Be Kind

I saw this post on Pinterest last night.

Source: tumblr.com via Liberty on Pinterest

it reminded me of the "Be Kind" cards I made up a few years ago. Remember these?

For some reason, I never listed them on etsy. Now you can get them, if you want. They're cheap enough to keep a pack in the car and have them on hand for a kindness emergency. Which we all have.

I'm still here

I'm not really sure what to say. I'm still here. But baby is not.
As a family, we've gone from 6 members to 4 in less than a month.
We are crushed and limping, doing our best to love each other well in the midst of tremendous grief. Fear. Anger. Despair.
We are discouraged and broken. But we are tighter than ever. We are together. We are battered on levels I will never be able to share on this blog, but we are clinging to each other.
We will survive because of love.

Here are some special pics from a particularly poignant Thanksgiving weekend.

WIP - hand paper pieced quilt

I've been working on this English paper pieced quilt top for about a year. Tonight it is done.
Ive been working on it periodically throughout the day as I take breaks from packing up all of baby's stuff. He moved away permanently Sunday to a new home. We will never have him again. This was not what we were hoping for. Our foster parenting days are over.
Grief is a funny thing to bear. I'm not sure why sewing helps, but it does.
I'm going to be having lots more time to sew in the future. We've gone from 4 kids to 2 in one month. Life is much quieter now.

Glass charms

Oh I am having so much fun with these
glass charms. Mimi made the first 20, but when those sold like hot cakes, I had to step in and crank out a bunch. Then the gears started turning, and not only did I want a sewing machine charm, I wanted ones with public domain vintage sewing machine ads. Then I thought, "well, how about things I have sewn? Or tiny versions of my artwork?"
A whole new medium to work in. Yippee!
Today I wore a charm with an image of the grey improvisational quilt I finished recently. The charm looks more like modern abstract art than a photo of a quilt... But I know what it is and that makes it all the sweeter.
I'll let you know when these get posted.
They're so fun to make. I can't stop.

Mountain collage

It's 3'x2' and the biggest collage I've made. And now its done. I'm pretty excited.

Collage Work in Progress - isaiah's mountain

This is the biggest collage I've ever worked on. It's 24"x36" and while my materials haven't changed (still just using mail order catalogs and magazines)... Well, besides blowing through glue sticks, it means that I'm having to change the way I construct, because each section has to be built individually. It's a good challenge for me and I am currently walking around the house with this huge canvas and setting it in different spots in the house to look at it from different angles, trying to pick out problem spots.
My kids had plenty of "problem spots" they could find... They think it needs a sun and some birds...as for me, it's a little more subtle to figure it all out. Might have to be done for the day and come back tomorrow.

mimi raises money for World Vision

Well, we did it!
We got Mimi's section of my etsy shop up and running and she's already made a sale as she tries to raise money for World Vision.
You have to click here and read the adorable description that she made for the pendants and don't mind me as I shamelessly plug her attempts to raise $$$ for other kids around the world. I love it when my kids get ideas like this and I'm so proud of her.
We will be posting about 12 more necklaces today and I know you'll be able to find something for someone in your life! (and YES, I will make special a special post about the sewing themed ones, because you can't miss those... Those were made by momma's special request)

Modern Baby quilt top

I wanted to see if I could make a baby quilt from unusual colors and patterns.
This has been 1/2 made for about 3 months. Last night it HAD to be worked on (not sure why).
Top is completed now.
Not sure who the recipient is. I've been asked a number of times if I would consider selling my quilts. This one, maybe... We shall see.

Mimi wants to raise money for hungry kids

Stay tuned as Mimi is going to start selling necklaces that she makes this week. This week, the World Vision catalog arrived with lots of cool options to buy animals for hungry families around the world. Mimi immediately decided she wanted to earn $100 to buy some ducks and chicks for needy families. We recently bought supplies to make glass pendants and Mimi used clippings from her own magazine to make this necklace from one of the Rainbow Magic fairy images. She will be making 10-12 more charms this week and we will post them in my etsy store. They will be $10 each and all money will go to this cause. (hooray!)
... Be thinking about the little and big girls in your life who might want such a cool treasure.

more doorstops

I don't know what it is, but I have been getting so many orders on etsy for my beanbag doorstops lately. It's really funny and I am sure that people are looking at me strange when I go to Smart & Final and buy 60 lbs of beans at once. And the funny thing is that they are going strange places, like overseas, or to APO addresses or hotels. What are people doing when they buy 20 doorstops???? Who knows? Whatever it is, it's funding my latest quilty adventures and that's something fun. Thanks everyone!

Here are some of the more popular patterns of late.

Habitat Quilt - completed

The LAMQG meeting is tonight and I had to finish the Habitat Challenge quilt by the meeting, so when I attempted binding it last night on the couch and fell asleep, well, the quilt had to take a road trip with me this morning, to get worked on during errands. As I waited for Baby to visit with his mom at DCFS, I sat in the car and finished the last of the binding... Phew it's done!
Have to say: I LOVED HAND QUILTING THIS. What a great experience that was. Of course it added about 30 hours to the project, but the end result feels so much better than anything I could have done with my machine.
I also learned that a lot of the adventures of hand sewing rely on the needles you choose. Not that I've found the perfect ones yet, but I am starting to form opinions. (me, opinions?) ha.

Sometimes it's just good to be silly

We are having too much fun with our new incredibooth app.

Hand quilting WIP "habitat quilt"

I almost gave up on this quilt. Given all the stress I have been under, I couldn't see a way to save this Habitat Challenge quilt that I am working on for the LAMQG challenge. But some Pearl cotton, encouragement from Nicole and lots of quiet moments on tired evenings have helped me to fall in love with this.
The Little Princess left last Friday. I've shed many tears and also realized 4 days into a week without her just how much I'd neglected while we had her. Basically, everything was put on the back burner and this week so far has consisted of cleaning, sending apology emails to Libby Dibby customers who've waited too long for answers to questions or fulfilling orders. (sigh) - Thank you beanbag doorstop customers, I shipped out 20 today!

After that shipment today, I begin to see the light. A few hours to myself in the morning, our construction worker isn't here this am to work on the house - might be my first hour alone in the house in 5-6 months and darned if I'm not gonna sit down at least for 10 minutes to listen to some Imogen Heap Pandora and do a little hand sewing - just to feed my own starving soul.
It's the same feeling as a glass of wine and a sunset. And I'm gonna soak it in.