For my East Coast Friends, a bit of California Sunshine

 My iris didn't realize it was January and decided to bloom.  Not the best pictures, taken with my cell phone, but had to share for those of you waking up to minus 32 degrees this morning.  Yes, I think we will hit the low 70's today.  But, we do pay more to live in California if that makes you feel better :)  Stay warm my friends.  Make a quilt!

string quilts

There are lots of different ways of making string quilts and here's one way we do it with our Binky Patrol group.  Just sew strings (different widths of fabric that are long and skinny) together that are about 10 1/2 inches.  Then, make a block that measures 10.5 inches square.  Sew those into a quilt top, add a border and quilt.  This one is about 60x80 inches.  Great for any size person.  Little people can cover themselves and big people can cover most of their bodies, great for snuggling up on the couch and watching tv with.  This one has mostly dark colors so is great for a guy.  You can try to control the colors or just choose randomly which strip of fabric to sew next.  These take a while to sew because you are using such small bits of fabric, but they are great when you have a lot of people and lots of leftovers.  I have several of these quilt tops to work on the next few days.  You will get to see a variety of quilts done with strings.

Acupuncture today

 I went in for my acupuncture appointment today and am not quite ready to pass judgement on the whole thing quite yet.  I went in with a migraine and came out with a migraine and it got really bad right before lunch.  So, I'm not saying the whole thing helped or hurt, seems about like a typical day so far.  The whole thing took about an hour and a half.  The lady was super nice and said she is 80-100% helpful for 'women my age' with my symptoms.  She believes hormones are responsible for most of my troubles, especially with all the other things I have going on in my life.  She gave me some homework, looking into something called 'Tapping' which I saw on an episode of Dr. Oz (I don't watch it often, but when there is something about migraines, a friend will mention it to me and tell me to watch it) and also told me to try and get a massage.  She said many women carry stress in their neck and shoulders and that can limit the blood flow to the brain (although the current theory on migraines is too much blood flow to the brain causes them, so I'm not so sure about that part) but I think my husband could use a massage so I was going to look into getting a couples discount.  I've never had a professional massage and am a little creeped out by having a stranger touch me, but if it can get rid of migraines, I'm ready to try almost anything.

I have two more appointments, two weeks apart and will have to miss two school days for them, but again, I'm ready to try almost anything now to get some relief.  Out of the last 80 or so days, I've had 67 days of migraines.  Yeah, that's a lot.

She thought it was really funny that I asked her to take my picture and she took a whole bunch saying she was trying to take some 'artsy' angles.  She was really funny and made me laugh until tears came out.  If nothing else, I could use a good laugh every couple weeks, and a good nap for a half an hour :)

conratulations, we have a winner!

http://txjennywren.blogspot.com/2014/01/completed-mixed-media-owl.html

congratulations Tx Jenny :)  You are the winner of the tumbler blocks.  My son picked #2 and that's you :)  I will be getting them in the mail shortly, so please email me your shipping address.

Giveaway ends at noon, don't forget to enter

Just scroll down for the linky box.  I'm off this morning for my acupuncture appointment.  I hope it does something.  Anything.  And, I hope they don't poke the needles in too far to let the air out of my head :)

To all my friends in the way of the storm coming back east, I hope you have enough quilts to keep you warm.  I almost feel a little guilty it is so nice out here, but then get the PG&E bill and remember why it is so expensive to live in California.  We don't even have cold weather and it costs an arm an a leg to heat the house in the winter.  I can't even imagine if it ever did get cold around here.  I couldn't give away any quilts, we would all have to sleep with 27 quilts on our beds.  Yesterday it got to 68 degrees in the afternoon and I went out without a jacket.  It was very nice, but we do need some rain.  We've only had about 6 inches all year.

The girls and I went to the Goodwill outlet in Sacramento and my daughter was trying on some clothes.  She tried on a jacket that was too big and reached into the pocket and pulled out $15.  Now, for clothes to get to the outlet, they had to sit in the stores for months before they were finally rejected.  The Outlet is the final stop before being shipped off overseas.  I can't imagine how many people tried on this jacket and didn't reach into the pocket.  She was pretty excited.  Of course, I am the one spending all the money at that place :)  Trust me, they will get that $15 back and then some the next time I shop there.

The Goodwill outlet sells everything by the pound.  $1.39 at the one in Sacramento.  Clothes, purses, belts, etc.  We came out of there with 10 bags of stuff for $50.  I got three big sheets for quilt backs, one is a duvet cover that will be a wedding quilt backing that is the perfect colors the bride asked for. She will never know it came from the Goodwill outlet :)  I love that I can repurpose things.  I also got 4 shirts with really cool prints that will be added to quilts.  100% cotton fabric for pennies.  No, I do not need more fabric, but I saved it from a landfill somewhere.  If you have an outlet near you, you have to at least check it out.  It is an experience.

Be prepared to dig through sometimes stinky clothes (some stains are questionable) you might want to bring gloves.  Be prepared to get pushed and shoved, you can just walk away.  Some of the people there are making a living off the clothes they buy.  They resell them at flea markets or on ebay and they will fight you for the 'good stuff'.  I'm not sure what they see in some of the stuff they grab.  I go for the tshirts and the bed sheets and cotton shirts and even found a few nice dress pants (I will probably never wear-but now I have some in case there is a dress pants emergency at work or something) but they are looking for specific things and they will grab and shove you to get them.  Just be prepared for that.  They have carts piled high with stuff and will hoard the carts.  Be patient waiting for a cart if you go later in the day, or bring your own cart or stroller or wagon.

Plan on spending one to two hours and then leave.  They bring out new stuff every thirty minutes or so and you could be there all day if you let yourself.  Just decide ahead of time how long you want to stay or how much stuff you want to get because it does get addicting and you can wind up spending all day there and not realize you've been there so long.  The hunt is part of the fun for me.  What's in the next bin?  What else can I find?  I like going looking for something specific, like yesterday looking for manly colors and prints and when I had several, being ok to leave without the black sheet I was also looking for.  My girls are really good at finding designer clothes that actually fit them.  My oldest has an entire closet of clothes from the Thrift store.  She's pretty amazing.  We never buy clothes at a retail shop anymore.

Ok, have to get ready to get stuck with needles now.  I'm actually excited.  Wish me luck :)

First quilt of 2014

 This was on the machine yesterday and finished up this morning.  A fitting way to end and begin the year.  The tumbler quilts are so fun and easy to make and that's the quilt kit I will be giving away, lots of scrappy goodness.  The pieces are 6 1/2 inches so big enough to go together quickly and makes a generous size quilt when finished.

This is the backing fabric I found at the Goodwill the other day.  It is 60 inches wide and I got two rolls of the blue and two of the red background.  I never have enough boy themed fabric and with 24 yard of each color, that's a lot of boy quilts I can make.  The neutral scrappy tumbler tops are perfect for this backing fabric and I've loaded the first roll of the blue pirates onto the machine and will see just how many other quilt tops I can find that will go with it before I either use it up, have to make other quilt tops or have to switch it out to quilt something else.

We got word yesterday that my husband's brother is having emergency heart surgery today.  He had a pacemaker put in a couple weeks ago and it shocked his heart because it wouldn't slow down.  He went to the hospital Dec 30 and they transferred him to UC San Francisco last night for surgery this morning. We are waiting to hear more news so prayers are appreciated.  He's only 50 years old, but has made some life choices that have led to heart disease.  It's sad to me with all the knowledge out there that people are still making choices they know are bad for them and then end up in a place asking why?  I still pray for the best for him and had better get busy working on his quilt.

Look What I Made Give Away

Here is the Give Away.  Just link up to show off what you made over the past two days.  Be sure to link directly to your blog post about what you worked on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  I will pick a winner around noon on Jan 2 from all the entries posted by then.  The winner will get all the precut fabrics to make a quilt top in the large lap to twin size range and the pattern picture to go along with it.  I hope you had fun finding time for yourself as one year ended and another year began.

Grandparents raising grandkids. Do you know any?

http://www.aaans.org/napa-solano/ This is my local area on aging resource.  Do a google search to find your local resource.  From there, search the website to find the resource that helps Grandparents who are raising grandkids.  You might be surprised to learn just how many there are out there.  You may have friends or neighbors or maybe even you are finding yourself taking a second turn at raising kids.  There is some help out there for you if you need it.

My friend, Jean, of Layers of hope is raising her grandkids and has pointed me to this resource and asked that I take a look at this article from my own local paper and see if there is a way my quilting can help these kids.  Once I get some more quilts together, I will contact my local agency to see if they would like some quilts to hand out to their clients.  Now I need to work quicker.  Less sleep, more days off, more workers.  That's the plan for the new year :)
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/featured-stories/solano-sees-growing-trend-of-grandparents-raising-grandchildren/

Charities for 2014

Can you help me add to this list?  Where do you donate your quilts?

Binky Patrol's motto is Comforting Covers for Kids.  Well, unless you came from outer space, you are a kid, you just may not be under 18 anymore, so to me making quilts that bring comfort to kids of all ages really fits the bill for Binky Patrol and that's what I love about the group.

If you've been with me for very long, you know I'm always making quilts and giving them away.  My criteria...you need a hug and to feel loved.  I have several local charities I've been working with in the past 10 years since I started my local Binky Patrol chapter.  Can you believe we are turning 10 this year?  I surely can't!  I started my chapter February 26, 2004, when I was still pregnant with my 9 year old.  I was crazy at the time, must have been all the hormones or something.  My mom encouraged me to do something with all the crochet afghans I was making and I tried giving them to the local hospital.  They thought I was crazy and told me they didn't want to buy them from me.  I couldn't just give them away as a private individual, so I started a Binky Patrol chapter.  From that little beginnings, I had my first meeting in August and didn't figure anyone would show up.  We met at the library and about 50 people showed up to drop off blankets they had been making and couldn't find homes for.  I had over 100 blankets and once I had a big nonprofit behind me, had no troubles finding places to donate.

I still deliver to the hospital when I can and soon other places heard I was giving away great, high quality hand made blankets and quilts.  I couldn't crochet fast enough so learned how to quilt about 7 years ago.  Well, soon the fabric took over and I couldn't quilt fast enough.  My parents got me a quilting machine in 2008 and the rest is history.  I still can't keep up with all the fabric, but I'm not complaining.  As long as it shows up, I will accept it and cut it and sew it back together to make more quilts for kids needing hugs.

So, here's where my focus will be for 2014.  Let me know if you can think of other places you donate to.

*My local hospital for the preemie babies
*Nurse Family Partnership-they meet with new, low income mothers and educate them on child issues-I love the education part :)
*Project PEARLS helping low income and orphaned children in the Philippines
*Rwanda-my friend goes every summer
*my high school
*Safe Families-an alternative to foster care-local churches host kids so the parents can get back on their feet or take a 'time out' to deal with medical issues, drug rehab, or job search
*Local Foster Care/Child Protective Services-I have two friends who have adopted several children and who deliver for me-Love that the kids help deliver the quilts and talk to the kids waiting for their forever homes.
*Local Homeless shelter
*Margaret's Hope Chest-donates quilts to kids whose parents are in prison.  The parent picks a quilt to give the child also A Mother's Hope program for mothers with Post Partum Depression (depression SUCKS!) check out their Facebook page, blog and website
*Layers of Hope Quilting 911-quilts for emergency dispatchers and first responders
*Quilts of Valor-sort of, I quilt and donate locally for our returning wounded soldiers coming through Travis Air Force Base and David Grant Medical Center

NEW: Grandparents raising Grandkids

Help me out...what am I missing?  Where else do you donate?

Memory quilt finished

Finished this up and am hoping to give it to my friend today.  I still need to make the embroidered name plate for the back, but that won't take long.  It will probably be my final finish for the year.  I will be quilting more today, that's for sure, but I don't think I will be binding.  I worked in the sewing room and cleared out a ton of buckets of scraps.  They only got moved into the garage, but a plan is in place to work through them this year.  Hopefully I can stick with it so that there are less scraps next year and more quilts.  I have lots of people to help, if I can get the scraps cut into kits and I can cut while the machine does the quilting, I just need the energy to keep with the plan.  Here's to New Year's Resolutions, sticking with a plan and good health in the New Year.