The Gift of Water

For the past two weeks, my life has revolved around the gift of water.  We are very blessed in this country to have full access to fresh water at any time, but there are billions of people in this world who do not have this privilege. In the spirit of Advent Conspiracy, Neighborhood Church (the church I'm a member of in Memphis, TN) hosted the first of two fundraisers for Charity: Water, an organization that builds fresh water wells in areas where fresh water is not readily available.  The basic principles for Advent Conspiracy are:

Worship Fully

Spend Less

Give More

Love All

We hosted a silent auction (Give More) along with a Christmas program (Worship Fully).  My children and husband all participated in the program while I made a few items for the auction, where 100% of the proceeds went directly to Charity: Water (Love All).  I really wanted to stick with the theme of water and had the perfect fabric in my stash to do it for my first auction entry.  I made a pillow and table-runner set featuring water drops.

The second item I donated to the auction was my Lava Lamp Quilt.  I had been hanging on to this quilt for several months, but it was the first thing I thought of when approached to make some items for the auction.

The silent auction was a HUGE success and I'm already thinking about what I can make for next year.  Before I can focus on next year, I need to finish the two quilts I'm making for Christmas gifts (Spend Less) this year.  I finished quilting my Garden Lattice quilt and I'm binding it whenever I have a free moment to just sit and hand stitch.

I've also started quilting my broken chevron quilt.  I debated between using a light grey or a dark grey thread for the quilting.  With the help of friends on Instagram, I'm going with the dark grey thread.  I hope to have the quilting finished by Thursday.

I hope everyone has a blessed holiday season and I'll see you in 2015!  Here's a little holiday greeting from my two precious kids.

Holiday Weekend

The wonderful thing about holidays spent at home is the increased amount of time set aside to do what I love AND still spend time with the family.  It's a win-win situation.  Aside from sewing up a storm, I finished all my Christmas shopping, all Christmas decorations are up with the assistance of my two little elves, and the Thanksgiving meal was a success thanks to a local Chinese restaurant down the street.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Thanksgiving dinner in my house is Chinese takeout...I love me some vegetable fried rice.  This tradition might look a bit different if we actually lived close to family (and turkey was on my list of things I love to eat), but that's just not the way it is.  As a full-time working mother of 2 very spirited children, I choose the easy route of reducing stress and not cooking.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Lets get back to all that sewing I was able to accomplish.  I finished two quilt tops and a quilt back.  That's success if I do say so myself.  The first quilt top I finished was a scrap busting project I was determined to finish.  This quilt probably won't be touched again until after Christmas, but it was fun to put together.  To see how I came up with the design, check out my previous post.

I'm thinking a white and black print for the backing and a solid bold color for the binding.  What do you think?

The second quilt top I finished is a broken-chevron pattern.  I'm not sure on the correct name of this pattern, but it was fairly easy to assemble.  I've seen a few of these online and easily figured out the measurements myself. 

The back for this quilt top is finished as well, and I'm waiting until I have the back for my garden lattice quilt top finished before I throw myself a basting party in preparation for quilting.  The quilting for this quilt and the garden lattice quilt has to be completed before December 19th, which is completely doable. 

Somewhere in there I also have to make a table runner and a decorative pillow for a silent auction.  Wish me luck!