Tuesday, November 25, 2014

What I am thankful for

Hard to believe it is the week of Thanksgiving.  

As I plan my week, which involves cooking, baking, customer quilting and cleaning pretty much in that order.

I wanted to take a break and give thanks to all the wonderful people who have helped Iowa Comfort over the last three years.

Originally I wanted to do one quilt a month.  As of the end of this year we have donated 157 quilts to Dallas and Madison county charities.  We have also donated countless doggy beds and blankets to AHeintz57 dog shelter.   I actually delivered 6 beds to the shelter this past Saturday.  Amy told me that they came at a wonderful time.  She said that they had some bony mommies that were so going to enjoy being up off the cold hard floor.

Needless to say with all of your help we have brought comfort and joy to many over the last several years. I am so very thankful to each and everyone of you that has helped along the way.

My volunteers are very generous and talented.  

Some made whole quilts ready for donation, others made quilt tops.  
I have had longarmers donate their time and talents on some of the projects.  

Others have come to community sew days and sewn, pressed, cut kits or helped with fabric management.

I have those who have taken scraps home and cut them down for the doggy beds.

Others donated fabric....oh the pretty fabric I have received. 

My all time favorite volunteer are those who offered to bind for me.  There is no way we would have donated a fraction of the quilts without your generosity.

So thank you one and all for your generous spirits.  I truly appreciate each and everyone of you.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family or friends.






Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Absent

Yes I have been absent over the past several weeks.  Additionally I have also felt a lot of guilt over not getting my posts up each week.

Recently my youngest son made the following off the wall comment to me.  " So Mom, you say you can only manage 2 obsessions at a time?"  It wasn't exactly what I had said.....but he is right I have taken on more than I should have at one time.  

Man I hate it when he is right. Especially when it means I need to set some priorities in my life.

I have taken the last several weeks to think about the things I love to do, the things I like to do, the things I must do and what is no longer bringing me any joy at all.  

For those of you who don't know I really have about four obsessions right now.... 5 if you count traveling....and I really can't juggle them all.

The top of my list right now is regaining my health.  This blog isn't about weight loss or exercise so I am not going into detail here.  But a good chunk of my day is dedicated to this goal, which means other things are moving to the back burner.

Iowa Comfort is not moving to the back burner, but I am setting different goals for it.
  
Right now my time is being spent quilting customer quilts for Christmas.  That is how I fund Iowa Comfort, so very few quilts will be finished between now and the end of the year. 

I am spending my evenings working on fabric management, and kitting bed size quilts. 

Once I have the current quilt tops I have on hand quilted, I may organize a community sew day.  Let me be clear that is next year if at all.

Either way the goal for next year is 12 bed size quilts, anything more than that is extra.

For those of you who have donated fabric or other supplies.... no worries they will be used for the intended purpose.  

What is moving completely off of my plate is the doggy beds. The scraps are over taking my house, and I am overwhelmed when I can't get them made up quickly or completely.  ( currently I  have 5 that need to have the sham made for them).  I also have 4 garbage sacks of scraps that were not cut down small enough that I will need to work with prior to it going into a project.  This project does not bring me any joy anymore.  So I will not accept anymore  scraps for this purpose.  I would encourage you to do as I am going to do.  I will continue to make them for A Heintz57 shelter from my own projects.  You can do the same, they will take any size you want to make.  They do appreciate a case or a sham over the bed so that it can be easily laundered.

Last but not least is this blog.  At this moment in time, it feels like a job.  I plan to continue it....just not on a designated weekly schedule.  My posts will be sporadic between now and the end of the year.  Hopefully once things calm down I will have plenty to share again.

Hope everyone has a great week!