Charity Quilts

As I've said before, I am chair of the Charity Quilts committee in my guild. It's fun and frustrating all at the same time.

The fun part is the treasure hunt in the charity quilts stash. We have a ton of fabric, lots of crochet thread for tying, some notions, and a few quilt kits. Some of this fabric is high quality. Lots of it is unknown quality, some is crap.  It is semi-organized by color and fabric type. Some of it is very old. When you search through a box, you never know what you're going to find.

The frustrating part is managing how much fabric there is and developing ways to get people to use it on charity projects. Additionally, no one seems to like to quilt these projects - that's the bottleneck. We can get people to make blocks, make tops, and bind quilts. We have a backlog of about 50 tops with backs that are ready to be quilted.

I'm trying to organize some projects out of the gigantic stash.

I have a committee who helps me with the organization and putting projects together. However, what this group really needs is vision, direction, and motivation. That's me.

Yesterday, my bee members came over and helped organize the stash, as much as we could in two hours. We got so much done! Yet, at the same time, it was frustrating because no one wanted to throw out anything. Lots of statements like:

• "Oh, you could use this in a nine-patch!"
• "You could fussy cut this little piece."
• "This would be a nice Amish quilt."
• "Oh, don't break up that collection of fabrics! It could be such a nice quilt!"

Then they lovingly place it back in the box. Well....? Who could make that nine-patch? Who could communicate the vision? Who could design a quilt that uses the fussy cut blocks?

The implication is that I'll do it. Well...? Phooey! I'm going to work on the projects I want to work on because there are too many projects in the stash for one person to organize. It was a little annoying to have them return the burden all back on me and suggest that I'm not efficient or creative enough to come up with a project for every little scrap.

I know, that's not really what they were saying. They weren't wrong in their suggestions, just not supportive of my point of view. We have too much fabric to handle in a practical way, we don't have a good method for organizing and storing it, and we don't have enough labor to use it efficiently.

Some of these fabrics have copyright dates in the 1990s and earlier!! One kit was a shop-hop project from 2000. If no one has touched it in 10 years, then I think it needs to be broken up and added into the stash, not be kept together as a kit. And it's easy for them to say keep it when 20-30 boxes are not in their houses.

OK, I've had my rant. As long as I'm strong in my viewpoint, I'll be fine, and I will definitely have some fun with this office.

I have made a mystery quilt project and a fun Curious George project. There are copious strippy piece blocks to be made. Yesterday, we picked out 7 quilts worth of yardage to give to a Girl Scout who is doing a quilt related Gold Award project. Last night I found a collection of 10 inch squares - "Layer Cake" size! New project!!

This office appeals to the quilt designer in me. Let's see what I can come up with!

Job

I got the offer, finally.

I asked a few questions. They answered them.

I accepted the position.

No one (at work) knows yet.  It will become public on Monday..... oy.

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Equilibrium upset!! Change! Oh no! Nervous! Excited! Scared! Relieved!

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The salary in the offer was a little better than I expected. I tried to "do the right thing" and talk about my desire the change jobs with my supervisor at work before I accepted and she was informed via HR. It was an attempted courtesy. Yet, she was not available most of Thursday and all day on Friday. So, I went ahead, accepted the job, and will wait for Monday to let the world know.

I have butterflies in my stomach already, and it's only Sunday afternoon!!!

Guild day for July

Today was guild day, and it was such fun. The reason it was fun was that I gave of myself and it was received well.

This year, I'm chair of the Charity committee. We make quilts for clients of a shelter for victims of domestic violence. We have an extensive and overwhelming stash of fabric. My instinct is to try to organize it, but it's really too large to organize before moving forward. Organizing will come in steps as we do more projects.

The committee came over a week ago and we put together kits for guild members to take and make. Kits are much more fun, and much less intimidating than a whole pile of fabric. We have block kits and top kits and quilting kits and binding kits. Something for everyone.

At the meetings, Charity Quilts usually sets up a table with displays and projects. I worked very hard on this display yesterday and it came out quite nice. I used one of those tri-fold displays boards you can buy at Wal*Mart and used some scrapbooking techniques and materials to create an overview of the committee and the projects. Color, organized display, a touch of design: it all worked. People are getting interested.

I got lots of positive feedback from members. They respond to the positive energy.

The other major activity at the July meeting is the garage sale. I got rid of several things and I picked up a few bargains. I had the top bid on a Thimbleberries quilt kit called Snow Garden Wall Quilt, which someone had bought and then decided not to make. Only $10!

Another find was a pattern for a kimono by Folkwear. Check out that site - a very different collection of patterns. You don't find them every day.

Aunt Millie's Garden: Block #4

It's not done yet, but I'm getting there! Here's the fourth block of Aunt Millie's Garden project. I call it "Windswept Flower."

The upper right quadrant is actually done. I need to add the centers to the rest of the flowers and the center medallion.

No offer, but lots of work done

No job offer yet. Like a dork, I carried my cell phone on me all day on Wednesday and Thursday at work, just in case I get the call.  Experience has taught me that human resources and organizational shenanigans take a lot more time than you think they should. I am not worried. Yet.

If I need to worry, then I need to get back to work on my contingency plan.

Interestingly, my boss was out of the office all last week and now, I interact less with the minion, and it was a nice week.

I had a very productive two days off so far. Chores done, errands run, and getting some work done on the charity quilts stash.  I also took time to play by making an adorable little fabric basket from my newest book, Zakka Sewing.  Look! Kawaii, desu ne? (cute, isn't it)?

My guild challenge quilt is completely basted - I need to decide how to quilt it now. The design of the top begs for modern/contemporary style quilting, but I haven't worked out the entire plan.

Charity Quilts is a happy, chaotic mess. The boxes contain dozens of semi-started projects, hundreds if precut squares, semi-organized categories, non-quilting-related ephemera, but what we need is focus. I don't think I can go through everything and pick the best projects. My strategy thus far is to pick a box at random, see what's in it, clean out the crap (if any), and build some projects from what I find. I have created two group projects.

First group project is a mystery quilt. I have the plan in mind, but I will parcel out portions of the project and put it together without letting the participants know the big picture. This will use up several dozen charm squares in red and blue.

Second group project will use up a bunch of squares cut from Curious George fabric. I made a double square-in-a-square pattern featuring the Curious George precut squares. I may nix this project if the rest of my committee thinks the block is too complicated - bias sewing can be tricky. Otherwise, I'll advertise this as an "intermediate" level block.

Hm, there's an idea - provide group projects at different skill levels. Neat-o.

Seems like the more fabric I work with, the happier I am.

That's all for now...

Stunned

I will get an offer the the Nursing Informatics job in the next day or two. They are working out the details. I am stunned.

Now what will I do? I must....trust...my...gut.  Take it or not?

Gut says yes.

Brain is scared.

Change is always scary.

Solstice

Today is the the longest day of the year, and for a child of the light, it is the day we live for. It looks like Mother Nature will smile upon the South Kansas City area with sunlight and clear skies.

Of course that could change in a matter of hours.  I'm staying hopeful.

Today is also the 25th anniversary of the church I attend. I am participating in the service and it will probably take up all morning. I hope I play clarinet well today. I couldn't attend either of the rehearsals and this is quite scary to perform without rehearsal!  Yipe!

Perhaps it is the mark of a professional, though.

Although I'm not. I'm an amateur with lots of studying behind me.

Someday I hope to travel far north and see what it is like to have no night time at all. Canada, Alaska, Iceland, Norway, Ireland, even - any of those could be fun.

Speaking of travel, my friend asked me to join her on a trip to Hawaii next year. I told her yes!!  We hope to go in February. No one ever asks me...I'm usually the one doing the asking.

Still way into my sewing the last several days. The Etsy Meetup party (on Friday evening) was a lot of fun and inspirational - see my pictures and write up on my commercial blog, rikrax.blogspot.com.  I've been pouring over the book I bought at the store - what will I make first?!?! I worked a lot on my NC State Quilt, and the top is nearly done. I'll post pictures soon. It's a Christmas gift for a friend....and I don't think she reads my blog so this shouldn't spoil the surprise.