Charity quilts

I love sewing. Like really love it. And there just aren't enough bodies or beds in our family to justify how many quilts I make. So a favorite way of mine to help the quilts find homes is to sell them and donate the money to good causes. Here are some I sold in the beginning of this year.

Hollie's post on her blog about the Speed Pieced Quilt

Read Hollie's post at her amazing blog about our Speed Pieced Charity Quilt.

She took way more pics than I did (with a real camera, too) and it's easy to see how this is going to keep the momentum when you read in her voice how excited we all were!
CLICK HERE to read it

LAMQG - speed sewing for charity

We've been sewing all weekend, with a few breaks for meals and LOTS of laughing.
As one of the folks who is helping our guild have a vision for giving back with our time and talent, I thought it would be fun if we all gave 1/2 hour and speed made blocks for a charity quilt. So last night, a few us us prepared by finding a cute color scheme from our scraps pile and we all speed pieced improv blocks.

By 1/2 hour, we had 20 blocks and by 1.5 hours (four of us kept on the clock after the initial push), we had a finished top and 2 blocks for the back.

It's been suggested that we do this more often, what a fun way to work together and give back.

9 women create

I have a great friend, Sarah, who urged me to join her last December, in putting up at a silent auction - a collage day, at her amazing house, with 8 spots for people to join us. We would feed them a nice lunch, then share our materials (sarah and I take a collage class together already and have a lot of materials between us) and teach some simple techniques to our attendees.
The spaces filled up fast! And with good friends! She and I have been working on this for the past few weeks and Saturday was the big day. We got everything ready and hoped everyone would show up and have a good time. One friend couldn't make it, but we saved supplies for her. The other 9 of us had a day full of creativity.

It was so much more fun than I even anticipated, and 4 hours to make art on a Saturday is always fun. But this was dear. And creative. And joy•building for sure.
Everyone walked away with finished art pieces, as well as some traded Artist Trading Cards - our first activity was to make artist trading cards to share with everyone else as a warm up and a commemorative keepsake. Of course I made goodie bags too, with candy, new scissors and glue sticks... (all three are vital to my collaging!)

I felt so blessed to know these women, or to meet the ones I hadn't yet met... We kept joking that now we were a collage clique and we have to do it again. I sure hope so.

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)

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.

House collage

I was asked by my friend, Sarah, to donate a collage for a local charity auction. She's a close friend with whom I took my collage class at Art Center last spring (and I hope to join her again in it when life settles a little?).
Anyhow - there are a few of us who are friends who are collage artists that all attend church together. It's a funny thing to know other collage artists anyway, but I love that these other women are really incredible people, too. They are also mothers and one of them is also an entertainment industry wife, so we have lots to share about.
Anyhow - Sarah and I put up for auction a special luncheon at her house where we will do a collage workshop with 8 attendees.  Ironically, one of the 8 who signed up is a far more accomplished collage artist than Sarah or I - but it's going to be so much fun to do art together.

Sarah thought that putting collages up for auction right next to the Workshop bid sheet would be fun, so I whipped this one up in the last 2 days. We went to the auction last night and I literally had to have someone come pick it up from my house while the glaze was still drying. It looked good by bid time and actually ended up in the hands and home of some more fun friends.  So now I get to see it when I visit their house!

(yay)
On a side funny note, my husband ran into a college classmate of his at the auction (he never forgets a face) and when we were introduced to each other, she said, "wait? You're Liberty Worth, ... the charms and skirt girl? I've ordered from your website, years ago..." so random.
In spite of being in business for 7 years, I am still always amazed when people have heard of my stuff.... and even more when they've bought from me, not knowing me!

Charity quilts

Pardon my dark picture... Blogging from my phone...

This week's project (along with 8 other women from my guild... Thanks to Lori, Patsy, Pam, Angela, Lauren at Sew Modern, Lisa, Latifah and Tanya!) is to help the folks at Sharefest (a non-profit where my sister, Victory, works) assemble 6 quilts.

You can read about the kids who drew the artwork for these squares and their amazing camp experiences this month here: http://www.sharefestinc.org/blog/art-for-others.html

Charity: A great way to donate and also to win!

Check out Alissa's blog today. She's got the scoop on an amazing way to really contribute to the lives of women in the Congo who are learning to sew to support themselves. Last year, they raised $10,000 to help these women.

Contributions give you opportunities to win some really sought after collections of fabric.
Talk about a win-win-win.

Hoops for Japan update

Well, Z did it! He had his Hoops for Japan event with 8 family members and friends watching and he shot 145 baskets on his 7.5ft hoop in one hour!
Once we did our math, we realized that this preschooler was able to raise close to $2500 for Japan all of his own accord!

If you would like to donate, here's the information that J sent out last week:

Zane was feeling it during his shoot-a-thon for Japan and made 145 shots in 60 mins - it was awesome! Here is the information for where to give. We contacted them and they are very excited about Zane - they have created a special fund, so when you send money, write that it is for "Hoops for Japan"-and tell a friend
Give2Asia
P.O. Box 193223
San Francisco, CA 94119-3223
Here are the pics
http://tinyurl.com/43p3nfy

Apr 29 at 10:47am

Mother's Day is coming

Easter, Spring Break, Mother's Day, Teacher Appreciation Week.  They are ALL jammed together this year! And to be honest, those are not relaxing days, though they seem like they might be.

Here's what I want this year.
One of my favorite places to volunteer around here is a home for homeless pregnant women in Venice Beach called HARVEST HOME. Truth be told, since we've had the baby around, I don't get over there much - fostering adds about 12-16 hours of "other" stuff into your week besides the mama stuff, so my time is highly precious.

If I had more time, I'd be over at Harvest Home, doing what I've done in the past... hosting craft nights, teaching classes on how to wear your baby in a sling, having get togethers - I love doing that for moms and my heart goes out to the moms who are on their own in such a hard place as Los Angeles.

This year I haven't been over there. but I just got an email from HH that shows a way I can help, even across the city.  They've made their sweet logo into a pendant that is a mother/child heart pendant in sterling silver. Though we all know that I'm not short on pendants, I love jewelry and I love Harvest Home and for a donation, we all can have this precious heart as a memory of their sweet moms and babies and our own journeys as moms as well.

Here's where you too can get one. (click the link)

Hoops for Japan

My kids are really concerned about what is happening in Japan, so they decided to do something about it. Z has decided to have a shoot-a-thon where he tries to get as many baskets in his 7.5ft basketball hoop as he can in one hour. Will you sponsor him?
(keep posted to hear about a painting Mimi wants to auction off on eBay for the same purposes)

-if you want to sponsor, you can either send me an email or post here how much you're willing to pay per shot - we expect him to make 60 or more shots, so consider yourself warned!
 (you can also state a maximum)

We're going to have the Backyard Hoops for Japan shoot-a-thon on April 16th (unless it rains)....I'll keep you posted!

Quilt to donate

I made this quilt this week to donate for an auction I'm involved with. I used fabric that I did not buy... Not one of these are my taste and style, and once again, it's a little game I seem to play with myself... "can I make something I like even a little from materials I hate?"

Modern Relief Japan

I'll be honest, I simply haven't known what to say about what is happening in Japan.
but it's been on my heart a lot.... and seeing how I am a newsradio addict, it's been all news all the time as I want to hear more about our neighbors across the Pacific.

I saw today that Modern Relief is having a quilt auction.
I'm super happy about this and I hope that you'll enter to win... I will be!


check it out here.

a little bit of sewing

so you know me.... when the going gets tough, the tough get sewing.

and i needed some therapy this week so for the past 3 days, I caught up on my bees, worked on my samplers from the bees, and tried to fit in my collage for church that I need to do for the lenten season.... (more on that later... after 3+ hours invested in it, I ruined it and have to re-do it... so as my dad says, "moron that later")
Here's what my fingers and gears have been up to:
 This first one is a wonky square in square design that I did for Seams Perfect Bee - which is my all scraps bee... I love the color scheme that LeeAnn picked out.  Really not my typical shades and I loved working in it - very refreshing... like a summer swim...

 

Then I had to catch up on Yolanda's pineapple blocks for Bee Happy - Which were really hard work, but I think she's going to end up with an awesome quilt. Click here to see what is happening as she's putting the blocks together!

After that, it was the 12th and final month for Bee Happy's 1st year - and Janice requested scrappy styled wonky houses. These were SO much fun to make and I even busted out some of my long savored fabrics to add in there, because they were just what the blocks needed. She'd sent us a few pieces as inspiration and requested (in my block) that the mermaids and the goldfish ended up in the blocks somewhere. As I sewed, I had a lot of fun imagining a little world where the mermaids and goldfish were neighbors. We may need to be revisiting this idea for a certain little fairy freak we've got here in the house - I know her imagination would run wild with a wonky house fairy quilt... (if I just typed that, do I have to make it now?)

After all that happy sewing... I had a table filled with the most LOVELY scrap pile I'd seen in a while. So... well, I needed to sew up a few quilted bags, right? and I've never tried a mugrug (quilty coaster), so here's the first of three of those...

I literally was piecing tiny tiny pieces together and then making a piece, cutting that up and re-sewing it back together to get some fun results. ... you can see the tiny little scrap houses that ended up in my Coke rug...

I forgot to take photos (how could I?) of last weeks two quilts that went out for some dear little daughters to friends of mine - one as yet unborn (mommy is in the hospital on urgent bedrest at 27 weeks) and the other for a favorite neighborhood 2year old as she had her birthday. (I've also made G a little play quilt... it's nothing special, but since it's for him, he deserves his own post)

Oh yeah! and (last ones) ... here are some of the side projects for the bees... Each month in my bees, as I make a square to send off to someone else - I also make a "practice" square for myself - so that I can end the year with a sampler that represents my journey and learnings in the bee. Please don't ask me what I am going to do with all these quilts. I have no idea. So my Seams Perfect Bee Sampler is in red and white... which is fun... and my Bee Happy sampler -well, let's just say that I started with this "cool" idea that I was going to use the ugliest most hated fabrics in my collection... and see what I could come up with. Well... it's pretty ugly. I'm not going to show that one until I post about it later. Still, it was a fun experience, and a major creative challenge.
So here are my Seams Perfect red and white squares, along with a blue and white one that I made for a bee buddy who is assembling a quilt for charity for an auction.

yes. The answer is, I HAVE NEEDED TO DO THIS. As I always say, "My sewing machine is the ONLY thing in my life that I have control over." and so far, I think it's still cheaper than therapy... though that may be up for debate.

SEND your LOVE to HAITI

It feels so helpless to simply sit back and not do something when you hear news of what is happening in Haiti. Today, prompted in part by my daughter's school - and their efforts to raise every penny possible to send to Haiti relief - I've decided to do what I can do.

Remember the collages I did when I was grieving over AJ? I really needed some stability and the image of that mountain was really powerful for me. Today I've decided to make available some postcards and also high quality prints of the mountain collage. We had some of these made up and everyone in the family got them for Christmas, so I know they look great already... they're framed and up in each family member's home...So now on my etsy site, you can find packs of postcards, perfect for sending a little note (these work for men and women, unlike much of my stuff!). You can also find a listing for the archival print on high quality watercolor paper - suitable for framing. If you are interested, I can also get the print made on canvas in various sizes.

All of the profits from the sales of these mountain images will be donated to Red Cross Relief and/or Child Hope International - who are mutual friends of my family and run an orphanage in Port Au Prince, Haiti. They are sending updates via their website, so check them out.
Please please purchase these to help out - and pass on the idea to your friends and neighbors - blog, tweet and share about it - this actually can do something!