Christmas Greetings

Thought I would share some Christmas wishes through my son's Christmas Concert.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my readers! I finished up my semester at school and am currently enjoying my break until January 12th when I will start up once more. I was hoping to get some quilting done during this break but of course have been preparing for Christmas. We are unexpectedly traveling about 6 hours away to be with family. This will be a good thing but takes away time from the sewing room. I have been trying to get some prayer shawls knitted so now I will have plenty of time for working on those. I am enjoying the knitting lately as I can relax on the couch or with family and knit away.

I pray that everyone stays safe during the holiday's if you are traveling!
God Bless!

Quilts to the Ukraine

A picture is posted at http://www.fireleann.blogspot.com/ of the quilts that the Sunshine Quilt Guild helped me make to send to my missionary friend in the Ukraine. Check out her blog for pictures of the kids with the quilts and also the kids with clothing that was donated from about 4 of our local churches. Don't know if we will be able to do that again this winter but I would really like to if possible.

Some quilting done

Managed to squeeze in some quilting a few weekends ago. (took me this long to get the pictures done!) The top quilt was pieced by my coworker with some of my flannel strings and I finished it up. I have quite a few quilt tops like these waiting to be quilted. Next is a top done by a Carol E. from the Sunshine quilt guild. The third is more strings and then last blocks from a Sunshine block challenge I hosted last winter. I still have more of these blocks to get sewn into tops. Hopefully this winter I can manage to squeeze in some more quilting time in between classes. All of the quilts are going to WAS which is for kids overseas who get cleft lip/palette surgery.

Ukraine orphanage clothes

I received word that the clothes were handed out to the children at the Ukraine orphanage. We sent 11 boxes of clothing and quilts to Leann serving as a missionary in the Ukraine. She has listed pictures on her blog at http://www.fireleann.blogspot.com. You can see the kids with their new duds!

I have had a few minutes of quilting since class started the end of August. I did finish quilting a charity quilt and now have 4 quilts waiting for the binding to be completed. When I am not doing homework and taking care of family I am sometimes too exhausted to think about sewing.

I have registered for Spring semester starting in January and now that it is winter I may be able to find some time for sewing but we will have to see how it goes.

School started

Well, school has started for me. I have been busy this week with school work. I have two online classes. American Government and Politics and Interpersonal Communications. It is not easy taking online classes. You spend just as much time working on the computer as you would be in class. I already have to write a paper for communications this week with a group (not easy doing this online!) and also next week one by myself for communications and another for American Government. One of my writing projects for communications is blogging! As fellow bloggers you all know that I have experience in blogging! I just have to blog on specifics and not just random thoughts like this blog!

I got some sewing done last week before school started. I don't think I will be sewing much if my schedule is going to be this hectic with classes and working. Well I just have to keep my goals in front of me and remember that it will be all worth it in the end!

Non-Quilty

It has been a wild summer of no quilting. I have lots to get done here but decided I needed to enjoy the summer with my family for the most part. Also in the last two months or so I have been researching going back to school. I believe I have finally narrowed it down as to where I will be going and what degree I am pursuing. As of right now, Monday I should be registering for a few classes at a local Communtiy College where I believe I will be finishing up my AA degree and then I will transfer to a four year college to finish up a bachelor's degree in Social Work. I know it will be a tough schedule but I believe I am up for the challenge. I just know that I need to do something to move forward at this point. I am sure it will take me longer than the typical four years but I am looking at accelerated learning options to move it along faster. I am excited about going back to school as I really enjoy the learning process! School starts next week for my online classes I am registering for and my kids go back after labor day so maybe once we settle into our routine again I can squeeze in some sewing time. I have blocks waiting for me to turn into quilt tops for Wrap a Smile and Wrap Them in Love.

Heartstrings quilts.....

Ishowed a quilt picture to one of my co-workers using 2.5" strings and she really liked it and decided she wanted to help me by making some quilts for the orphanages. She has since given me 10 quilt tops for me to finish and send on. I provided her with some of my strings and the foundation fabric and she sewed the tops together. I have quilted four of them and that is these. Two of them are in flannels. She really liked working on the flannel quilts. Flannel is not my favorite to work with but these will make really warm quilts for some child in a cold place.!

Time goes swiftly by...

Time really flies when you are having fun(or just plain busy in my case)! I have been working on some quilt tops that need to be quilted from my sunshine online quilt guild. Last count was 25 quilts for Wrap A Smile and Wrap Them In Love combined. I have been having tension difficulties on both my long arm and my off the frame machine. I finally gave myself permission to do some stitch in the ditch quilting to get these quilts started. I have about 8 of them done and ready to go. The pile is starting to look a little smaller. I don't have any pictures to post right now as I am at work. That will be one of my projects this weekend, taking pictures. Tomorrow I am headed into the cities to pack food for Feed My Starving Children so most of Saturday will be used up. I don't mind though as it is suppose to be raining out and it is a VERY good cause and I am happy to help. Well lunch break will be over soon!

Newsworthy....

Wrap Them In Love is in the News in my hometown! If you are following my blog you have seen that I have been going into the classrooms and quilting with the kids. A week or so ago I went into 4 second grades classes and we did more quilts squares for four more quilts. These are all going to be donated to Wrap Them in Love when they are done being displayed at the local library in June. Well here I am with some of the students and one of the quilts already finished. One of the teachers submitted it to the paper and they ran it. It references the website for Wrap them In Love and also says that I accept donations of 100% cotton fabric for all the quilts I make. They did not give any contact info for me but I am in the phone book so if someone really wanted to find me they could. I was glad that these pictures of me actually are not too bad. At least acceptable for me considering almost the whole town will see it. I have submitted photos of the quilts in previous years but never with me in the picture, only the kids and the quilts. So this year being the fifth year of this project ended with 13 quilts and 13 classrooms visited. So I am pleased with the end result even though the process was a little more time consuming this year.