts. After making the others 8 star blocks were leftover for the orphan drawer. Last week they finally made it into tops!
I used my Accuquilt to cut 4.5" strips and 2.5" strips from scraps. The 2.5" strips I used to sash the stars and the 4.5" strips I assembled jelly-roll-race style. I inserted the stars into the scrappy strips and before long I had 2 scrappy, cuddly quilts.
I did a VERY large stipple on these. I've been doing so many quilts recently with lots of scraps, I forgot how smooth it feels to quilt a top that doesn't have a million seams.
On the day I made backings for these two quilts I made several others as well. I calculated that I went though almost 20 yards of fabric, all donated, making backs! Thank you to everyone (Nancy K., Amanda, Gail, Kathy, and others) who have donated yardage for backing. I don't need to tell you that even on sale the cost for yardage can add up fast. Also special thanks to Mina who sent me 2 rolls of prepped binding! I used the black one on these quilts and still have some left :)
These two quilts will be added to Covered in Love's stash to be given to families mourning the loss of a loved one in the hospital. Thanks to everyone who contributes to CiL! If you want to join in the Jan/Feb block drive is here.
This week was the first Sew Some Love Linkup and several quilters showed off projects for charity! Please come back here on Wednesday to join the linky and see what others have going on. Any projects sewn for any charity cause is welcome!
