Blankets for Japan

The national office of Project Linus was asked to supply 10,000 blankets for the victims of the Japanese earthquake that took place last month. I have committed to making 10-12 blankets. Here is a picture of the first one. Since our former exchange student from Japan loved shoes, I have been working on at least three for the women who adore shoes.

St. Patty's Mug Rug

Last week I quickly made this mug rug for a friend who loves all things Ireland. It was an in-the-hoop project and one I will probably make again sometime.

Two of my NJ girlfriends and I enjoyed a day at the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster yesterday. We shopped and looked unitl we just about dropped. Today my feet are really upset with me for wearing them out!

Project Linus Make a Blanket Day

Saturday, February 19, was PL's MABD. I finished four fleece blankets that I had cut a few months ago and took them along to Landis Homes where our Lititz-Lancaster chapter holds its quilting bees. My job at these gatherings is to serge the quilts together in our assembly line to finish the quilts. The job was so much easier this time because I was using my new (used) Baby Lock serger. My old Bernina serger always gave me fits with all of the thread tearing and rethreading I had to do. If you are planning to buy a serger, Baby Lock with its air-jet threading is the only way to go!

Attached are pictures of the two blankets I embroidered. The other two were printed fleeces so I don't have pictures of those.

I am recovering nicely from the two surgeries I had this month. Hopefully by the time nice weather arrives, I will be able to get out and enjoy it. 8-D

UFOs finished!

I found a couple of sweet UFOs that I forgot I had. Now they are finished and can go to our Project Linus Make a Blanket Day later this month and then passed on to the hospital for two more babies. Knitting projects are tops on my list while I am recouperating from knee surgery to fix a torn meniscus. I have an afghan up next that I started ages ago and then lost the directions.

Today's project

Since I don't like making jelly during the hot and humid summer months, today was the day to make our black raspberry jelly. With DH's help, we made three batches or 21 jelly jars filled with delicious home-grown and homemade jelly. Ummm!

Finish my UFOs

I've been thinking of all of my UFOs lying around the house and have challenged myself to get them finished and out of here in 2011. Hopefully this blog will help me accomplish this. There is nothing like accountability, so I hope some of you friends who check in occasionally will keep my nose to the grindstone this coming year. Since most of my projects are for charity, it goes along with a thought one of the women at church said yesterday, "In 2011, may I be fruitful for Heaven." I feel my purpose in life is to glorify the Lord and be His hands and feet here on earth to touch others with His love. I pray that all of my fleece blankets, quilts, and embroidered toys and angels will touch the recipient with the Savior's love.

The end of my Christmas stitching

With two days until Christmas, it is about time that I'm finished with my stitching! The wind is howling and the temperature is ffffrrreeezziing! It feels like Christmas!

This year I made Sonia Showalter's Christmas Angel to include with many of my Christmas cards. It was a chore for me rather than a fun thing to do the cards this year, so even though I was very late with them, they are all sent. PTL! I wish I were able to send all of my friends a stitchery, but that is impossible. One friend always gets snowflakes from me because she loves snow. Another friend got Sonia's nativity angel set because I hadn't given them to her before for some reason. I guess I can chalk it up to a poor memory or thick fibro-fog.

My SIL asked me to make a fleece blanket for her son who is in dental school at the Univeristy of North Carolina. It really was to be a birthday gift, but Hancock's had trouble getting in the fleece at the store. I finally ordered it on their website and had it shipped here. The finished product was mailed yesterday, along with some scarves I made from the remnant.

I can't think of anything else that I did creatively, other than baking a few cookies yesterday. That was an improvement over last year when I didn't get any baked. This year DH helped me and we'll be baking his favorite, pfeffernuesse, this afternoon when he finished a woodworking project downstairs.

Merry Christmas!

Gracie